Good evening gents,

Recently I decided I would mount a trolling motor on my Malibu 2XL kayak which I bought at Capt. Kayak a few years back. Just thought it would be really cool to take the wife, or kid, out for a day of fishing. The thing tracks and paddles really nice, so I’d imagine the motor would make it a great ride.

Right now, I'm stuck in wiring my box with a few accessories. I believe I have the basic wiring down and I intend to register the kayak and ultimately test it on the water this week. Can someone lay me out with the wiring for accessories and more importantly the RC meter. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

The USB port goes in parallel, and the RC meter and fuses go in series. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Bankc said:

The USB port goes in parallel, and the RC meter and fuses go in series. 

 

 

Thanks Bankc, that's a great start. Do I feed directly off the battery for the accessories fuse box?

 

If the meter goes in parallel and fails (not sure if they ever do) I essentially lose power to the motor. Would the meter go between the breaker and motor then? 

29 minutes ago, Racerx919 said:

Thanks Bankc, that's a great start. Do I feed directly off the battery for the accessories fuse box?

 

If the meter goes in parallel and fails (not sure if they ever do) I essentially lose power to the motor. Would the meter go between the breaker and motor then? 

I would connect the 60 amp fuse to the battery directly, then connect the meter after that.  Then I would run the USB port and it's fuse box (the fuse box in series on the positive wire) in parallel after the meter, so that the meter reads the USB power draw as well as the motor, giving you a more accurate reading.  From there the motor is run off the meter, in a separate parallel loop.

 

The 60 amp fuse goes before the meter to help protect the meter, and I'm sure the USB port won't put a significant load on it, compared to the motor.  So it should be safe to run everything through that big fuse.  You have to connect the motor and USB in parallel with each other so they'll both get the full 12 volts.  So the accessories fuse box comes between the meter and the USB port.  It probably isn't necessary, to be honest, but as long as you have it, it shouldn't hurt anything (unless it's underrated for the load).  

 

If the meter blows, you'll lose power to everything.  There's not going to be a good way around that and make the meter useful.  It's just the nature of the beast.  The odds of the meter blowing are probably on par with the odds of a connector, fuse, battery, or motor failure, and a paddle will take care of all of those possibilities.  So I'd just take a paddle as a backup plan in case of failure, and not worry about the meter.  

Wow, now that's what I'm talking about. Really appreciate this, I'm going to do a virtual mockup if you wouldn't mind having a peek. I'd hate to miss a step and then who knows what you hear some horror stories out there. Appreciate your time and I will certainly bring a paddle along!

Not sure if this is right?

 

I would connect the fuse box directly to the battery and not through the 60amp fuse.   The way you have it will work but if the trolling motor blows the 60amp fuse then you loose power to everything.

1 hour ago, Racerx919 said:

Not sure if this is right?

 

Close.  You have the USB and it's fuse box connected before the RC meter, which means the meter won't give you as accurate of a reading because it's not recording the entire draw from the battery, but rather just what the motor is using (which will probably be most of the draw anyway).  What you have will work though.  If you don't use the USB ports or don't plug anything with a heavy draw into them, then whatever they suck up will be negligible, and could probably be ignored from the meter's perspective, without consequence.  

 

Also, I'm not familiar with that fuse box that you have connected to the USB ports.  It looks like you're intending on hooking up both the positive and negative wires to it.  You don't usually do that.  Most of the time, you just hook up one or the other (usually the positive in this case).  If you terminate the circuit path at any point, the whole thing shuts down.  So you don't need to protect both sides.  Also, I'm not sure how that fuse box is internally wired, so it might be okay to hook it up that way, or it might cause a short.  I'd have to see a schematic or have it in my hands to know for sure.  And to be honest, you could probably do without that fuse box.  You have the 60 Amp fuse there to protect the battery and the trolling motor.  Most likely what you're going to plug into a USB port will be sensitive electronics with a battery.  In other words, things like phones, tablets, laptops, etc.  And the battery will protect them from small power spikes and stuff.  And in the event of a big spike that gets past the battery, a fuse isn't going to blow quick enough to save anything.  So me, personally... I'd leave it out.  But that's just me.  

 

Thanks Bankc, appreciate you taking the time to explain to me. Unfortunately, I was hoping someone would simply lay it out for me rather than discussing it. Since I don’t grasp certain concepts I’m going to run it simple with the battery to breaker to trolling motor. To charge it, I’ll have connected the RC meter to see what I’ve used and how it’s charging. Nothing against you personally, you were fantastic in explaining the intricacies of wiring, I just have very basic knowledge at best. You’re certainly a good dude for taking the time to help a guy and I promise I always pay it forward. All the best my man and may you catch em up out there.

 

Jack

11 hours ago, Racerx919 said:

Thanks Bankc, appreciate you taking the time to explain to me. Unfortunately, I was hoping someone would simply lay it out for me rather than discussing it. Since I don’t grasp certain concepts I’m going to run it simple with the battery to breaker to trolling motor. To charge it, I’ll have connected the RC meter to see what I’ve used and how it’s charging. Nothing against you personally, you were fantastic in explaining the intricacies of wiring, I just have very basic knowledge at best. You’re certainly a good dude for taking the time to help a guy and I promise I always pay it forward. All the best my man and may you catch em up out there.

 

Jack

No worries.  Electronics can be a bit tough sometimes.  Like for me, looking at a layout, like what you had pictured, is confusing.  I need the old schematics with all of the symbols to really understand a circuit.  But for most people, that's even more confusing.  Since this circuit only runs at 12 volts, it's not likely to kill anyone or catch fire if you do it wrong.  It likely just won't work at all if you wire it incorrectly (though try it out before you take it out to make sure).  And like most things in life, there's more than one way to do it and have it work. 

 

If you have a DMM, it would be a good idea to hook everything up and make sure that the motor and the USB port are getting (around) 12 volts.  If not, you can use the DMM to trace back your path and find out where the problem lies.  If you don't have a DMM, you can pick up a cheap one at Harbor Freight or Amazon or somewhere.  You don't need a fancy Fluke brand or something like that for stuff like this.  A $10 unit will tell you all you need to know.  But it would probably be a good idea to own one and learn the basics of how to use one (YouTube has videos on this), if you don't already, for this and other electronics projects you'll likely encounter through the years.  

Appreciate the advice, I'm looking up DMM right now! The schematics as you say is just what I need. Unfortunately, it's unique to the box I'm building. Like I said, simple for now is probably best and the circuit breaker will protect the motor. I'll study up and hopefully figure out how to wire the USB and 12V port (not that i need it, but would like to have it).

 

All the best,

 

Jack