Connecting AP to Power. Which battery bank?

[SS Little-Devil]

My old Seapilot was connected direct to power. It didn't matter if I had the key on/off, all the switches on my panel on/off, and if I switched the battery to 1 or 2. If I was connected to shore power, turning everything off and battery to off still provided power to the AP.

So now I'm wondering how I should wire up the new system. Should it be wired to constant power or to a panel? I don't really have any room on the existing one. If to constant power, which bank? Should I run it to the house bank to preserve my starting battery?

[Bash]

I sure wouldn't wire it the way your old unit was connected.

Best practice would be connecting to your house bank.

[sailorboy1]

off the distributon panel with a breaker even if you need to install a new small panel to do so!

[Snore]

+1 for off the main or sub-panel "down stream" from the battery selector switch.

The only thing on my boat wired direct (like your AP appears to be) is the bilge pump.

[SS Little-Devil]

Thanks. I have a breaker for Nav which controls power to the helm but the AP was separate along the cockpit, so could I tie into that Nav breaker and also run the E7D and radar to that Nav breaker, or should I create a new one for each?

[Andrew G]

++1 for not connecting direct to any battery (and definately not to the starter battery). It must be "fused" (ie via a fuse or preferably circuitbreaker). It depends on your gear but I bet the current draw (or maximum safe current) on your AP will be much greater than your "Nav" gear and hence it should be on its own breaker and circuit (otherwise if you don't increase the trip value of your CB it will trip unnecessarily, and if you do increase it your Nav gear will be at risk).
The other issue is that you want to keep the length of the AP cable run as short as possible (and the wire size as large as sensible) to reduce voltage loss. If you do need to add a new CB panel you may wish to locate that near the battery On/Off switch and then run direct to the AP (asuming that is shorter than via the SB). Andrew G.

[SS Little-Devil]

Is SB supposed to be CB? If not, what is SB? Thanks.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by SS Little-Devil

Is SB supposed to be CB? If not, what is SB? Thanks.

he means circuit braker,and yes keep the auto pilot seperate from the nav gear!

i would also put the radar and vhf on seperate breakers from the gps as well

good post apart from the typing error

[Andrew G]

Oops - sorry I didn't define terms. By SB I meant Switch Board (ie where the bulk of the CB (Circuit Breakers) are located).
Andrew

[SS Little-Devil]

Thanks guys.