Instrument Ilumination

[Bruce the Postie]

G'day all,

Having just installed a new switch panel and tidied up the wiring behind the dash, i thought i would have a go at making the gauges light up (they haven't done this since i bought the boat 7 years ago). My intention is to have them come on when i turn on the nav lights. All the gauges are fitted with globes and all globes seem to be fine my problem lies in not knowing where to connect the power to . Any help with this problem would be great.

Thanks Bruce

[a boat]

Hi Bruce, run the positive wire for your lights in your gauges to a vacant switch on the switch panel. That way you will be able to turn on and off your gauge lights.

The negative will need to go to the common negative that you should have behind the dash.

Cheers,

Huey.

[Bruce the Postie]

G'day Huey,

Thanks for that mate i'll give it a go .

Cheers , Bruce

[pelican]

The brightness is not normally adjustable and can be a pain for your night vision. If it becomes irritating as many are white light guages just remove the globes and use the red globe paint at auto stores and it will make them less bright and also red which is better for night vision.

Make sure you have an isolation switch on your battery as otherwise you may leave the switch on you panel on and gradually flatten you battery as during daylight they are very hard to notice.

Ours are on whenever the motor is running and we wired it so we can also choose to switch them off when we want no light in the cabin as we have engine warning lamps/ siren and you can hear you motor and revs. The trim guages always seem too bright at night for us with a full cabin as the reflection on the glass was irritating and dangerous.

[impulse]

I'm sure you will but don't forget to put in a fuse inline with the lights if your positive wire comes straight off the main battery supply.

If you have a "hour" running gauge on the boat you could connect the new switch and fuse from there so they will only come on with the motor, or better still trace the hour gauge wire back to its common point as you may find some sought of bussbar and connect your new wire there.

[Bruce the Postie]

Thanks for all your input fellow raiders,

Instrument lights are now all sorted, they will only come on when the nav lights are on so there is no unwanted light in the cabin. they also run back to the switch panel so no need for another fuse in-line, and everything runs back to the isolater switch so no continual drain on the battery.

I think i am now much more cleverer than i thought i was because at no stage did i let all the smoke out of the wires , and i was also able to develop that all important 3rd joint in my arm that i'm sure will come in very handy when undertaking a lot of other jobs!!!!.

Thanks again,

Bruce