Steaming light solenoid

[britinusa]

Were in the middle of a 3 week cruise in the western Abacos, which Included a 14 hour Gulf crossing, sailing and motor sailing.

Each time I went to motor due to light winds, I had to duck down into the cabin and turn on the Steaming light.  And again to turn it off when reverting to sail without motor.

So, I was thinking of adding a solenoid into the engine control panel lighting circuit.

When the control panel lights are on then the Steaming lights also.

Reasonable idea??

Paul

[KWKloeber]

Paul

I ran a cable so that I can power my spreader lights if needed (completing it is on my list with reworking the cockpit panel.)  If you have to run a cable anyway, why not just install a switch rather than taking it off the light circuit? 
I'd think about avoiding inserting a solenoid (use a headlight relay instead) and a potential failure spot into the mix -- any reason not to KISS and power the steaming light directly from a switch?

[Noah]

Kinda radical, but when I had my boat rewired and installed new electronics I installed a separate Blue Sea Weather Deck series switching panel into to the back of my Navpod . There was just enough space in the empty void behind my 12 in. MFD to fit it switch panel. I now operate my steaming light, deck level nav lights, tricolor masthead nav lights, spreader lights, anchor light, and masthead strobe light, all from that panel. That panel and my MFD are energized from a single switch, label "binnacle", located on my main distribution panel down below. You might think of locating a switch or multiple switches in your cockpit?

[KWKloeber]

Noah

I love those switches for that use. **Can't** activate them accidentally- **can't** smack a toggle and bust em.  Do you know their rating?

Paul
Another thought. I bought a very reasonable $$ remote unit with a push button transmitter.  The reason/idea was to install it (somehow) to activate the spreaders from the dock. Ya know, night, poor area/slip lighting, no finger pier so have to hop the rail. And I could reverse the process if leaving the boat in the dark. (Or if I wanted to activate something from anywhere aboard.)

[Noah]

Ken- rated 15 amp for each switch and each are backlighted with LED.

[KWKloeber]

Heck, that's enough power for anything I'd ever need up there.

[Patches]

I think my boat would like to be adopted by Noah.  Great solutions, great execution.

Patches

[Noah]

Thanks for the compliment! But, I have already put two "kids" through college; one girl, 34 years old and one boat 34-feet long, and have reached (surpassed) my limit!😎

[Bobg]

Noah, Did you run a bundle of  wires from your distribution panel to your pedestal for this? I mean can you still access your lights from your nav station?  very nicely done by the way

[Noah]

Bob. New wires rerun aft through both legs of new pedestal angle guard. The only access to my nav. lights are on that small cockpit installed in back my Navpod. Cockpit panel is energized by a breaker on my main panel labeled "Binnacle". I replaced all my electrical set-up and OEM C34 main AC/DC distribution panels with a Blue Sea 360 modular series.

[britinusa]

Noah, do you have pics of behind those panels you'really willing to share?

[Noah]

Paul—not sure what you are looking for/to see/why re: "wires behind panel." : I apologize for hijacking this thread but here are some pics. Email me if you need more info and I will try and assist.

[Bobg]

Wow Noah, what a great job..in your bottom picture I noticed your 120 wiring, trying to get my head wrapped around the green wire thing, does all your green wires for your ac appliances go to that bus bar and does another wire go  from that bus bar to a ground,  like on the engine?  From what I hear,  the white wire and ground wire should never connect on a boat, (unlike a house). but on a boat, the dc ground and AC green wire ground should connect, like on a engine bolt.  Been studying this awhile, will be going to my boat next month and will see how it is wired, (I got a slight jolt on my boat once, grabbed the back stay and foot touched the water) reason for my inquire,  Thanks Noah, looks really good, not like the rats nest I got

[KWKloeber]

Bob

Bonding the DC negative to the AC neutral is indeed "required" but it is a little controversial (more on that later.)  But the bonding can be anywhere.  The battery negative cable to the distribution panel (where all your 12v negatives run to the negative buss, can be jumpered to the AC earth buss.  In other words, you don't need to run a separate bonding cable to an engine bolt (the engine is already bonded because the negative battery cable is on a bell housing bolt (should be moved to a starter bolt, though.)

The green earth wire is the galvanic corrosion path, so there are owners who will never bond the DC to the AC.  Dangerous?  Depends on whether there's an ELCI breaker (basically a ground fault breaker) on the AC panel, or if it's just a plain jane main breaker.  Let's suppose something goes haywire and the engine/prop shaft is energized -- the ELCI breaker will protect anyone (swimmers, etc.)

The way to get full (overkill protection is to bond the AC to DC, install an ELCI, and then a galvanic isolator on the green earth wire.  it stops galvanic current flow but lets a dangerous AC current leak go to the earth ground instead of into an earthling body.

[britinusa]

Thanks Noah.
Reason? If you saw the multi generational rats nest behind my panel, then seeing something like yours is pretty close to ... well you know ... pretty awesome.

It's on my list.

Paul