Sea-lution
New member
Hey GeorgB, to put it bluntly, your idea is terrible. With parallel wiring you've got the buzzer and/or light, with series wiring you have both or nothing. Even if you find an LED that can pass enough current to power the buzzer, with components being so cheaply made in China these days, plus corrosion potential, its *really* isn't worth the risk of losing the entire alarm circuit over a diode. BTW, what is your point of using LEDs?? The lights are only necessary when the engine is on, and power isn't an issue when the alternator is turning.
The wiring harness on my engine was failing, bloody confusing mess, and the panel shot, and that project made it to the top of The List a few weeks ago. All those effin' wires ... went to nothing! Do yourself a favor and ditch the wiring harness when you do the panel. My wiring diagram didn't show the diodes, I found them when I dissected the wiring harness. The local Yanmar place didn't know about the diodes either, so I couldn't renew them. For the time being I spliced each one onto its wire from the sensor, and put a ring terminal on the exit-side, which I connected to a bus bar for each one.
As you know the B2 panel doesn't have gauges, so I made one side of a 10-position (2 x 5) bus bar for the temperature sensor and the other for the oil pressure sensor. Then I connected the lights and buzzer to their respective bus bar, and there's an extra wire on the temperature bar that goes to the DPDT switch to test the temperature alarm circuit - I don't see that on your diagram, it's the only easy way to test that circuit, you should keep the switch. Well, renew it.
I used a 20 position (2 x 10) bus bar for + and -. The + bus bar is powered from the AC (on the start switch), which serves the lights, buzzer, tach gauge, hour meter, and completes the circuit through the DPDT switch turn on the tach gauge light. The - bus bar serves the start switch, buzzer, lights, and to complete the temperature test circuit; that bar is just connected to a nearby terminal block for the fridge. Good idea to ditch the key for a push button, my key switch is only six years old and already more corroded than the 15-yo one I replaced! I use a cable stop to cut the fuel feed, the +/- bus bars have available spaces that can accommodate an electric stop device, however those work.
There might be other stuff I'm missing, or maybe I don't remember the above correctly, it's been several projects ago, can't recall without looking at the panel and thinking about it. Anyway, it's *real* nice to see all the labeled wires, and super easy (ring terminals) if I ever renew any components or whatever.
Oh, back to the harness, I attached pics - all those wires and only four were necessary!!! Well, five, but I renewed the starter wires quite a few years ago. I used AWG 18 (wire, bus bars, terminals and heat shrink leftover from the LED lighting project
) One wire each from the temperature and oil pressure, and two from the tach. I discovered that my engine has sending units for oil pressure and temperature gauges, but the B2 panel doesn't have gauges .... someday I'll make a gauge panel, but mount it inside the boat near the chart table. Just need to run one wire from an available position on the + bus bar to the gauge panel ... easy peasy!
My tach gauge didn't work very often, as you can see in the pics, the POs let the heat exchanger leak on the sensor for who knows how long, so I didn't know if the problem was the harness wires/connectors, or the sensor. The sensor was quite rusty so I renewed that too, now the gauge always works.
Among other problems my B2 panel also was cracked at the fasteners, the new panel was around $75 - WTF? It is a piece of injection molded plastic with some knock-outs!! If I had had the time I would have made a panel out of GPO3 (electrical-insulating), and painted it to match the boat.
Hope you post a pic of your completed panel!
The wiring harness on my engine was failing, bloody confusing mess, and the panel shot, and that project made it to the top of The List a few weeks ago. All those effin' wires ... went to nothing! Do yourself a favor and ditch the wiring harness when you do the panel. My wiring diagram didn't show the diodes, I found them when I dissected the wiring harness. The local Yanmar place didn't know about the diodes either, so I couldn't renew them. For the time being I spliced each one onto its wire from the sensor, and put a ring terminal on the exit-side, which I connected to a bus bar for each one.
As you know the B2 panel doesn't have gauges, so I made one side of a 10-position (2 x 5) bus bar for the temperature sensor and the other for the oil pressure sensor. Then I connected the lights and buzzer to their respective bus bar, and there's an extra wire on the temperature bar that goes to the DPDT switch to test the temperature alarm circuit - I don't see that on your diagram, it's the only easy way to test that circuit, you should keep the switch. Well, renew it.
I used a 20 position (2 x 10) bus bar for + and -. The + bus bar is powered from the AC (on the start switch), which serves the lights, buzzer, tach gauge, hour meter, and completes the circuit through the DPDT switch turn on the tach gauge light. The - bus bar serves the start switch, buzzer, lights, and to complete the temperature test circuit; that bar is just connected to a nearby terminal block for the fridge. Good idea to ditch the key for a push button, my key switch is only six years old and already more corroded than the 15-yo one I replaced! I use a cable stop to cut the fuel feed, the +/- bus bars have available spaces that can accommodate an electric stop device, however those work.
There might be other stuff I'm missing, or maybe I don't remember the above correctly, it's been several projects ago, can't recall without looking at the panel and thinking about it. Anyway, it's *real* nice to see all the labeled wires, and super easy (ring terminals) if I ever renew any components or whatever.
Oh, back to the harness, I attached pics - all those wires and only four were necessary!!! Well, five, but I renewed the starter wires quite a few years ago. I used AWG 18 (wire, bus bars, terminals and heat shrink leftover from the LED lighting project
) One wire each from the temperature and oil pressure, and two from the tach. I discovered that my engine has sending units for oil pressure and temperature gauges, but the B2 panel doesn't have gauges .... someday I'll make a gauge panel, but mount it inside the boat near the chart table. Just need to run one wire from an available position on the + bus bar to the gauge panel ... easy peasy!My tach gauge didn't work very often, as you can see in the pics, the POs let the heat exchanger leak on the sensor for who knows how long, so I didn't know if the problem was the harness wires/connectors, or the sensor. The sensor was quite rusty so I renewed that too, now the gauge always works.
Among other problems my B2 panel also was cracked at the fasteners, the new panel was around $75 - WTF? It is a piece of injection molded plastic with some knock-outs!! If I had had the time I would have made a panel out of GPO3 (electrical-insulating), and painted it to match the boat.
Hope you post a pic of your completed panel!
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