before i too much more sailing i really need to get my stereo hooked up. installed the speakers already. 2 bose speakers i scored from one of those 800 buck ipod docks that was on the side of the road and 2 pioneers that i bought in a set with pioneer car stereo for 88 bucks. Installed one of these in the bluebird and it was awesome, so once i sold that i bought the same system and have added the Bose speakers.

In the bluebird i basically just hooked the stereo up directly to the battery and disconnected/connected it with a spring clamp at back of radio as there was no internal electrics. Worked well, however the new Tophat has an electric control panel controlling everything (bilge Pump, Cig Socket, cabin lights etc.)
Id really like to hook the stereo up properly to the control panel so that when the mains are off the stereo is off etc.
I know if i played around with it a bit id get it, but everytime i go to do it, i just go sailing instead - without music. But enoughs enough! it needs to be hooked up ASAP!!!!
Any advice on the best way to figure this out would be muchly appreciated. Thanks!

Step one: Install a voltmeter and/or pay close attention to the one already installed.

Step two: Buy a filthy big amplifier to be installed when someone can provide proper instructions?

Beware: some car type stereos still chew volts on standby.

you need to connect it to your main panel and install a fuse if you connect it direct to the battery also use tinned wire for all connections.

thanks guys. Hey whiteout which circuit on the panel are you using in the picture for your radio? is it just basically a red and a black to the panel? I dont have such easy access as this. ive gotta unscrew the panel to get to it. Actually all good, i can see where from the front panel.
I still cant really see where you connected the radio to though on that strip.

Check out Braven X waterproof Bluetooth speAkers. Take it out on the deck with you, beach, charge your phone from it, sounds good, rechargeable and lasts for ages, take a phone call etc. Really good units. They're smart so if you have two they'll talk to each other giving stereo etc. get the free spoitfy app and tunes are free and Soooooooo many to chose from. Don't even use the boat stereo anymore... to much power needed especially with my new hot water system :)

steve can you post a picture easily of the front and back of your existing panel, we may be able to tell you where to hookup.
Or is there a spare switch on the circuit you don't use/or are prepared to lose in lieu of the stereo?
Whichever one you choose, make use it currently gets fully turned off if you switch the batteries off.

Thanks heaps crusty. Ill take some pix tomorrow when im at the boat. Thanks!
I think there may be a spare switch on the panel

I am wondering if it as easy as running the positive wire from an unused switch on the panel to the radio. Like the red wire, which you should put a fuse on?

The positive or black one is a little more tricky? Maybe from the radio it needs to go back to the bus bar that all the black wires return to? Like the earth or likes? It looks like this is how it works on my boat, excepting there are a few more turns before the earth?

The rest of the wires from the plug in the back of the radio are likewise colour coded. The radio should have came with a wiring diagram.

Honestly, I hardly have a clue either. This is just the way it seems to work when I follow wires around!!!!

Each switch on the panel has fuses or a place for fuses. Radio has a wiring diagram. Did it last time on other boat easy. ..totally forgot how i did it.

Steve are you familiar with the wiring on your sterio
usually red is stereo power. yellow is for the radios memory so it can keep the radio station you want plus its clock
then just a earth usually Black wire.
How you wiring it in place depends on what you want. example would be stand alone wire the two power wires direct to your battery and the earth to the other side and add a fuse into both powered circuits.
The down side is don't forget to turn the radio off before you leave the boat.
To change the above all that's needed is fit the red power wire to a circuit of your choice in the boat
Then you have your speaker wires usually color coded a white and a white with a black stripe as an example( usually the wire with the stripe is the speaker earth wire)

Thanks HG Im all good with the speakers/wires theyre all ready to go and the wiring diagram for them is straight forward. Ill bring the manual home tomorrow but from memory theres a yellow to go ( i think) on ignition switch. Red for somewhere (power id imagine) and black sposed to go for an earth somewhere. Not sure where i can put the black? Theres not really any metal anywhere.

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Sectorsteve said..
Thanks HG Im all good with the speakers/wires theyre all ready to go and the wiring diagram for them is straight forward. Ill bring the manual home tomorrow but from memory theres a yellow to go ( i think) on ignition switch. Red for somewhere (power id imagine) and black sposed to go for an earth somewhere. Not sure where i can put the black? Theres not really any metal anywhere.

You don't really want to have to turn your ignition switch on to use the stereo
does the boat have battery Isolation switch?plus a motor battery and house battery system?
Yellow is to hold the radio frequencies when you turn the radio off. So to wire that in correctly it needs to be powered all the time. It draws stuff all power
radio red wire cold be fitted also to the battery but you have to remember to turn the radio off before you leave the boat
If your Top Hat has a battery Isolation switch you could connect both the red and the yellow to that. The red could go to the house side of the isolation switch
(so it had no power when the isolation is turned off) and the yellow to the battery side of the isolation switch so it would have power all the time

Just make sure both the red and the yellow have a fuse in there circuit

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Offthegrid said..
Check out Braven X waterproof Bluetooth speAkers. Take it out on the deck with you, beach, charge your phone from it, sounds good, rechargeable and lasts for ages, take a phone call etc. Really good units. They're smart so if you have two they'll talk to each other giving stereo etc. get the free spoitfy app and tunes are free and Soooooooo many to chose from. Don't even use the boat stereo anymore... to much power needed especially with my new hot water system :)

+1. I just got a UE megaboom. Love it! Sound quality is awesome.

I have a boat stereo but recently got a Bluetooth speaker for work. If the boat stereo dies I'll be more than happy to get a portable speaker for there too.

I got a Kogan Bluetooth jobby for $50 delivered, sounds as good as much more expensive units, oh and I can answer my phone with it.

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HG02 said...

Sectorsteve said..
Thanks HG Im all good with the speakers/wires theyre all ready to go and the wiring diagram for them is straight forward. Ill bring the manual home tomorrow but from memory theres a yellow to go ( i think) on ignition switch. Red for somewhere (power id imagine) and black sposed to go for an earth somewhere. Not sure where i can put the black? Theres not really any metal anywhere.

You don't really want to have to turn your ignition switch on to use the stereo
does the boat have battery Isolation switch?plus a motor battery and house battery system?
Yellow is to hold the radio frequencies when you turn the radio off. So to wire that in correctly it needs to be powered all the time. It draws stuff all power
radio red wire cold be fitted also to the battery but you have to remember to turn the radio off before you leave the boat
If your Top Hat has a battery Isolation switch you could connect both the red and the yellow to that. The red could go to the house side of the isolation switch
(so it had no power when the isolation is turned off) and the yellow to the battery side of the isolation switch so it would have power all the time

Just make sure both the red and the yellow have a fuse in there circuit

Sooo... im not sure even what a battery isolation switch is. Could it be the main switch that turns all on from the panel?
Theres 1 thing that switch doesnt affect and thats the 12/240 inverter which just seems to be connected to the panel but bypassing any switches, going straight to battery. This inverter has its own on/off switch.
I'm thinking i might do what i did before on the bluebird when i installed exactly the same radio and that was same as this inverter is now kind of. Straight to battery or battery leads and to turn radio off i just have a small spring clamp(positive) that i disconnect when not in use. The black was constantly connected to battery. i dont use radio. I use cd/aux only so no need for station memory atm. I didnt have any fuses for this system but it worked for 2 years until i sold bluebird. Pumping sound. bluetooth speakers sound like a great idea but i like speakers mounted in the boat. Wires hidden. You get a better sound i reckon. Its alot about where the speakers are mounted and alot of the time stand alone speakers sound suffers when incased in light plastic. the only ones ive heard that sound awesome are the bose docks but they're really expensive. In a mounted speaker the whole boat becomes a speaker box. Hard to beat. These 88 buck pioneers from ebay are really very good. Cd/aux / remote and sound very good. A marine stereo isnt needed imo and they certainly dont sound as good and are triple cost at least.

I have bass reflex 3 way speakers from the Salvation army op shop. $10 a pair. They are the bookshelf size and very heavy and take up a reasonable amount of room on the main bulkhead but the sound is amazing. I can listen to them under the boat when using the hookah. These top quality units are always available at my local op shop and I have first class HiFi units in my garage, workshop and sewing room! My wife has put a freeze on me buying more.

Ideally you should have a two battery bank set up with an isolation/selection switch so that you can leave your boat with no 12 volt current active. The reality is different now with most people needing 12 volt power for alarms, automatic bilge pumps, radio presets etc. Solar panels will be on anyway. I have a small wire running direct from both batteries to the radio to keep presets.

You really need a selector switch so that you can keep a battery spare in case you flatten one bank.

Your system sounded great in 1 of your vids ramona!
Ive only got 1 big battery. Its new.im not really powering too much so i think 1 will do. Will soon find out when away for 7 days next week running a fridge and radio plus cabin lights at night.
Im mad about sound too. Ive got so many sets of speakers. They seem to keep finding a way to multiply. Ive got a recording studio. Powered krk 8 inch. Tannoy 8 inch. Powered jbl PA speakers peavey passive pa speakers. Cerwin vega MV pa speakers (rare and amazing) very fussy but also have put a halt on any more aquisitions free or not... (depends)
.. ive put a stop on myself

Yes, make sure you find a constant positive to connect the yellow wire to. Ones I have installed wouldn't work without it.

Just a further question on earthing the antenna.

I do not want to use a splitter on my VHF antenna to provide an ariel for my stereo. I prefer to keep it dedicated to the VHF. I plan to use an auto type flexi rubber ariel (marine one they sell in Tackle World).

My question is:- Do I need to run an earth from the base of this ariel back to the stereo unit?? Earthing will be done by the coaxial cable won't it?

Earthing will be done by the coaxial cable Cisco.

2 things:

Steve have you got a solar panel?. and if so, you'll have a regulator somewhere.
This can be an easy location to get constant power just for the memory connection, just look at the terminals it has.
That way as mentioned above, you could still turn everything off but not lose your station settings.

It would be a shame to have a spare circuit on your panel and not use it.

Also, if you have the portable speakers, don't forget your compass might point you to Siberia depending on where you put your speakers at the time.

Just a tip
Have heaps of fuse with you, I installed my stereo with a lot of trail and error
worked it out in the end but went through a few fuse

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cisco said..

Just a further question on earthing the antenna.

I do not want to use a splitter on my VHF antenna to provide an ariel for my stereo. I prefer to keep it dedicated to the VHF. I plan to use an auto type flexi rubber ariel (marine one they sell in Tackle World).

My question is:- Do I need to run an earth from the base of this ariel back to the stereo unit?? Earthing will be done by the coaxial cable won't it?

I presume you are talking about an aerial for an FM radio. I use a circular aerial that is simply a piece of wire attached to a circle with electrical ties and the two ends go to the antennae plug at the back of the set. I think the circumference is 52 inches and this depends on the frequency of your preferred stations but it is not critical. Because the stations transmit both horizontal and vertical polarization it does not matter where you situate the aerial. Mine just hangs off the epirb!

Plenty of info on line for all this stuff. Should cost less than a dollar.

Pictures came out sideways. Sorry!

If it was mine Id wire in the radio memory wire to the green battery lead at the isolation switch
and on the other side of the isolation switch I would fit the radio power wire and solder a in line fuse to each of those wires. Then run the earth wire to a earth that runs back eventually to the negative on the battery.
Some time googling work for me
I googled sail boat wiring diagram and hers a result below

www.google.com.au/search?q=sail+boat+wiring+diagrams&espv=2&biw=2560&bih=979&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1wP_ondHJAhVKmZQKHexIDxcQsAQIGg

one thing to remember when your doing marine wiring boats have condensation moisture and if the moisture can run down a wire to a switch it might enter the switch and corrode the switch or it could do the same thing to a fuse.
so its best to run you wires down then do a U turn and connect the wire to the terminal so all moisture is kept away from where the wire ends

You can see what I mean in the above photo see how all the wiring goes up to where it terminate so no moisture can reach any fuse or switch
Whiteouts got some very nice wiring there

Thanks alot hg. Youve made it really clear for me.!

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HG02 said..


You can see what I mean in the above photo see how all the wiring goes up to where it terminate so no moisture can reach any fuse or switch
Whiteouts got some very nice wiring there

Whiteouts has the wiring bundle on top of the switchboard, should always be under on a boat. In the photo above the wires should be just a fraction longer so there is actually a small downward loop for moisture to drop off, otherwise very nice.

I should add a disclaimer here. My yachts previous owner was an electrical engineer and my wiring is a nightmare.

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HG02 said...

one thing to remember when your doing marine wiring boats have condensation moisture and if the moisture can run down a wire to a switch it might enter the switch and corrode the switch or it could do the same thing to a fuse.
so its best to run you wires down then do a U turn and connect the wire to the terminal so all moisture is kept away from where the wire ends

Have a go at soldering the connections and covering them in the double wall 4x glued heat shrink you can get from Jaycar. Compared to the usual crap you buy, the stuff is cheap and fully military grade.

Just need to leave a little extra wire for future re- connections.

Ok......im in the wrong forum

Can anyone direct me to a sailboat forum for poor ppl trying stay afloat while traveling the south pacfic?

No disrespect intended or sent....but speakers? I just want fresh water to drink and the bilge to always work