26 inch LED TV install

[topgun1185]

Firing up an old thread here: Topgun, I appreciate your post, but I'm having a little trouble visualizing how this works. When you say "cut into the vinyl" are you talking about on the ceiling near the starboard overhead light?

Are you saying they just added a switch to the hot wire feeding the lights? If they did that then it seems they'd still need the original switch to be ON to close the circuit? I must be missing something.

Can anyone that has made this switch change on the 320 post a bit more detail and possibly some pics? Thanks, Scott

Yes yes yes. All they did was install a rocker switch to the starboard side of the 2 lights now all the lights are powered on simply turn of the bulkhead lights and the head lights. Very simple fix. Although I didn't remove the switch I bet they siply cut the hole for the switch mount, fished out the wires, connected the switch and viola!!!

[sb in gp]

Yes yes yes. All they did was install a rocker switch to the starboard side of the 2 lights now all the lights are powered on simply turn of the bulkhead lights and the head lights. Very simple fix. Although I didn't remove the switch I bet they siply cut the hole for the switch mount, fished out the wires, connected the switch and viola!!!

Got it, simple and effective.

[sb in gp]

I know this is an old thread, but I just started installing my bulkhead TV in my 320 and I had some questions.

I am mounting a 22" LED TV to the bulkhead. I went 22" because that is the biggest I could find that had the external power brick/converter. I plan to cut the power cable before the brick and wire to 12V so that the kids can watch TV while underway without the generator running. Also the LED is thinner and lighter than an LCD.

I measured 10 times, and then made the first cut into the padded vinyl. I cut small squares in the vinyl for the TV mounting plate screws. I was expecting to find fiberglass under the vinyl, but instead encountered a thin wood substrate that feels about the thickness of paneling. Did others mount the TV directly to the thin wood under the pad? Is it strong enough?

I am planning to pull power wires through the bulkhead to the helm electrical area. I also want to tap into the Glomax signal, so I plan to follow Hack's instructions on fishing cable wiring to the port side where the original TV was mounted.

I plan to connect to the aft-cabin DVD player (which is closer than the forward DVD player). Any advice on running wires from the bulkhead area to the aft-cabin DVD player? I assume I'll have to pull the DVD player out and split the output so that it feeds both the aft cabin TV and the bulkhead TV.

Thanks.

[Four Suns]

I know this is an old thread, but I just started installing my bulkhead TV in my 320 and I had some questions.

I am mounting a 22" LED TV to the bulkhead. I went 22" because that is the biggest I could find that had the external power brick/converter. I plan to cut the power cable before the brick and wire to 12V so that the kids can watch TV while underway without the generator running. Also the LED is thinner and lighter than an LCD.

I measured 10 times, and then made the first cut into the padded vinyl. I cut small squares in the vinyl for the TV mounting plate screws. I was expecting to find fiberglass under the vinyl, but instead encountered a thin wood substrate that feels about the thickness of paneling. Did others mount the TV directly to the thin wood under the pad? Is it strong enough?

I am planning to pull power wires through the bulkhead to the helm electrical area. I also want to tap into the Glomax signal, so I plan to follow Hack's instructions on fishing cable wiring to the port side where the original TV was mounted.

I plan to connect to the aft-cabin DVD player (which is closer than the forward DVD player). Any advice on running wires from the bulkhead area to the aft-cabin DVD player? I assume I'll have to pull the DVD player out and split the output so that it feeds both the aft cabin TV and the bulkhead TV.

Thanks.

I would not recommend you connect a 12v requirement from electronics such as a TV directly to a boat battery. I think it is perfectly acceptable (and a good idea) to draw these LED TV's from the battery, but the voltage really should be regulated. Your boat's "12v" circuit is not really 12v. It's going to be running 14v when your engines are on, 7v when you are cranking the engines, and somewhere in between when you are draining the batteries. This is why laptops that use 12v still have a power brick when using a car adapter. Basically, the output side is always 12v regardless (within reason) what is on the battery/engine side... What you want to do is cut the current 120v brick out and insert a DC-DC 12v brick or power regulator... There are a lot of good small 12v regulators you can mount right next to where you are going to tie into your 12v boat circuit. Here's one:

http://carnetix.com/CNX_1290.htm

There are cheaper ones out there as well...

My 2 cents.

[Alegria]

Good point Gary. It will most likely work, for a while... But who knows.

One more thing to take into consideration beyond the mounting. The TV needs an antenna for over the air reception. That Glowmax up there only really works well when it's amplifier is on. That amp is 120V. So while you are running the TV at 12V that amp won't be on and you most likely won't get any channels via the Glowmax. If the TV has its own antenna plug it in and see how many channels you get, you may get enough to suit you as you may boat closer to a big city. Now if your TV has a built in DVD player or your separate DVD player is 12V then the kids can watch DVD's. You may also want to get a small 12V DC - 120 V AC inverter to power up that amp in case you really do want to watch more TV. Of course you will be pulling a lot more current (~10Xs) from your battery bank, but if you only need it for an hour or two you'll be fine... I never looked at my amp but I would bet the current draw is around ~1A at 120V AC???

I run our 15" AC/DC unit on the boat directly from the 12V plug in the cabin. Only do it on occasion when out on anchor. It is labeled as a AC/DC unit and comes with a 12V plug so I suspect it has a smidgen of regulation in it.. Of course I could be way off too!!!

[sb in gp]

Thanks Gary. I'll shop around for a regulator.

I don't plan to try to watch TV while underway, just planned to let the kids watch videos, or watch the Garmin Chartplotter feed so they can see our progress.

[chumbley]

...One more thing to take into consideration beyond the mounting. The TV needs an antenna for over the air reception. That Glowmax up there only really works well when it's amplifier is on. That amp is 120V.

Might be some variations out there - but my Glomex is 12v.

Also, I agree with Gary on feeding raw "12v" to electronics that expects regulated 12v.

[Havana Shamrock]

not looking to change the thread , but can i feed my garmin to my flatscreen?

[radiojon]

New 320 owner here (2005) and glad I found this thread! The 320DA we bought doesn't have a TV mounted in the salon and I'd really like to put one in -- this gives me a great direction in where to go with any cable runs. Rather than satellite or cable, I'm going to use a Boxee Box and onboard 4G internet modem/router (Clearwire) to connect my TV on the boat to my Slingbox back at my home. The 4G/Boxee Box/Slingbox/Slingplayer wireless connection(s) should also be a great alternative when watching TV out on deck, as there will be no need to run wiring of any kind to the deck. It might sound complicated, but it's actually very simple and eliminates a lot of wire runs (thank goodness for wireless)! Actually, if I could find an internet-ready TV set that included the SlingPlayer app, I wouldn't need the BoxeeBox; that may be more a question of WHEN instead of IF.

Quick DIY follow-up question for Bill and the group -- I have been unable to find any sort of Sea Ray factory "muff" to fit around the edges of the new TV install to achieve that "flush-mount" look. While shopping various 320DAs, I found several that had that "muff" as part of their factory TV installation, but no one seems to know where to purchase that part a la carte. Does it have to be custom-made and have you done so? If so, can you please share how you constructed that piece? It really sounds like that muff -- along with the switch to turn off the overhead lights immediately above the TV -- are very desirable aspects of the DIY upgrade.

Thanks in advance!

[SteveRichards]

Do such setup possible or not with ceiling near the starboard overhead light? Suggestions are appreciated.