Wiring the aft cabin

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by rwidman

And then you can gob a bunch of "liquid electrical tape" over it and the screw head.

Oh.... yes - makes it a proper job - great tip

[Reefmagnet]

"cob job" sounds like some kind of porn fetish category.


You guys are expending too much effort. Just twist the wires together and wrap a few turns of insulation tape around them.


Make sure to use the cheapo tape - you know, the one where the glue turns into a gooey mess in no time? Doing it this way will make it super easy to add additions randomly in the future.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by Wotname

You can find the Blue Seas clips at Whitworths Marine in Perth or on page 52 of their 2021 catalogue. See here https://online.flippingbook.com/view/399848/52/

The Blue Seas terminal strips are a bit 'spendy' compared to the Jaycar ones.

I have never been able to get the Blue Seas clips to fit onto the Jaycar terminal strips - different pitch etc. However I haven't tried it for a decade now so maybe Jaycar has a different source of terminal strips and the Blue Seas clips might fit.

I haven't been able to find clips at Jaycar but if you do, please let me know.

This was exactly my experience about 18 months ago.

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by coopec43

Terminal Jumpers For Bluesea Systems 30A Terminal Blocks (Pack of 5) £5.50 GBP* · In stock · Brand: Blue Sea Systems
Terminal jumpers for Bluesea Systems 30A terminal blocks. These allow independent terminals to be connected together to form common circuits.

I know I had a thin sheet of copper somewhere............. I think I'll cut/drill some of that for terminal jumpers.

Whatever I do it will be a fraction of the price of buying two bus bars costing $25 each (as OP has suggested doing) Problem solved!

Thanks

[Reefmagnet]

Jaycar does (did?) have a (IIRC) 8 connection terminal strip that uses 1/4" spade lugs, including a couple of rows dual ganged male lugs. I found these pretty good for use as distribution points. As a plus they were also relatively cheap. Even without the ganged lugs, 1/4" spade double lugs are easy to come by.


I'd also say I prefer the lug connections to screw connections because one issue with all screw terminal strips of the open bakelite frame variety is it is super easy to lose screws into the bowels of the boat if trying to install ring connectors with non magnetic screws using some kind of cockamamie (it seems at times) hybrid philips and pozidrive system. Besides, after many years of bitter experience, if I had the choice between using fork or spade lugs I'd choose the spade lugs every day of the week.

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by Wotname

The centre hole allows for the connector to be secured to the fibreglass hull with a sheet metal screw.

I'll use a self tapper to secure it to the bulkhead. (I won't attach "things" to the hull unless I have to)

But just yesterday I attached some covers over the nuts which hold the teak hand rails. (I used self tappers into the underside of the deck to hold the covers in place)

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by Reefmagnet

Jaycar does (did?) have a (IIRC) 8 connection terminal strip that uses 1/4" spade lugs, including a couple of rows dual ganged male lugs. I found these pretty good for use as distribution points. As a plus they were also relatively cheap. Even without the ganged lugs, 1/4" spade double lugs are easy to come by.


I'd also say I prefer the lug connections to screw connections because one issue with all screw terminal strips of the open bakelite frame variety is it is super easy to lose screws into the bowels of the boat if trying to install ring connectors with non magnetic screws using some kind of cockamamie (it seems at times) hybrid philips and pozidrive system. Besides, after many years of bitter experience, if I had the choice between using fork or spade lugs I'd choose the spade lugs every day of the week.

I was following up your comment and came across these. Are they meant as jumper strips for these? If they are it could be a very cheap way of handling light loads

You might like to look at these?
Barrier Panel Mount Terminal Blocks

: 654 Products Found

https://au.element14.com/c/connector...ter-blo-acc_1#

[coopec43]

This looks interesting. They claim to sell in 60 countries but I don't think they are in Australia.(Certainly US)



https://shop.theelectricbrewery.com/pages/contact-us

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by coopec43

I was following up your comment and came across these. Are they meant as jumper strips for these? If they are it could be a very cheap way of handling light loads

You might like to look at these?
Barrier Panel Mount Terminal Blocks

: 654 Products Found

https://au.element14.com/c/connector...ter-blo-acc_1#

They look like machine crimp pins, cut off in small lots from the bulk roll? The distance between pins isn't likely to match the terminal strip dimensions. Ideally, crimp pins (or forks with a leg cut off if desperate) are what you should use with those screw down type terminal strips rather than just poking wire into them. If using a terminal, it's trivial to crimp two twisted wires together to create jumpers. This is how I'd do it (and even without using crimps sometimes!).


Actually just noticed in you post above the two wires into one crimp thing on the l/h side of the photo. This is a common solution.

[Orin]

Depends on who you ask, personally I would never. I hate butt splice connections, and if I see any on a boat, the are next to the first thing to go. The first thing being wire nuts. You might as well shoot yourself in the foot if you are planning on using wire nuts.

Is there no way to daisy chain all of those in parallel?

It would be my preference to solder splice wires with adhesive heat shrink.

Failing that there is only one way I would splice low voltage wires, low current wires. These guys - https://www.wago.com/us/lp-221
They have excellent holding force on wires. I might still tin the ends, throw heat shrink or something over the ends to prevent moisture from wicking into the insulation.

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by Orin

Depends on who you ask, personally I would never. I hate butt splice connections, and if I see any on a boat, the are next to the first thing to go. The first thing being wire nuts. You might as well shoot yourself in the foot if you are planning on using wire nuts.

Is there no way to daisy chain all of those in parallel?

It would be my preference to solder splice wires with adhesive heat shrink.

Failing that there is only one way I would splice low voltage wires, low current wires. These guys - https://www.wago.com/us/lp-221
They have excellent holding force on wires. I might still tin the ends, throw heat shrink or something over the ends to prevent moisture from wicking into the insulation.

We are only talking about a couple of lights and an oscillating fan in the aft cabin so I'm not looking for an expensive over engineered solution. (I must keep cost in mind).



I've soldered just about all the connections and used heat shrink. Mind you my standards might slip a bit if it was just a light but you can bet everything is "spot on" when it comes to bilge pumps even to the extent of enclosing the soldered join in an air tight junction box.


I've used very few "butt splice connectors" but I have to connect the bilge blower and the fresh water pressure pump. Are you saying those joints would have to be soldered/ heat shrink. (I haven't ruled that out)



Those Wago lever nuts look great but there is no way I could spend $12 on a three way lever nut. I'm looking forward to my visit to Jaycar next Wednesday when I can see what they have to offer.


Thanks for your comment

[PatB]

Do you have any architectural salvage yards or derelict houses nearby, or any neighbours doing a rewire job? 'Cos every older house fuse board I've seen here has a nice, brass bus bar connecting all the house supply neutral lines together (and to earth - still can't get my head around that), all properly drilled and tapped. The housings are usually a bit naff or broken, so you'd need to sort your own mounting and insulation/cover but, these days, they're basically scrap and so should be available for free or near to.

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by PatB

Do you have any architectural salvage yards or derelict houses nearby, or any neighbours doing a rewire job? 'Cos every older house fuse board I've seen here has a nice, brass bus bar connecting all the house supply neutral lines together (and to earth - still can't get my head around that), all properly drilled and tapped. The housings are usually a bit naff or broken, so you'd need to sort your own mounting and insulation/cover but, these days, they're basically scrap and so should be available for free or near to.

Thanks for that! (That's my style) Every time I go out to the rubbish (recycle) dump I look for pieces that could be useful.

I live in a fishing village so there's a lot of boating gear tossed out. The guy in charge offered me a Plastimo life raft for $200 so I grabbed it!. I took it along to the people who service life rafts and they said there's nothing wrong with it and they were prepared to service it (Life rafts in tropical environments need to be serviced every year once they are over a few years old)

[PatB]

No worries. Need I add that, if you're scavenging (not that I'd endorse such a practice, of course), it's probably a good idea to ensure the juice really is off before poking around with a screwdriver? No? Excellent. Have at it sir.

[ashmun]

Please keep in the back of your mind that DC wiring is the #1 cause of boat fires and that percentage has been increasing over the last decade. Over Current Protection (OCP) is not so much a problem with LED lighting but it is with most everything else (bilges, blowers, etc.). Nigel Calder’s book, Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual (latest edition) has a really good section on wiring and OCP. Also try to stick to marine grade wiring and fuses plus there are plenty of really good wire sizing apps out there on the smart phone and web, just make sure it’s a marine DC wiring app based on ABYC, ISO, or AUS/NZ like BlueSea’s Wizard, DC Wire Sizer, Wire Sizer, etc.. I received a video this month showing a 2/0 cable getting hot because of a ‘off-brand’ ANL fuse. The cable was fine once the fuse was replaced with brand name (in this case, BlueSea). Safe Sailing.