Downlight wiring - radar arch

[BayBuccaneer]

Hello - this is my first post here and wanted to start of by saying I've been reading posts here for quite some time and I'm always impressed with the amount of knowledge and insight the members bring, in addition to a strong sense of community. I'm looking forward to being a part of it.

I've begun to work through my list of projects on my recently adopted 310DA and have her in good mechanical shape at this point and am looking to tackle some smaller items, one being my arch lights. Well, sometimes the smaller projects give you the most headache.

I swapped out the original lights and replaced with the lumitec mirage spectrum down lights, and they won't turn on. In addition, my windlass and analog Speedometer gauge doesn't work. Crazy to me to think these three would share the same circuit.

The lumitec lights are 2 wire, the boat has 3 wires...2 grounds and 1 hot when checked with the multimeter. I've tried connecting the 2 grounds together and leaving each ground disconnected, and no joy. The Sea Ray wiring diagram is not any help here either. Has anyone tackled this upgrade with the same situation?

 

[Lazy Daze]

Welcome aboard!

You're correct that those three things are not connected in any way.

Windlass: Do you get lights at the dash switches? Do you have power at both sides of the breaker? With the windlass powered on (but not using the up/down button), do you have power at the solenoid/contactor ("probably" near the windlass in the locker)? When using the up/down button, does the solenoid click? Do the foot switches work?

Speedo: Is the digital speed working?

Lights: I've never installed those, but there's a good chance someone else has. In the meantime, what do you mean by "two grounds" There's probably a shared ground between the two lights. But do you mean two "separate" grounds?

---- What page are the spoiler lights electrical diagram in your manual? I'll take a look.

 

[dtfeld]

A few questions to clarify...did the old lights work as expected?

The wires should be blue and black. The blue is + the black -. The "2 grounds" are just a series connection and should be connected together, so that the light down stream share the ground.

Is it possible one of the lights upstream has a ground disconnected?

Also the Lumitec do have a definite + and -, so confirm they are wired correctly?

 

[BayBuccaneer]

Welcome aboard!

You're correct that those three things are not connected in any way.

Windlass: Do you get lights at the dash switches? Do you have power at both sides of the breaker? With the windlass powered on (but not using the up/down button), do you have power at the solenoid/contactor ("probably" near the windlass in the locker)? When using the up/down button, does the solenoid click? Do the foot switches work?

Speedo: Is the digital speed working?

Lights: I've never installed those, but there's a good chance someone else has. In the meantime, what do you mean by "two grounds" There's probably a shared ground between the two lights. But do you mean two "separate" grounds?

---- What page are the spoiler lights electrical diagram in your manual? I'll take a look.

I'll start off by saying the windlass, the speedometer, and one of the arch lights all worked before I swapped the lights.

Windlass - I don't get lights at the dash switches, which led me to thinking the breaker blew, but it wasn't blown when I checked. I'll do some investigation across the circuit and see where the power stops.

Speedometer - neither side is working as if it no longer has power.

Lights - the previous lights had a black and gray wire connected to the fixture with a blue connected to the bulb. When I tested the wires, the blue is hot and the other 2 are grounds. When looking at the wiring harness, it does look like the 2 grounds connect to a single wire or common ground.

 

[BayBuccaneer]

A few questions to clarify...did the old lights work as expected?

The wires should be blue and black. The blue is + the black -. The "2 grounds" are just a series connection and should be connected together, so that the light down stream share the ground.

Is it possible one of the lights upstream has a ground disconnected?

Also the Lumitec do have a definite + and -, so confirm they are wired correctly?

One of the lights worked and one didn't. There is a blue wire and a black and gray wire. The blue tested positive, and the others tested as grounds. I tried connecting the 2 grounds together and connecting to the black wire on the lumitecs, and the blue wire to the red on the lumitecs, but the lights wouldn't come on. The strange timing of the windlass and speedometer losing power after the install is really strange as well, as they were both working before... as if there was a short, but these items should all be on separate circuits.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I guess I shouldn't say that those three things "100%" are interconnected - I mean, they are, of course, connected through the grounds. I'm just not yet unerstanding how installing the lights - even if installed wrong - would affect the other things, you know?

Speedo... side note: there is a pressure sensor behind the engine (stbd) that converts pressure into an electrical signal that then feeds the computer. If the pressure sensor went kaput, that could explain why you don't have any speed. Or, it could be as simple as the pitot being clogged. Checking for a clog is easy - disconnect the pressure sensor and see if the pathway is clear through the pitot hole on the drive. And/or... applying some pressure into the pressure sensor should register speed (a few psi is all you need for testing).

For now, disconnect the new lights and cap the power wires. Get that system out of the mix (variable). Fix the other things, then come back to the lights.

 

[Skybolt]

With regard to the lights. There should be nothing the arch lights have to do with the speedo or windlass. The black and blue wires are for the arch light. There should be a second blue wire that connects to the other light. The grey wire is typically for the mast light/anchor light. I wouldn't assume it is aground unless there is continuity between the black and grey wire.

EDIT: Or the gray wire is the ground needed for the mast light.

 

[dtfeld]

I would hook the lumitecs up to a known good 12V source/system and check they operate. If you are getting good voltage/ground they should work.

But with one former light working and one not, I would suspect a bad/faulty power or ground somewhere in that harness. It may be good enough to get a voltage/ground reading but not sufficient to provide the current required to run the lights.

Have you pulled the dash and been working on the switch at all? That could be another failure point.

Post a pic of the wires on both lights.

 

[BayBuccaneer]

I would hook the lumitecs up to a known good 12V source/system and check they operate. If you are getting good voltage/ground they should work.

But with one former light working and one not, I would suspect a bad/faulty power or ground somewhere in that harness. It may be good enough to get a voltage/ground reading but not sufficient to provide the current required to run the lights.

Have you pulled the dash and been working on the switch at all? That could be another failure point.

Post a pic of the wires on both lights.

Confirmed the switch turns the hot side off and on, but the ground is tougher to validate. I attached some photos... hopefully the quality is good.

I won't be able to investigate more until the end of the week... work is crazy right now.

I don't see how, but is it possible that a common ground that the windlass, speedo, and arch lights use together is toast? Maybe I pulled a wire when putting in the lights and disconnected a ground. I know I'm reaching but what I'm seeing doesn't make sense. I'll do more tracing later.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I don't see how, but is it possible that a common ground that the windlass, speedo, and arch lights use together is toast? Maybe I pulled a wire when putting in the lights and disconnected a ground. I know I'm reaching but what I'm seeing doesn't make sense. I'll do more tracing later.

I can't see how that would happen. No.

It's hard to see in your pic, but do you have a black an dgrey wire twisted together? As noted above, grey is the color for nav lights - in this case, your spoiler mounted "anchor light". Does the anchor light currently work?

 

[BayBuccaneer]

I can't see how that would happen. No.

It's hard to see in your pic, but do you have a black an dgrey wire twisted together? As noted above, grey is the color for nav lights - in this case, your spoiler mounted "anchor light". Does the anchor light currently work?

The anchor light works. I traced the gray wire back to a single wire, so it seems as though the wire was split to connect to the old light that had both those wires connected (black and gray) at the base. In essence it's the same wire.

 

[dtfeld]

As Lazy daze points out...I would disconnect that grey/white wire...ground should be black only.

I can't see how that would happen. No.

It's hard to see in your pic, but do you have a black an dgrey wire twisted together? As noted above, grey is the color for nav lights - in this case, your spoiler mounted "anchor light". Does the anchor light curren

 

[Skybolt]

The anchor light works. I traced the gray wire back to a single wire, so it seems as though the wire was split to connect to the old light that had both those wires connected (black and gray) at the base. In essence it's the same wire.

The anchor light works, great. How about the nav mast light? That could be the grey wire as well.

 

[wayne0]

I don't think the 310 is different from my 340.
I just installed those lights and it was an easy swap. As long as you have your hot and ground identified, (only 2 wires!) they should work fine. Did your old lights work?
One of your pics has 4 wires hanging. WTF is that?? Only 2 go to the light.

 

[BayBuccaneer]

I don't think the 310 is different from my 340.
I just installed those lights and it was an easy swap. As long as you have your hot and ground identified, (only 2 wires!) they should work fine. Did your old lights work?
One of your pics has 4 wires hanging. WTF is that?? Only 2 go to the light.

I still haven't been able to resolve the light situation. I connected the lights directly to a 12v source and they work. I have verified there's current on the hot wire. That would leave only the ground, which as long as it didn't come unattached somewhere should be good. As for the extra wires, I said the same thing when I pulled out the old lights and saw the wires haha... should be straight forward, positive, negative, done.

 

[BayBuccaneer]

I was able to fix the speedo, I forgot to mention. There was some debris in the pitot.

 

[BayBuccaneer]

The anchor light works, great. How about the nav mast light? That could be the grey wire as well.

The nav lights and anchor lights all work well.

 

[BayBuccaneer]

Alright, everything is now fixed.

Arch lights: removed the wire harness and directly connected to positive and negative leads upstream from the wiring harness.

Windlass: it was a bad switch.

Thanks for the assist from everyone and insight that led to a solution.

 

[dtfeld]

With electrical sometime you gotta look to the upstream connections. But you got it solved! Great job.

 

[wineknot]

Glad to hear you got the arch lights working (and everything else). I installed the Lumitec Mirage RGB on my previous boat and really liked them. I'll probably upgrade my current boat but if I do I will probably just do the blue/white version. I liked the RGB but it was a novelty and just made it more complicated to get the color/intensity I wanted.

I also had issues with helm switches on my previous boat. It was a 2006 and I bought it in 2019. I chased some strange electrical problems with the nav/anchor light and the also the stern light. I finally pulled the switches, jumped the wires and verified the switch was acting strange. I think most of these boats use the Carling Contura style switch. I bought new Carling switch bodies from New Wire Marine and they worked perfect... problems solved. I ended up replacing all the helm switches to ensure I didn't have any other problems in the future.

New Wire Marine has a great tool for $4 to pop the switch cover off. Without that tool (or incredible skill/luck) you will break the mounting prongs on the cover. Here's a link to the tool: https://newwiremarine.com/product/removal-tool/

I also ended up buying all new switch covers - Etched/Backlit Contura V Style. It was a nice upgrade: