bits and pieces to make your install cleaner

[shawndoggy]

I'm not a 12v professional by any means, but I've done enough of my own (sometimes crummy) work, and have seen enough of the work of others to know that the difference between a good install and a bad one is in the details. I thought I'd start a thread with some of my hard-learned secrets. Hopefully others can post up some of their secret tricks too.

So in no particular order, some pieces parts I like to keep it clean:

Blue Seas 5025/5026

Great for pulling power over to the helm from the observer's compartment. Power it through a relay and it's a nice clean spot to terminate your stereo related accessories.

heat shrink butt splices and connectors:

Harbor freight has a great selection of heat shrink butt splices and connectors. are they as nice as the ancor stuff? NO! The insulation is thinner and there's less heat shrink goo. Yet they seem to work just fine and the price is definitely right.

Bosch Relays:

These are great for turning stuff on and off with another signal. Like using your stereo's (or black box's) remote turn on lead to turn on the power to one of those Blue Sea fuse boxes mentioned above, not to mention amps, etc.

Posi-Taps:

So all of us have seen the promise of the 3M scotch lock, only to be terribly disappointed when they fail. And then the alternative is to cut a factory wire to put a splice in the middle. Yuck. But still way better than a scotch lock. Posi-tap to the rescue. These little bits are pricey (about $2 per), but SOOOOOO worth it because they actually do what they promise.

Waterproof Heat Shrink:

lots of great uses for this stuff. Like when your RCAs need to STAY connected. Or keeping the mic locked in to a WS420.

Common Terminal Strip:

Sometimes you run into a situation where you need to split the same wire a bunch of times. The amp turn on lead comes to mind. Sure you can run a but splice that looks like a flower with one lead in and four or five coming out, but how ghetto is that? These common terminal strips are $5 for 3 on ebay:

12v to 5v USB step down transformer:

Sometimes you need some hidden USB power. Like in the glove box for powering phones, or under the dash for powering a bluetooth or airplay dongle.

I've used this isimple bit in my glovebox:

And while I haven't used this Blue Sea piece yet, I plan to:

Just recently I've become aware of some chinese double USB transformers, and I've ordered a couple (at $4.20 apiece on ebay, worth a try FUSED of course):

Techflex:

Great for making exposed wire runs look clean. Use a piece of that waterproof heat shrink over the ends to prevent fraying.

[Mackie 12]

Good post!

[ibelonginprison]

Nice gadgets.

I keep a bunch of those items on hand. But a few of those I have tried yet.

Guess it's off to amazon for me! Hope it's all prime eligible. Lol

[Rustyj41]

amazon does me dirty every week...

[REW]

Very nice.

[Ndawg12]

Don't be so humble Shawn, your 12v knowledge is better than 99%. And it only takes 51% to be considered a "professional" these days Nice post!

[ADDICTED2WAKE]

Thanks for sharing

[Levi900RR]

This is so awesome. I am working on collecting parts for my FIRST marine install and hopefully after reading ALL winter I'll make it a good one. Posts like this sure help.

[blk93jeepzj]

Waterproof Heat Shrink:

lots of great uses for this stuff. Like when your RCAs need to STAY connected. Or keeping the mic locked in to a WS420.

Harbor Freight also has "marine grade" as they call it heat shrink. It is better than their standard heat shrink and has the "goo" on the inside to make the connection waterproof and oil proof.

[wakedncsu]

I actually had one of these in my boat this year. I will be interested to here your feed back on it. Mine isn't so great. It made it a total of two months before becoming a paperweight. No signs of failure anywhere; just stopped working.

[CJAY]

Great post

[LS-One]

[shawndoggy]

I actually had one of these in my boat this year. I will be interested to here your feed back on it. Mine isn't so great. It made it a total of two months before becoming a paperweight. No signs of failure anywhere; just stopped working.

LOL I did buy two just in case....

[shawndoggy]

How about tools?

Crimpers

We talked crimpers to death a couple weeks ago, but I'll still give a shout for the channelock 909s:

^^^ there are lots of decent knockoffs of these too that I'm sure are fine. It's more about this "style" of crimper than the brand.

Heat Gun:

So I'm embarrased to say that for years I tried shrinking heat shrink with a butane torch. It can be done, but it's very difficult to get it all melted/shrunk without burning the heat shrink a little bit somewhere. There are still lots of good uses for a butane torch, but I don't think that heat shrink is one.

So I finally cracked a couple of years ago when doing a ballast install and bought a harbor freight heat gun. works great! definitely a must have for melting heat shrink tubing and heat shrink butt splices and ring terminals. Great for ballast install too! Anyone who has one of these will tell you, you will burn yourself on it. Or they are lying. LOL I burn myself like three times a season on this thing it seems.

[DIE2SURF]

Not only the right tools, but quality tools are essential in my book. Channel Lock are a great quality tool for this and most other plier-type needs. Never ceases to amaze me how often my friends have top borrow my SK, Channel Lock, Milaukee, etc. tools becasue their often used knock-offs broke.

Very good topic here Shawn. I'm doing my install in a couple months, and several of these will be helpful.

Edited December 12, 2014 by DIE2SURF

[Ndawg12]

Not only the right tools, but quality tools are essential in my book. Channel Lock are a great quality tool for this and most other plier-type needs. Never ceases to amaze me how often my friends have top borrow my SK, Channel Lock, Milaukee, etc. tools becasue their often used knock-offs broke.

Very good topic here Shawn. I'm doing my install in a couple months, and several of these will be helpful.

Hey now, I'll put my B&D Firestorms up against your Milwaukee and Dewalts any day.

[justgary]

Hey now, I'll put my B&D Firestorms up against your Milwaukee and Dewalts any day.

B&D bought Dewalt several years ago, and the quality is the same now. Milwaukee still makes real tools.

[justgary]

Nice work, Shawn.

Check All Electronics (www.allcorp.com) for surplus gadgets and whatnot, including the relay sockets. Not my fault if you end up buying a bunch of surplus stuff....

[Kalamazoo]

great post. next week will be the announcement of the "Doggy's awesome hardware & electronics" store with lots of great deals for us to spend our money on.

[Greeko]

I am going to encourage ratcheting crimpers..They are a great great choice for ensuring an even crimp

Electrical Tape

Instead of using standard electrical wire to tie together harnesses and secure wires, use a good quality fabric style Hockey or athletic tape like this :

http://www.amazon.com/Jaybird-And-Mais-Hockey-Tape/dp/B000QBS3I4

Your car electrical harness use this stuff believe it or not, inside and out of the chassis. Its extremely water resistant, very very strong and sticks really well.

When I did all my electrical work, I used it every 2-3 feet to tie wires together and at the end of every wire run and wire protector. Keeps everything in check!!!

[martinarcher]

I actually had one of these in my boat this year. I will be interested to here your feed back on it. Mine isn't so great. It made it a total of two months before becoming a paperweight. No signs of failure anywhere; just stopped working.

The other bad news about those (tried one myself as well) is that they don't isolate electrical noise on the 12V side from the 5V side. If you've got your phone charging (plugged into this baby) and your playing tunes while the boat is running there's a good chance you'll get alternator whine or other electrical noise into the input stream on your phone that plays through your system. Unplug the phone from the USB and all is quiet again. I've since ditched these and am using a fully isolated 12V to 5V power supply to isolate the boat noise from my USB power.

One thing, my boat uses the older style ignition with a distributor so you guys running the newer boats that with all solid state ignitions might be fine since your boat's electrical system will be MUCH quieter than mine.

[shawndoggy]

The other bad news about those (tried one myself as well) is that they don't isolate electrical noise on the 12V side from the 5V side. If you've got your phone charging (plugged into this baby) and your playing tunes while the boat is running there's a good chance you'll get alternator whine or other electrical noise into the input stream on your phone that plays through your system. Unplug the phone from the USB and all is quiet again. I've since ditched these and am using a fully isolated 12V to 5V power supply to isolate the boat noise from my USB power.

One thing, my boat uses the older style ignition with a distributor so you guys running the newer boats that with all solid state ignitions might be fine since your boat's electrical system will be MUCH quieter than mine.

Any impact running via bluetooth (A2DP)?

[martinarcher]

Same symptoms with BT.

[Slayer]

Thanks for the post, Shawndoggy!! Great information. I'll be searching and reading through the stereo threads this winter so I'm prepared for my spring upgrade.

[REW]

The other bad news about those (tried one myself as well) is that they don't isolate electrical noise on the 12V side from the 5V side. If you've got your phone charging (plugged into this baby) and your playing tunes while the boat is running there's a good chance you'll get alternator whine or other electrical noise into the input stream on your phone that plays through your system. Unplug the phone from the USB and all is quiet again. I've since ditched these and am using a fully isolated 12V to 5V power supply to isolate the boat noise from my USB power.

One thing, my boat uses the older style ignition with a distributor so you guys running the newer boats that with all solid state ignitions might be fine since your boat's electrical system will be MUCH quieter than mine.

How did you isolate your power supply?