Electrical

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Modern gear such as refrigeration, chartplotters, radar and computers require a well sized and maintained 12v system. These articles also include important SAFETY items. Also read the CRITICAL UPGRADES topic on the Forum.

Alternators and Battery Chargers

Batteries

Electrical Panel, Wiring & Lighting

Generators

Inverters

Lightning

Solar Energy

Starters

Items of Interest

There are over 75 Tech Notes on these subjects.


(Moisture-proof) Alternative to open-type terminal strips

I'm not generally a fan of terminal strips in the marine environment -- IF I can avoid them, I do. HOWEVER I can't, then I use them judiciously -- in the proper locations (e.g., not an open terminal strip, in an engine compartment or bilge, hanging by a thread, no physical protection, wire/cable support/strain relief, etc.)

THAT said, I have probably a dozen terminal strips for everything from mast light wiring to TV/RF to masthead instrument cables. BUT they are mounted in moisture-proof boxes with moisture-tight wire entries.

I made my own setups with moisture tight 4" x 4" x 2" Carleton (left) or Cantex (right) PVC junction boxes (from big box building supply/online/Amazon etc.) Box.jpg Box2.jpg

They have no openings for conduit or threaded blanks -- just a totally solid case, w/ gasketed cover, and mounting ears so they don't need to be compromised with a mounting hole.


I tried several ways to get a moisture tight wire entry, but this method was the best:


  • Get appropriate-size nylon male npt x hose barb adapters -- Grainger carries many sizes -- so I got a dozen of different mnpt and barb combinations, up to 3/8" mnpt.

Barb.png

  • Drill, tap the box side for whatever nylon adapter that your conductor or coax cable will pass thru. (I generally use one barb per pass thru, but sometimes combine multiple conductors thru one barb.)
  • Screw in the adapter, pass thru your cable or conductor, apply heat shrink tubing (HST.) . Voila`.
  • Where you have multiple conductors thru one adapter, stick a tiny (4" variety) wire zip-tie on the end of the HST to mush the adhesive into the cable/conductor voids.
  • Mount the terminal strip to the inside box cover (w/ thru-cover, countersunk, flat-head, s/s machine screws and nylock nuts) -- so that with fat fingers it's easier to wire up the strip, and you can bury enough wire/cable in the box to pull the cover out and easily work on the strip later.


Those boxes also come in 6" size, and there's many similar inexpensive, gasketed solid boxes online in rectangular/round/whatnot configurations. Some w/ and some w/o mounting ears.


--KWKloeber 14:18, 9 May 2015 (PDT)