Start of an electronics upgrade to the Sculpin

[Sculpin]

Well I rolled around and even lost sleep over it and just cannot drill a hole in my pod or my hull. I am not going to go against my belief's. I took the through hull transducer back and will work with the existing transducers and modify the bracket for less turbulence etc.

A cool thing I found out was that both existing transducers work. When I network my head units I can use one and have the other one just there kind of like an installed back up. One will be hooked up to the HDS10 and the other to the HDS7 but I will only use one of them under normal use. If that one craps out I can just switch it on the network to the other one. Pretty cool me thinks.

I am going to eliminate one of the paddle wheel speed sensors on the other side of the pod and install the Structure Scan tranducer over there. There is clear water on that side and I only need one paddle wheel now that I am networking.

I am totally new to the networking stuff but it sure makes sense now (had a fellow from the Harbour Chandler come over today and go over the boat and to explain it to me). The other good news is I will be hooking back up my auto pilot (even though it is hooked up to my main engine the kicker is attached to a tie rod and will work just fine) and the compass is compatible to overlay my radar onto my chartplotters.

Whew. Was a great afternoon learning a lot.

[Sculpin]

Here is a couple more progression shots of this electrical upgrade.

New speaker boxes for the deck area.



My old speakers mounted under the rail (that don't work anymore).



The new boxes and speakers will mount where the old ones are now. I'm just holding it up for an example.



I am reworking the radar mount. Apparently due to the pipe bridge and rocket launchers at the rear of the cabin roof I may have a blind spot behind me (which I don't want). So I am making a new one to raise the dome up enough to clear it. I am basically copying a few I have seen online. This is a prelim shot.

[JETTYWOLF]

Good fer YOU.

"holes in yer POD", yep that doesn't sound like a good thang. I try to keep holes outa my POD, too.

Maybe that's a movement, like "ending child hunger"? We'll join forums around the globe and keep people from drilling big holes in their boats.


Ya know, an ole saying is......."When ya buy a new boat, it's only days before ya take it and drill a whole bunch of holes in it."

[Sculpin]

Here is the radar mount all finished. Just have to install it on the boat.

[Sabs28]

What is the smaller diameter bent tube for???, Venting or Nav light???

[Sculpin]

What is the smaller diameter bent tube for???, Venting or Nav light???

Nav light.

[Sculpin]

Mounted the radar on the boat.



Side shot showing how we matched up the angle of the windshield.



From the rear.



We sandwiched the roof by putting a same sized backing plate as the mounting plate underneath on the ceiling of the cabin. Sikaflexed the crap out of it too.

[goatram]

Looks real good John.

How much snow did you get the last couple of days?

[Sculpin]

Looks real good John.

How much snow did you get the last couple of days?

Thanks goatram. We only got about an inch here. Just missed us. Victoria got over a foot. You're getting hit pretty hard eh? I saw winter storm warnings on the Weather Network for your neck of the woods.

[Sculpin]

Installed the radar cable yesterday.



Installed the structure scan server on a piece of cutting board material under the starboard side rear passenger seat.



The underside of the dash is quite the snakes nest. We are going to deal with this eventually. More bus bars etc.



My electrical guy decided to put a separate block and fuse panel for all the head units in the same area as the structure scan unit. I can then access any problems with a head unit from here without having to go under the dash so to speak. I mounted another piece of cutting board for this application.



Installed the Lowrance Sonic Hub server on another piece of cutting board material behind the front bulkhead.



It is just right of the speaker in this photo. Directly above it is the air compressor for the air ride seats.

[goatram]

Clean and Functional. Vair has a tank for that compressor. Sized @ 1 Gallon

[Sculpin]

Clean and Functional. Vair has a tank for that compressor. Sized @ 1 Gallon

Thanks John. I have never had a problem with air to the seats yet (knock on aluminum). If I ever do I will look into a tank. Probably wouldn't be much to mount under there somewhere.

[3f8]

Things are looking good John. I'm also plotting some of the same upgrades. On the shelf is an HDS 10 with structure scan and a G3 radar. I will be pulling out some time in Feb. So keep posting I'm stealing ideas as fast as I can.

[Sculpin]

Things are looking good John. I'm also plotting some of the same upgrades. On the shelf is an HDS 10 with structure scan and a G3 radar. I will be pulling out some time in Feb. So keep posting I'm stealing ideas as fast as I can.

Make sure you post up your project 3f8

[Sculpin]

All most there. Mike from the Harbour Chandler has been handling the wiring and I have been removing old wiring, mounting stuff, and helping out where I can. I didn't realize how much crap goes into these networks .

I traded in my old VHF, MIC+, and Globalmap 7200 on a brand new HDS7 Gen2 unit to replace the Global Map. I now have all three units linked with zero problems. (If you zero out the transducer, the antennae, and the power cord the new units come down alot in price).

The sonic hub is all hooked up but not the speakers yet so I can't even try it out. The compass for the auto pilot(for radar overlay), the navigation light up above the radar dome, and the new fuel flow sensor are going to be hooked up tomorrow night. That should do it except for a test run.

[Sculpin]

The new HDS7 Gen2 installed (6th one from the Chandler so far).



The new Standard Horizon Matrix 2150 AIS+ radio installed.



The new RAM 3 mic installed. Replacing the RAM+ mic.



My original VHF that came with the boat that I will keep as a back up.

[spoiled one]

Looks great, John. When do you get to test all that new stuff out? There has to be some shrimp out there.

[Sculpin]

Looks great, John. When do you get to test all that new stuff out? There has to be some shrimp out there.

Still lot's to do yet. I am thinking another month or more with all my plans for the gal. Just loving the shed and being able to do all this work on her and still have her nice and dry and out of the weather. It's kind of dream like.

[goatram]

Your heater hooked up John? It will keep you warm as well while you are in the house. Still got your game going

[jrbaldwin]

I think I will wait a while before upgrading my electronics. Want a next generation CHIRP (compressed high-intensity radar pulse) fish finder but will to wait a couple of years till the price comes down.

Jim

[Chaps]

Want a next generation CHIRP (compressed high-intensity radar pulse) fish finder
Jim

Sounds like they'll be pre-cooked when you net'em

[Sculpin]

I think I will wait a while before upgrading my electronics. Want a next generation CHIRP (compressed high-intensity radar pulse) fish finder but will to wait a couple of years till the price comes down.

Jim

By then they will have some new technology out...................it never ends

[Sculpin]

Well we are all hooked up (mostly) ha ha.

Here is the new Lowrance Sonic hub recepticle installed in the front bulkhead.



It comes with different "cartridges" for plugging in various "i" products like iphones, ipod's, nano's etc.. Basically any apple portable media product. The cartridge is the white thing in the middle of the unit.



The Lowrance Sonic Hub Server all hooked up.



I scrapped the speaker box project and bought some waterproof bracket mounted speakers for the rear. I sold the boxes to a buddy of mine who is going to use them in his JEEP.



continued........

[Sculpin]

The two new head units up front. HDS7 on the left for radar and sonar and the even newer HDS7 Gen2 for mostly GPS/chartplotting or anything really.



I fired up the radar but it doesn't perform much under the shed. Just showing the display for photo purposes.



The HDS7 Gen2 with the Navionic's Gold chip in it all fired up. You can see the Sonic Hub menu strip on the bottom of the screen for the music.



The HDS10 outside on the fish deck running the Navionic's Platinum chip. It can run anything really that is on the system. Radar, sounder, structure scan, gps, chartplotter, etc. Notice the Sonic Hub music strip on the bottom. It appears on every screen and can be accessed on any screen. I'll post up a vid once it is all working properly (we ran into a little bug in that my ipod touch Gen2's software is not picked up by the Sonic Hub server. Just need to upgrade via USB stick).



continued....

[Sculpin]

This is the new "brain box" so to speak that ties all the network stuff together and powers it all as well in one handy spot under the starboard side passenger seating. We ran out of network outlets on the Structure Scan server so I had to buy another network server to finalize everything. The upside is a still have a couple of outlets for expansion in the future.



Easy to get at and it eliminated a bunch of stuff under the dash.

I just have to hook up the fuel flow sensor and we are golden. I have read alot about the Lowrance fuel sensor online and apparently you have to mount it vertically for the best performance. I had to re and re my fuel system to do this. This is where I am at for right now. I hope to have it all together by the end of this evening.



Once this is all hooked up I have to fill the tank to calibrate it. I can then try to find my best fuel burn at a certain speed etc.

We are going for a test drive tomorrow to set up the auto pilot, Lowrance Structure Scan transducer, and the fuel flow sensor. Looks like a nice day out there on the water tomorrow! I'll post up the results and some other things once they are tweeked