Start of a electronic's upgrade to the Sculpin

[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.

 

[Sculpin]

Wow Sculpin you are going to have one sweet ride when you are all done!

Thanks. I sure hope so. I had quite a few years of waiting to be able to do all this stuff since I bought the boat.

I just like sharing idea's and projects on here so that everyone including myself can learn and hopefully kick start other folks into posting up their projects etc. It makes the winter blues more interesting for sure.

 

[Highliner]

Looking great Sculpin! Love the new updates!

 

[Sculpin]

Looking great Sculpin! Love the new updates!

Thanks Highliner. I had a buddy say something about the orginal bent plate mount for the radar to the tune of " you can do better than that". Stuck in my craw...... so hence the new mount lol. I needed to get it up higher anyway's due to the possibility of loosing some reception behind the boat.

It is fun working on boats. I have alot of other projects to do to her after this one.

 

[mbowers]

I own an aluminum boat so a shoot through won't work. Thanks for the input anyways. I have read about them and they do work good in fiberglass boats.

I'm pretty sure it's ventilation / air bubbles in the water that cause the problems and not just turbulent water. I have a shoot through on my fiberglass boat and still suffer issues when on plane / step. Two things helped out: 1) put the trim tabs down a bit so the nose is down more and less air gets under the hull, 2) use a manual depth range, the occasional extreme reading was making the unit jump ranges all the time but once set on the correct range I get at least most readings to display and it's pretty obvious where the bottom is.

That thruhull transducer mounted on the welded plate does look pretty good. There is a company that claims to make a shoot through for an aluminum hull: http://vexilar.com/pages/accessories/accy_transducers_au.php No idea if it's any good though!

 

[Sculpin]

I'm pretty sure it's ventilation / air bubbles in the water that cause the problems and not just turbulent water. I have a shoot through on my fiberglass boat and still suffer issues when on plane / step. Two things helped out: 1) put the trim tabs down a bit so the nose is down more and less air gets under the hull, 2) use a manual depth range, the occasional extreme reading was making the unit jump ranges all the time but once set on the correct range I get at least most readings to display and it's pretty obvious where the bottom is.

That thruhull transducer mounted on the welded plate does look pretty good. There is a company that claims to make a shoot through for an aluminum hull: http://vexilar.com/pages/accessories/accy_transducers_au.php No idea if it's any good though!

Thanks for that link. That unit looks interesting. I had never heard or read about them.

 

[Highliner]

The thru-hull off of the plate looks like a good idea. It's ok for the entire unit to be submerged under water though?

Where will the wiring for the radar go Sculpin? How do you get it to the dome without any leaking?

 

[Sculpin]

The thru-hull off of the plate looks like a good idea. It's ok for the entire unit to be submerged under water though?

Where will the wiring for the radar go Sculpin? How do you get it to the dome without any leaking?

Those are pictures of noluck's boat. I just posted them for him. I am just sticking with my existing transducers for now.

The wiring will run down the roof flange and through a fitting near the rear of the cabin that a bunch of other wires go through. No leaks (knock on aluminum).

 

[noluck]

Highliner,

the tranducer is sealed but i also used a sealant around the cable to make sure.

noluck

 

[Highliner]

Highliner,

the tranducer is sealed but i also used a sealant around the cable to make sure.

noluck

Good call. Great idea.

 

[JAC]

Sculpin,


Have you got to try out your new speaker boxes yet? I going to build some new speaker boxes and aluminum would be great but do you get a tingy sound from the metal boxes?

 

[Sculpin]

Sculpin,


Have you got to try out your new speaker boxes yet? I going to build some new speaker boxes and aluminum would be great but do you get a tingy sound from the metal boxes?

I hope to have them installed tomorrow. Finally started all the wiring etc. this weekend. The installer said they should work great. I'll post up the results.

 

[Despy]

Best way to not have that tinny sounding audio from metal box speakers is to just line them with accoustic insulation.

 

[-smtw]

Spray interior of metal boxes with rubberized undercoating (comes in spray cans @ Cambodian tire)
Cheap, works great.

 

[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.

 

[Sculpin]

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.

 

[Charter Tofino]

Top notch stuff sculpin. Your amazing work kinda makes me want a tinny!

 

[wildwest]

I think BOSE makes a marine speaker that has a shallow 90 degree box thing mounted to the rear of the speaker..I wish I would have known about them when I installed mine..because they are a little tinney sounding

 

[wildwest]

http://www.bose.ca/controller?url=/...utdoor_marine_speakers/131_speakers/index.jsp The link to the speakers....I may just measure up the clearances on the boat today.

 

[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 (plus extra money) 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, the speakers, and the new fuel flow sensor are going to be hooked up tomorrow night. That should do it except for a test run.

In all honesty with the purchase of this boat almost 4 years ago and the upgrades recently I have come to the realization that I just had my mid life crisis! I turned 41 yesterday so it all makes sense now.