LiveScope Wiring

At present I have 15’ of #8 wire run to my cranking battery. I’d like to see if a lithium battery located in the bow near the black box will enhance the screen display. Before buying a lithium battery it seems wise to try a Dewalt tool battery to compare views. My thought is to use THESE CONNECTIONS to switch from cranking battery to the Dewalt.

Can I use a Dewalt 20v battery to power a Garmin 1042, black box, & LVS34?

With the connection linked above I could easily switch power sources to compare the views.

is this a good plan or should I consider something else?

Thanks,
Danny

Sir, mine is rigged with my 1022 on the cranking battery and my LS black box powered by 2 Dewalt 20v 10ah batteries using Seelite adapters. Check the amp draw of the graph plus the LS to figure out how many hours you will get out of the Dewalt.

Attachment 464644

If you are wanting to power it all together I think I would go with a lithium. Eventually I will change my boat over to all lithium batteries.

Don’t use a 20volt battery to power your Garmin head, it will burn it up.


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johnboy1, are you sure about that? Garmin's specs says 10-32Vdc.
Garmin GPSMAP(R) 1042xsv with transducer | Marine Chartplotter

Garmin Black Box specs say 10-32V
GLS 10 Sonar Module | GARMIN

Sure don’t want to burn anything up.

I’ve in places that you should use over 18V, but don’t see that in the specs.

From what I’ve read the black box can handle the 20 volts but the head unit can’t. You may want to check with Garmin before you make that connection.


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The biggest issue I see as far as the connectors is going to be trying to splice the 8ga from your battery to the 12ga wire on the connector. You will probably need to find a 8ga butt splice and double over the 12 ga wire to fill the cavity enough to get a good crimp on the 12ga wire. Make sure the end coming from the battery has the Red wire covered. Each of the cables has a male and female side for the red and black wires. You want the red female(enclosed by rubber) socket on the battery side that applies to which ever battery you are using cranking or Dewalt. The male red pin would be on the Graph side.

I'm only running mine on 12V, I have seen discussion on Bass Boat Central and Facebook about using the drill batteries, I haven't paid much attention to them since it's not what I'm doing. Like you I looked at the Garmin Specs it says the below. I would think that if 20V was burning up the graphs there would be million of topics about it. I haven't seen any topics about that that I can recall.

If it's happpening there should be lots of topics that a goodle search would show.

POWER INPUT	10-32 V

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Originally Posted by zekepa

The biggest issue I see as far as the connectors is going to be trying to splice the 8ga from your battery to the 12ga wire on the connector. You will probably need to find a 8ga butt splice and double over the 12 ga wire to fill the cavity enough to get a good crimp on the 12ga wire. Make sure the end coming from the battery has the Red wire covered. Each of the cables has a male and female side for the red and black wires. You want the red female(enclosed by rubber) socket on the battery side that applies to which ever battery you are using cranking or Dewalt. The male red pin would be on the Graph side.

I'm only running mine on 12V, I have seen discussion on Bass Boat Central and Facebook about using the drill batteries, I haven't paid much attention to them since it's not what I'm doing. Like you I looked at the Garmin Specs it says the below. I would think that if 20V was burning up the graphs there would be million of topics about it. I haven't seen any topics about that that I can recall.

If it's happpening there should be lots of topics that a goodle search would show.

POWER INPUT	10-32 V

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A small terminal strip with fork or ring terminals would make the connection easily

I always solder the connections. Thanks for the suggestions.

No solder on a boat! Vibrations can crack it and cause issues down the line

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I’m 71yo and have never seen that. I solder all electrical connections on everything. That is news to me. Is this a common belief? I’ve never heard that before.

Two quotes from Google articles below. I personally use crimp connectors, the same kind that we use on helicopters for work, but if you want to solder go for it. I personally feel it's easier to crimp than solder. The type of boats we have don't fall under the ABYC rules, they are not big enough.

"According to ABYC, all connections between connector and wire need to be mechanical crimped. Basically, you need to crimp the connector onto the wire. It does not hurt to solder the connector as well, but it isn't necessary."

"If you’re still wondering if soldering is better, remember that American Boat & Yacht Council Standards exclude solder as the sole means of electrical connection for wire terminations."

"American Boat & Yacht Council Standards exclude solder as the sole means of electrical connection for wire terminations." (quote zekepa)

JMO, anyone that solders a connection and then DOESN'T cover it some way, is just trying to burn their boat up. again JMO

I agree not covering a connection is asking for trouble. Hence when commenting on the plug in connectors above, I advised to make sure the Red coming from the battery was enclosed in the rubber of the connector.

Years ago as a young man in the Navy we were told that soldering is an electrical connection. Crimping is considered a mechanical connection, that also makes an electrical connection. Back when circuit cards had big transistors and some wire connections when soldiering the wires the NAVAIR standard was to wrap the wire 180 to 270 degrees around the post or hook that it was being connected to. Personally I have no problem with a "good" solder connection, it's just that a lot of new people I get at my job don't know how to make a good solder connection. It's much easier to teach them how to make a good crimp than it is to train them to make good solder connections.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wannabe fisherman

"American Boat & Yacht Council Standards exclude solder as the sole means of electrical connection for wire terminations." (quote zekepa)

JMO, anyone that solders a connection and then DOESN'T cover it some way, is just trying to burn their boat up. again JMO

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Only solder means solder and shrinkwrap.

You need a mechanical connection like butt connector with solder, so if the solder joint ever cracks it is still held in place securely.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kevin22

Only solder means solder and shrinkwrap.

You need a mechanical connection like butt connector with solder, so if the solder joint ever cracks it is still held in place securely.

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I didn't see shrink wrap even mentioned there

I try to use the solder filled butt connectors whenever I can. But like mentioned earlier, it gets tricky when trying to splice together different gauge wires.

I also do like using both negative and positive bus bars. For the positives, I like to run an overkill primary wire from the battery + and put on a big >= 30A blue seas re-settable breaker (that also doubles as a disconnect) on it and then run to a blue seas fuse block to feed and individually protect each circuit. I wouldn't think running the garmin electronics off of that would cause any interference issues but it may also be overkill for a 20V system where all thats being powered is the black box and head unit.

i dont want to get off the specific topic but i had Garmin Live scope and unit connected to #8 wire directly to 54AM lithium. I then purchased a new boat and moved all my electronics over. I used the Sea Clear wiring harness for the connection. My live scope screen is significantly better on the new boat. Not even the same picture.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by johnboy1

Don’t use a 20volt battery to power your Garmin head, it will burn it up.


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This is true with the Garmin Echomap series and maybe some of the others. But, GPSMap units and the GLS 10 boxes can handle up to 32 volts. Always check your specs though to make sure.

Attachment 465046