Insulating Wires for Graphs

[chuckandbuckle]

I am going to replace all my graphs and wires this spring and I was wondering when I am running some of these wires they are going to make contact w/ power wires for my motor and probably rest up against them all the time, should I some how insulate these wires for the transducer and so forth to try to prevent interference?

[yarcraft91]

I'm sure the wires are already insulated, meaning there is no exposed eleectrical conductor. You probably want to know if they should be "isolated" or "shielded" to reduce noise pickup. Ignition wires broadcast interference and the idea is to limit the amount of that interference picked up by the sonar wiring (VHF radio wiring, too). Intensity of the broadcast interference drops dramatically with distance. So...

The best way to isolate transducer wires is to physically separate them from wiring in the boat ignition and charging systems. In my boat, the ignition and general-purpose dash wiring are underneath the starboard gunnel. I routed the power wiring for the sonar and the transducer cable through the bilge, several feet away from the ignition wiring. An alternative is running these wires under the port gunnel.

Where sonar power and transducer wires must be close to ignition wiring, avoid running them close together in parallel (even separating them a few inches will help) and, as much as possible, cross the ignition wires at right angles.

An alternative is to buy a spool of electrical shielding material to cover these wires- here's a company that makes such products- look at the shielding tape:
http://www.parker.com/portal/site/PARKER/menuitem.7100150cebe5bbc2d6806710237ad1ca/?vgnextoid=f5c9b5bbec622110VgnVCM10000032a71dacRCR D&vgnextfmt=default&vgnextdiv=179336&vgnextcatid=2646079&vgnextcat=EMI+SHIELDING
Never found the need to do this. You can also run the sonar (and VHF) off a second battery isolated from the starting battery- again, never found the need to do this.

If your main or kicker motors have non-resistor spark plugs, replace them with equivalent resistor types- did that to my kicker and that made a big difference in interference on my radio.

[REW]

Yarcraft is right on the properties of signal coupling and cross talk.

However, as he said, he has never had any problems.

Neither have I.

I have all of the boat wiring, including two transducer wires running in one big bundle the full length of the boat with 0 issues between anything.

Good luck
REW

[Hombre Robusto]

I always shield my electronics wires just in case of interference. What you want is wire loom. It comes in different diameters. I usually use 1/4 or 1/2 inch loom. Any electronics store should have it. My local store sells it for around $6 for a twenty foot spool of it..

[Optimax90]

I had a wire short on me one time in really rough water I'm talking 5 footers constantly hammering my boat While I'm drifting. The hot wire for the trim switch on the bow came incontact with selftapping screws that I used to install a rod holder. Talk about a mistake. I couldn't believe I let myself do this. Well after I got it back home I figured it out and I used a heater hose to wrap around the wires to prevent this from happening again. So theres a leason for ya. Make sure you know were your wires are before you install. And make sure you don't damage the wires when installing or you'll be screwed. Good Luck and have fun with you new toys. HAHA! & listen to yarcraft he sounds like a smart guy.