AM/FM wiring

[john556]

Some equipment, like the am/fm radio, I don't want turned off completely with the main house bank as it then loses all its memory. What is considered best practice for wiring these things? Do you run a direct fused circuit for them? The problem I see with this is then it's dificult to shut everything off when I want to. So it seems I have items that I want to shut off when I leave the boat and some I only want to shut off when I leave the boat for a long time and some, like the bilge pump that I almost never want to shut off. I wired the bilge pump so that it has no shut off and I have to pull the fuse to disable it, but what do I do with the stereo?

I should mention that I don't have the standard on/off/both switch, but separate shutoffs for the engine and house with a cross over for emergencies.

Thanks
John

[sailvayu]

Most builders these days have separate panel or incorporate into the main panel a few of the push button type breakers that cannot be manually turned off but will pop out when tripped. I set a few of these up on my on my boat for bilge pump and stereo memory. I suppose you could put in a extra switch but that sort of defeats the idiot proof side of things lol
Hope that helps

Fair Winds

[john556]

Thanks Wayne, that's good to know. I'm looking for a sanity check before I go and do something creatively stupid to my boat's wiring. It sounds like I'm on the right track. I think I'm going to put in a small separate panel for these things and bypass the main shutoff.

[scotte]

You didn't mention want kind of radio it is, but if it's a regular car stereo, then it will probably have two power leads. One wire goes to the switch, the other to the battery. The direct wire should not draw any amount of current to be a concern (i.e. it doesn't drain your car battery even after months), but you could always run both through a switch if you are worried about it. Remember to fuse both wires.

[sailvayu]

Just put it as close to the power source as possible if it is not switched. This could be the batteries or the hot side or the battery switch. Also include a main fuse for the panel within about 7" of the source. I like to use those ANL fuses but you could use anything with enough AMP rating for the whole load

Fair Winds