Thank you so much for your involvement with the Owner's Club Forum! We hope you've gotten some great information and had the chance to interact with other owners on the current system.
Can I connect my lowrance elite 7 ,to the navigation toggle switch on the panel?
idrivez2
Member Posts: 7 ✭
Will the fuse from the boat panel protect the unit and supply enough power to operate it?
Answers
-
Yes, that unit only requires a 3 amp fuse.
-
Thanks 89checkmate.
the toggle switch has the fuse built in! -
Hold on a second before you connect it without also including an inline fuse of the recommended amp rating from the boat panel switch to the Elite. The reason is, that a fuse or breaker is sized to protect the wire size going from it to other electronics. It is NOT sized to protect the actual appliance, such as your Chart Plotter. That means you could have a 10 Amp fuse at the switch, but if your Chart Plotter recommends a 3 amp fuse, your plotter could cook from a voltage / amperage spike, and the 10 amp fuse would not protect it. Your installation instructions will tell you what size fuse they recommend. If the switch fuse is that size, fine, but otherwise include an inline fuse of the proper rating between the switch and the plotter. It is typical for a switch on a panel to have a much higher rated fuse / breaker then any one appliance requires, because several different appliances can be controlled by that same switch. Each should also have their own inline fuses.
-
Hey M99, I read your comment yesterday and found a 'fish finder' tag on a yellow wire from an ACC toggle. The fish finder has a red and a black wire, which do I plug in to the yellow and do I pair it with a black or red wire. Both red and black are available with open ends on crimp downs.
-
In general, Red would be DC+ and Black would be DC- while the Yellow would also be switched DC+. However, I would never trust that unless I had a wiring diagram and instructions that spelled that out. Take an inexpensive VOM and measure the voltage to establish polarity from the switch. Then there has to be a second wire to the fish finder for it's ground. I would accept that the Yellow is for switched on 12V+ and probably another Black or green wire would be for Ground.
