dc for my radio...

[QuickMick]

hooking up my new stereo... wires are pretty self instructive....
black to ground.... yellow to straight 12v for mem.... blue to powered ant. or capped....


however.... the red to juice reccomends a switched line to harness.... should i just pump er straight in, or get some type of switch? breaker box type, or route it through the board? i just figured i might stick a single switch breaker and hide it in the routing, but it seems like overkill when ive got shore power and the thing cant pull that much juice

btw, i built a custom cab for the stereo, with proper mounting height to fit flush, and a couple of neat shelves that fit on top of the housing.... not that proplaner plastic but wood.... willing to finish more by hand via custom request if anyone is interested.

[CalebD]

At a minimum you should have an in-line fuse (5 or 10 amp - whatever it is rated for). Optimally you would have both an in-line fuse and a separate breaker. A switch would work as well for shutting off all power and stopping any current drain.

[QuickMick]

thanks Caleb...er Gilligan.... where the heck is the skipper... st. has a built in 10 amp fuse.... how big of a breaker? thanks Caleb...
Shop dc 10 amp breaker at Lowes.com

way off base with one of these? lol

[eherlihy]

Marine electrical 101: Lesson 1
The breaker (or fuse for older boats) in the distribution panel protects the smallest wire in the circuit. The in-line fuse protects the device.

What gauge is the smallest wire in the circuit?

[wind_magic]

Quick,

It sounds like you are talking about two different things (unless I misunderstood you)

1) Yes, should be fuse protected, didn't the radio come with in-line fuses ?
2) The switched power, that's usually hooked to ignition switched power in a car, but on a boat that doesn't make sense unless you just want to listen to the radio when the engine is on. You don't really need to run it through a switch since you wouldn't be any more likely to remember to turn that switch off than you would be to turn the radio off with the push button on the radio. Edit - unless you intend to install some kind of low voltage cutoff to turn power off when the battery voltage drops to a certain level.

[mitiempo]

Quinn
The memory wire goes to constant power so the radio's memories stay set. The red power wire already has a fuse in it. I would lead this to the DC panel which I think you have and ideally use a separate breaker or fuse position. The fuse or breaker size will depend as stated on the wire size. If you're using 14 awg for your DC wiring 10 or 15 amps is fine. The main thing is that the fuse blows or the breaker trips before the wire gets hot and melts/burns.

The breaker you linked to is an AC breaker, for a house and not a boat. You are aware of the differences on your boat I hope.

Any other questions just ask.