What about fuses with the switches at point of use?

[Chotu]

Got some 4 AWG wire coming for the main trunk.

Can anyone recommend a good Tee tap connector that will isolate my tap points off the main trunk from the moist boat air?

I haven’t seen too many out there.

I’d like to tap the 4AWG by puncturing rather than trying to cobble together standard connectors and cut the trunk up.

4AWG on one side of the tap, probably 8-10 on the other side of the tap. And much smaller for LED lighting taps.

I’m super excited about this technique.

Traditional wiring is sized for 3% voltage drop. I’ll probably have 0.3%

[Time2Go]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Got some 4 AWG wire coming for the main trunk.

Can anyone recommend a good Tee tap connector that will isolate my tap points off the main trunk from the moist boat air?

I haven’t seen too many out there.

I’d like to tap the 4AWG by puncturing rather than trying to cobble together standard connectors and cut the trunk up.

4AWG on one side of the tap, probably 8-10 on the other side of the tap. And much smaller for LED lighting taps.

I’m super excited about this technique.

Traditional wiring is sized for 3% voltage drop. I’ll probably have 0.3%

Check out Garmin Power Switch
power it from the main breakers and then run separate runs from other breakers to the far side of the Power Switch.
To use the power switch turn on its breaker.
If it fails turn its breaker off and then use the individual breakers that jump over the Power Switch, Belt and suspenders
It makes no sense to me to puncture a cable for a tee drop
In your plan any short anywhere will take down the boat as the
main thru-the-boat buss bar (or wire) trips it’s breaker
Cheers
Neil

[team karst]

Blue seas has several models that have mixed sized bolts. I would avoid pressure/puncture methods.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Time2Go

Check out Garmin Power Switch
power it from the main breakers and then run separate runs from other breakers to the far side of the Power Switch.
To use the power switch turn on its breaker.
If it fails turn its breaker off and then use the individual breakers that jump over the Power Switch, Belt and suspenders
It makes no sense to me to puncture a cable for a tee drop
In your plan any short anywhere will take down the boat as the
main thru-the-boat buss bar (or wire) trips it’s breaker
Cheers
Neil

I have More questions than answers here. Ha ha.

I am hearing people saying that the puncture is not very good for a way to tee off of the main cable. What do you suggest instead? Cutting the cable and cobbling together something out of standard connectors? I was hoping to leave the cable intact. Or at the very least have some kind of neat solution.

The breaker is significantly higher on the through the boat bus. If there is a short any device at the end of things, wouldn’t the smaller secondary breaker or fuse pop first?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by team karst

Blue seas has several models that have mixed sized bolts. I would avoid pressure/puncture methods.

OK. Again, I am not hearing a lot of love for the puncturing. Why is that? I have never used it before. It just seems like it might be good in this case.

Why is it bad?

[team karst]

Originally Posted by Chotu

OK. Again, I am not hearing a lot of love for the puncturing. Why is that? I have never used it before. It just seems like it might be good in this case.



Why is it bad?

Pressure works very well for solderless terminals. They are gas-tight. But a sharp blade, i would suppose, will vibrate ever larger incisions and divots and cause loss of contact, or at least smaller contact areas and cause heat.
Might want to research “IDC” and environmental tolerance.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by team karst

Pressure works very well for solderless terminals. They are gas-tight. But a sharp blade, i would suppose, will vibrate ever larger incisions and divots and cause loss of contact, or at least smaller contact areas and cause heat.
Might want to research “IDC” and environmental tolerance.

Sound reasoning.

I suppose I will stick with the normal splices.

[goboatingnow]

Insulation displacement unless done with high end terminals and correct tooling and trained application is notorious for quality issues

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Insulation displacement unless done with high end terminals and correct tooling and trained application is notorious for quality issues

Yes. I was hoping for some kind of high end terminal that would strip its way into the main wire, clamp down around it and seal it off from the environment, and offer a type of connector for the smaller wire to tee off of it.

Guess we aren’t there yet as a civilization. Ha ha

I’ll just cut the big trunk and cobble together connections with it then. I wanted to see a perfectly unified main trunk with nearly zero voltage drop. I could be wrong, but I think each cut is a potential failure point.

What if I used something like this? Assuming it is open on both sides. What if I nicked off a little bit of the insulation only where the set screw is, kept the main trunk wire completely intact, put the takeoff wire into the other side of this connector and then shrink wrapped or taped it well?

[Chotu]

Oooh!!! I found some!

I just got the last of these from Amazon to tee in without disturbing the main trunk or introducing a voltage drop by forcing the current from the main conductor to go through inferior metal connectors.

I’ll just have to devise a good sealing method.

Once permanently set and the system is done, maybe I can just dunk the entire join into resin, sealing it off forever. Or some big shrink wrap

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Yes. I was hoping for some kind of high end terminal that would strip its way into the main wire, clamp down around it and seal it off from the environment, and offer a type of connector for the smaller wire to tee off of it.

Guess we aren’t there yet as a civilization. Ha ha

I’ll just cut the big trunk and cobble together connections with it then. I wanted to see a perfectly unified main trunk with nearly zero voltage drop. I could be wrong, but I think each cut is a potential failure point.

What if I used something like this? Assuming it is open on both sides. What if I nicked off a little bit of the insulation only where the set screw is, kept the main trunk wire completely intact, put the takeoff wire into the other side of this connector and then shrink wrapped or taped it well?

What’s the point though. Whose going to run large dc busses around the boat it makes no sense.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

What’s the point though. Whose going to run large dc busses around the boat it makes no sense.

Did you miss the rest of my posts in this thread where I outlined the advantages?

It makes SO much more sense than traditional sailboat wiring. (Rat’s nests of cabling the size of your forearm)

Standard wiring is ridiculous. Millions of wires back-and-forth from a central area all over the boat. Remember this is a 50 foot catamaran. 25 feet wide. So the runs are 35ft/50ft

The large DC bus will not run all over the boat. It runs in a big square. Where you need the power. It runs around the perimeter of the main salon and through the aft beam. In fact, to keep wire sizes and voltage drops small, it’s actually 2 L shaped busses instead of one big square.

Then you tap it and put in a mini panel at the helm area, at the staterooms, at the water maker/pump/shower area, etc.

*Easier to diagnose problems(they are local to the equipment)
*anyone can understand the wiring instantly
*no voltage drop whatsoever
*controls located where you need them
*saves weight
*added safety factor over traditional wiring since the bus is never at full amp rated capacity
*second safety factor is that the only wires that can fry are tiny little runs that are easy to see at the equipment using the power. Not some connector hidden deep in a rat’s nest in a compartment or running through inaccessible places.

As a guy into electric things, I’m surprised you don’t see all the advantages to it.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Did you miss the rest of my posts in this thread where I outlined the advantages?

It makes SO much more sense than traditional sailboat wiring. (Rat’s nests of cabling the size of your forearm)

Standard wiring is ridiculous. Millions of wires back-and-forth from a central area all over the boat. Remember this is a 50 foot catamaran. 25 feet wide. So the runs are 35ft/50ft

The large DC bus will not run all over the boat. It runs in a big square. Where you need the power. It runs around the perimeter of the main salon and through the aft beam. In fact, to keep wire sizes and voltage drops small, it’s actually 2 L shaped busses instead of one big square.

Then you tap it and put in a mini panel at the helm area, at the staterooms, at the water maker/pump/shower area, etc.

*Easier to diagnose problems
*anyone can understand the wiring instantly
*no voltage drop whatsoever
*controls located where you need them
*saves weight
*added safety factor over traditional wiring since the bus is never at full amp rated capacity

I’m surprised you don’t see all the advantages to it.

Yes but man handling large cables is a huge pain And it’s very very expensive
Nor does it solve the issue of remote switching as this has gone added anyway


To me the availability of low to medium power(<5A) 12v is never the issue. There always a 12v feed within 1-2 metres anyway on my boat. Typically light feeds etc. high power switching is best done on dedicated circuits anyway.

Secondly if you run big dc power you now have to fuse the branch runs whereas with lower power cabling the existing breaker will protect the cable anyway. One thing I hate is “ fuses” dotted all over the boat !!!

[Carlos M]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I have More questions than answers here. …



The breaker is significantly higher on the through the boat bus. If there is a short any device at the end of things, wouldn’t the smaller secondary breaker or fuse pop first?

You intend to tap several “much smaller wires for the LEDs” from the 4AWG protected upstream by a 50 A circuit breaker. Then you run those tap wires to the correspondent loads where you fuse and switch them. If I understood you correctly…

What will happen when one of these small tap wires chafes, get’s bitten by a rat, gets an anchor dropped on (whatever), leading to a defect of 48 A at the point of chafe?


There is a reason electrical distribution systems follow a radicular pattern.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Yes but man handling large cables is a huge pain And it’s very very expensive
Nor does it solve the issue of remote switching as this has gone added anyway


To me the availability of low to medium power(<5A) 12v is never the issue. There always a 12v feed within 1-2 metres anyway on my boat. Typically light feeds etc. high power switching is best done on dedicated circuits anyway.

Secondly if you run big dc power you now have to fuse the branch runs whereas with lower power cabling the existing breaker will protect the cable anyway. One thing I hate is “ fuses” dotted all over the boat !!!

Man handling? They are 4AWG (5mm). They could have been 6AWG (4mm), but I like a safety margin.

It takes infinitely longer to run hundreds of tiny wires than one larger wire.

I realize that you have a 12 V feed (with a big voltage drop) close by at all times. You don’t have a 15.25m x 7.6m boat with multiple levels. Different situation.

My wire runs are stupidly long.