HELP! Raymarine A5.7" Chart Plotter Install

[Lucidity]

So this is going to be very amateur but I'm totally lost when it comes to DC electrical. We've installed a new shore power inlet/plug and plenty of other refit projects but this is our first electrical install. The more I read/lookup the more confused I get. Any help would be hugely appreciated!

In the pictures below I have the positive, negative and a shield wire from the power cord for the unit. There is also the DC panel - pretty sure I understand that much. For starters I have no idea what to do with the shield wire. I think I understand that I need to solder two wires to the pos + neg to extend them (14G wire) to connect to a bus or terminal? In case you can't tell I'm seriously lost and won't start the project until I feel somewhat confident in what I'm doing. Any sort of checklist I could go off of or video(s) that gives me an understanding of how to do this would be immensely helpful. Help a girl out!

[a64pilot]

Shield is a ground, it's purpose it to be what it says, a shield to keep a signal wire from picking up stray electromagnetic signals and transmitting them along as noise, so it is a shield and when you connect it to ground it grounds out the picked up unwanted signals.
Any wire is an antenna, so the shield helps stop it from being an antenna, an antenna wire for example is shielded so that only the antenna it connects to picks up a signal.

[a64pilot]

Oh, no solder unless it's unavoidable, all connections should be heat shrunk crimps, which is a lot easier than soldering.
The wire nut in your photo also should not be used, but other than that I would say your wiring is a lot neater than most, neater than mine anyway.

[CaptFrankM]

I have just installed an a78, so I just faced the same issues. However, I have been living aboard for more than 11 years and have pretty much rewired my boat. In addition, I work all summer doing boat maintenance for a sailing school. So, take this for what it is worth.

First, the shield wire needs to go to your RF ground. If you do not have one (and I suspect you don't), connect a length of GREEN wire to it and attac it to your engine block. This will "ground" it to the water.

Second, most marine electricians recommend against soldering wire. It hardens the underlying wire and makes it brittle. Instead, go to a West Marine and get an Ancor marine connector kit. Yes, you can get this cheaper from Defender, but the people at West Marine are nice about helping out with suggestions and you can see what you are getting.

Third, while you are at West Marine, get some Ancor boat cable, about 14 gage. Get about twice as much as you think you will need to go from your Raymarine unit to your panel. It will give you extra for this job - and some for the next. It is ALWAYS better to have too much and cut back than to have too little and add.

Fourth, while you are at West Marine, pick up a copy of this month's Sail magazine. Nigel Calder has an article on rewiring the older boat that might prove helpful.

Lastly, this is not the end of the subject. It is just enough to get you started. If you need more help, PM me and I will see what I can do to help.

[Lucidity]

Originally Posted by CaptFrankM

I have just installed an a78, so I just faced the same issues. However, I have been living aboard for more than 11 years and have pretty much rewired my boat. In addition, I work all summer doing boat maintenance for a sailing school. So, take this for what it is worth.

First, the shield wire needs to go to your RF ground. If you do not have one (and I suspect you don't), connect a length of GREEN wire to it and attac it to your engine block. This will "ground" it to the water.

Second, most marine electricians recommend against soldering wire. It hardens the underlying wire and makes it brittle. Instead, go to a West Marine and get an Ancor marine connector kit. Yes, you can get this cheaper from Defender, but the people at West Marine are nice about helping out with suggestions and you can see what you are getting.

Third, while you are at West Marine, get some Ancor boat cable, about 14 gage. Get about twice as much as you think you will need to go from your Raymarine unit to your panel. It will give you extra for this job - and some for the next. It is ALWAYS better to have too much and cut back than to have too little and add.

Fourth, while you are at West Marine, pick up a copy of this month's Sail magazine. Nigel Calder has an article on rewiring the older boat that might prove helpful.

Lastly, this is not the end of the subject. It is just enough to get you started. If you need more help, PM me and I will see what I can do to help.

Frank this is a huge help, thank you so much! I'm sure this will take up most of our day tomm but once we move on to the next steps im sure we'll have some more questions. Thank you again, can't tell you how helpful this is.

[adlib2]

Originally Posted by Lucidity

So this is going to be very amateur but I'm totally lost when it comes to DC electrical. We've installed a new shore power inlet/plug and plenty of other refit projects but this is our first electrical install. The more I read/lookup the more confused I get. Any help would be hugely appreciated!

In the pictures below I have the positive, negative and a shield wire from the power cord for the unit. There is also the DC panel - pretty sure I understand that much. For starters I have no idea what to do with the shield wire. I think I understand that I need to solder two wires to the pos + neg to extend them (14G wire) to connect to a bus or terminal? In case you can't tell I'm seriously lost and won't start the project until I feel somewhat confident in what I'm doing. Any sort of checklist I could go off of or video(s) that gives me an understanding of how to do this would be immensely helpful. Help a girl out!

Looking at responses you have good information for someone with reasonable familiarity with AC & DC Power. It's not clear to me that you do? I'd recommend you obtain a book or a web article on boat electrics and electronics.
Raymarine units are connected using SeaTalk 1 or 2 Boxes & Backbone Network and I don't see any signs of these? Do you have other units to connect e.g. speed, depth, wind, compass, pilot to tie together?