My Longboat Cruiser Puffin now sports a solar panel and controller, supplying power to GPS chart plotter, navigation lights and bilge pump. She also has a VHF radio and aerial. I fitted all the wiring myself, gleaning much of the information by trawling through the interweb and the Drascombe Association website & Forum. The first part of this article shows the fitting of the solar panel and controller and the second part describes the VHF radio and aerial. I hope this summary of the process will assist others wishing to do the same.

i've written up the project as a pdf (1mb) with most of the sundry items used and listed- click here to download

or as a printable pdf (28mb) from the better written DA Article here


herewith the wiring diagrams for Puffin's electrics



(the unconnected orange wire fom the battery monitor goes to a starter (engine) battery in a big boat!!
wiring 1 wiring 2 wiring 3
herewith components in place ready for final wiring

wiring 4 wiring 5 wiring 6


herewith trial simple wire up/route possibilities eg (think i'll take the device positives from the switches up around the battery instead)

wiring 7
herewith battery monitor wiring detail

wiring 8




fitted the LED Nav lights

wiring 9 wiring 10 wiring 11




first soldered heatshrunk connections done -- just 43 more to do !

wiring 12 wiring 13




solar panel fitted and wiring along with sternlight wires through trunking done --

wiring 14 wiring 17 wiring 21




all devices installed -- VHF aerial and masthead light trunking finished -- next wire them all up to the 'board and battery! --

wiring 15 wiring 18 wiring 19 wiring 22
ok finally finished wiring the LBC; have added more pics here if anyone is looking for ideas; pleased with the result -- the Nav light LED's are bright, the ebay chartplotter looks fun to play with, and gives position, depth and course on one screen and what i really wanted -- provides the GPS for the Radio DSC. i haven't tested the sonar or the bilge yet, but hopefully will next week (spot the doorknob btw)
here are some more pics





--managed to download c'plotter software update via SD Card and use virtual machine running windows xp within the mac . didn't fare so well with the map update on the mac so Garmin support are sending me the latest SD Card free of charge -- excellento usu 50 squid --
have added a short strip of mending plate with the end hole cut into twice, and filed to make a slot, with 2 screws - all atop the panels, no washers has done the trick -- folds away nicely..and doesn't shake loose -- yet!


wiring 25 wiring 28 wiring 29 wiring 32 wiring 42 wiring 43 wiring 44

all wood except mounting ply was from a nearby skip, the radio and battery monitor were salvaged from Pelican our now deceased gaff cutter. the chartplotter was a used ebay item and the sundry rest ; wiring, connectors, breaker panel etc was all mostly got online. build time if you were doing it full time would be approx 2 weeks -- allowing for delivery and fitting etc..
sternlight


portlight


mastheadlight


switchesback.jpg


switches


portlight again


masthead again


i've written up the project as a pdf with most of the sundry items used and listed- click here to download
here is the nav centre in action in scotland