Wiring Garmin ?'s

Getting ready to wire in my Garmin 440 unit and want to see if there is anything I should take into consideration ahead of time before I tackle the task. Basically looks like there are two wires that I will use since I did not purchase the unit with the sounder or weather.
:smt100

I'm always on for doing a professional job so here's a bit of what I did.

first locate the Ground BUS and the Aux power locations. there should be open location at the fuse panel near the helm for accessories. for me I needed a ring or lug connection for the grounding BUS and a Spade connector for the Auxilary Hot wire side.

Next Crimp the connectors and Soder them (reason I soder after crimping is that this is a Marine envoirnment and corrosion/Oxidation will be a significant factor, the ideal is to keep water and air away from the contact between the connector and the wire). with the power off make the connections to the Hot and Ground, turn power on and test that the unit works. If everything works shut it down and figure out where you want the unit in order to drill the final installation holes for the mount and the cables to pass through.

here is my final install



I used a dremel tool to make nice clean holes and removed the instrument panels on the dash to feed the cables through.

I also ran the NMEA connection to my VHF so that my VHF could transmit my coordinates via the DSC.

here is the final operation look of my 545s



hardest part is drilling the first hole, I'm now well into 15 or so holes that I have put in my boat so this one was easy.

Great install and post Tom. That will earn you some rep points!

Tom indeed did a fine job.

Here's mine.

The GPS power wires I ran to the accessory fuse block in the helm. I dropped the red(+) wire right on the + side of the fuse block, and the Black(-) on the - negative side of the fuse block. Then I put a 3A (I'm not sure about the fuse size, but whatever was appropriate) fuse in the slot for that location on the fuse block and it was done.

Do a pro's job and wire tie everything back and make it nice and tidy.

Very nice.

Tom and Todd great info......Looks like the manual says 3A fuse which I had forgotten about. Hate getting to the boat and forgetting tools/supplies.

Tom, Where did you get that shroud/cover for the wires as the exit the helm? That looks much better than caulking or something along those lines.

BTW, I will be mounting from the windshield stanchion using a ram mount similar to the one in Searay Paul's post.
I will grab some pictures and part numbers during the install

When we had our 260DA I mounted the Garmin 498C cables in the starboard plastic panel (one in Toms picture with the remote stereo control) with a clam shell. Used a RAM (flexable type mount) mounted to the starboard dash for the unit. This unit had the fish finder, GPS, power and NEMA cables to hook up behind the dash and route the GPS to the radar arch (easy) and the transducer to the transome (hard).

Mike

I used this type of Clamshell.
I have it mounted now, but no pictures of it installed.

Nehalennia said:

I used this type of Clamshell.
I have it mounted now, but no pictures of it installed.

Click to expand...

I'll check the hardware store....No West Marine near us! Where did you get yours Todd? I like the stainless