pyro
Active Member
- Dec 4, 2018
- 287
- Boat Info
- 2008 Sundancer 290
- Engines
- Twin 5.0L MPI Bravo III
Kohler 5ecd
Planning to share my lighting upgrade installation. First the plan:
2008 290 Sundancer
- Replace 2 arch and 3 cockpit lights with Lumitec RGB Mirage
- Add 3 underwater Seablaze X2 Blue/White
- Control all with Lumitec Poco system in series with Sundancer EIM system
- Add some various RGB strip lighting with Lumitec RGB C4 expansion module
- Add swim platform accent lights
This boat has a CAN bus controlled EIM relay system. I want to keep the helm controls as is. But after the EIM relay add in the POCO so that the POCO can send the high frequency power line instructions and control the colors if wanted via Bluetooth, TCP/IP, NMEA, etc. In other words you can think of two switches wired in series: the EIM and Poco. Both need to be on to turn on. The key here is to setup Poco such that it turns on only certain channels on power up. Therefore when you press the helm switch the corresponding light will turn on. It took a long time to figure out if this is truly possible. In fact Lumitec customer service wasn't even sure. My prelimary tests show it is possible to configure. Hoping for no surprises when it's all installed.
To access the EIM wiring I choose to build a breakout harness and connect in series with
boat harness and the EIM itself. This is a massive 40 pin 20 Amp connector from Deutsch (TE). Attached is the planned wiring diagram. Here is a picture of it
The poco normally comes with just 12 pigtail wires, so I added this 12 pin Deutsch DT series connector. It's a really nice easy to use connector. Next I could have hacked away some of the massive boat factory harness in 2" split wire loom and attempted to access the 4 wires needed. But I instead went this route such that it can theoretically be unplugged and the boat can be restored back to it's original. That means I needed to jump through about 36 wires. It also is simpler said than done. It took me prob 30 minutes just to unscrew the allen key connector to remove this connector due to impossible access.
Not shown here is a few additional wires that will plug in from the front EIM for the arch lights and a new wire for transom accent lights. These will get added to the 12 pin connector when fitted in the boat.
Here's hoping I don't blow up anything! Assuming the boat still works after I plug this in, I'll be cutting in my underwater lights soon. Planning to oversize the holes, including the 3 mounting screw holes, then filling with MarineTex (thickened epoxy). Then re-drilling the correct size. A lot of extra work, but this ensures that if these things were ever to leak I don't destroy the wood transom.
2008 290 Sundancer
- Replace 2 arch and 3 cockpit lights with Lumitec RGB Mirage
- Add 3 underwater Seablaze X2 Blue/White
- Control all with Lumitec Poco system in series with Sundancer EIM system
- Add some various RGB strip lighting with Lumitec RGB C4 expansion module
- Add swim platform accent lights
This boat has a CAN bus controlled EIM relay system. I want to keep the helm controls as is. But after the EIM relay add in the POCO so that the POCO can send the high frequency power line instructions and control the colors if wanted via Bluetooth, TCP/IP, NMEA, etc. In other words you can think of two switches wired in series: the EIM and Poco. Both need to be on to turn on. The key here is to setup Poco such that it turns on only certain channels on power up. Therefore when you press the helm switch the corresponding light will turn on. It took a long time to figure out if this is truly possible. In fact Lumitec customer service wasn't even sure. My prelimary tests show it is possible to configure. Hoping for no surprises when it's all installed.
To access the EIM wiring I choose to build a breakout harness and connect in series with
boat harness and the EIM itself. This is a massive 40 pin 20 Amp connector from Deutsch (TE). Attached is the planned wiring diagram. Here is a picture of it
The poco normally comes with just 12 pigtail wires, so I added this 12 pin Deutsch DT series connector. It's a really nice easy to use connector. Next I could have hacked away some of the massive boat factory harness in 2" split wire loom and attempted to access the 4 wires needed. But I instead went this route such that it can theoretically be unplugged and the boat can be restored back to it's original. That means I needed to jump through about 36 wires. It also is simpler said than done. It took me prob 30 minutes just to unscrew the allen key connector to remove this connector due to impossible access.
Not shown here is a few additional wires that will plug in from the front EIM for the arch lights and a new wire for transom accent lights. These will get added to the 12 pin connector when fitted in the boat.
Here's hoping I don't blow up anything! Assuming the boat still works after I plug this in, I'll be cutting in my underwater lights soon. Planning to oversize the holes, including the 3 mounting screw holes, then filling with MarineTex (thickened epoxy). Then re-drilling the correct size. A lot of extra work, but this ensures that if these things were ever to leak I don't destroy the wood transom.