Inline fuse

[Ron Churgin]

Hi,

I am not knowledgeable at all about electronics. I am finishing up an ST2000 installation and have been reading old posts in the archives.

Is there any downside to connecting the autotiller directly to the battery with an inline 5 amp fuse? This seems like the simplest, shortest wire run?

I will be disconnecting the autotiller and removing it after sailing. Am I overlooking something? Will I blow up the boat?

Any wisdom would be appreciated.

[John Vigor]

Ron, I don't know about wisdom, but that's exactly the way I installed my ST2000 on my CD27, with the fuse right next to the positive terminal. So far so good. No blow-up.

Cheers,

John V.

[Warren Kaplan]

Ron,

Exactly what I did. I installed the "socket" for the tillerpilot under the coaming on the starboard side just above the lazarette. I ran the wires from the batteries, which are installed in that starboard cockpit lazarette, directly to the terminals on the tillerpilot socket. I installed an inline fuse on the positive side feed wire between the battery and the socket . I've had this setup for 4-5 years now and its worked perfectly.

The only trouble I've every had is that I made a faulty "crimp" when making one of the connections and a year later it failed. It was an easy fix though. Use good connectors. Make careful crimps if called for. Seal all crimps/splices under rubber shrink wrap. You'll have no trouble if you do it carefully!

[Ron Churgin]

Thanks guys...sounds simple...off I go crimper and wire stripper in hand to confront the dreaded Ampere Voltaic.

[Neil Gordon]

The only downside I see is that you can't shut down all the electical systems from the selector switch. A circuit that's connected to the batttery is always alive. (I have that for the auto bilge pump, which is my only exception.)

If you want to bypass the panel, you might wire to the selector switch instead of the battery.

[Steve Laume]

I wired a cigarette lighter socket for my plug in solar panel that does not turn off with the selector switch.

I came off of the feed to the selector switch to a well labeled, dedicated, breaker, separated from the main panel. This is a different situation in that I want the thing hot when everything else is turned off.

You could wire your auto pilot directly to the battery or to the out feed from the selector switch but what is the advantage? You could just as well connect it to a breaker in the normal fashion.

That would give you much more control over when the thing is off or on. If there was ever a problem you could isolate it to the auto pilot with no heroics.

I suppose there a lot more than one way to do it, Steve.

[seadawg]

Because of possible transient voltages generated while starting the engine it may be best to have all sensitive marine electronics off during the start. For this reason it may be best to have the auto-pilot connected to an accessary switch on the dc panel. Just a thought and what I did. Cheers, Charlie.

[Warren Kaplan]

My tiller pilot is stored inside the cabin when not sailing. I plug it in only after the engine is started. Of course if its engaged when I'm sailing and then I want to start the engine it will be already running when I start the engine then. I'm no electrician but I don't think there is a "active" circuit if the pilot isn't plugged into the socket, even though the wires run from the battery directly to the socket.

I suppose you could not only put an inline fuse into the positive wire but also and inline "switch" to turn it on and off if you wanted.