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 [Music]   all right everyone    welcome to another   session of boatingtechtalkcom      we've got a question from a fellow   boater   all right let me read this out    mike   asks jeff   should the electronics on my upper and   lower helm be on the same circuit fuse   or switch we'll talk about that does it   make sense to separate them for   redundancy mike   oh that's a good question mike i can see   why some of us would put one circuit   breaker right it's tempting isn't it i   mean i can see it one circuit breaker   that does everything but then the   problem is   what if that circuit breaker trips maybe   a bunch maybe there is a sounder that's   giving you a problem and it's tripping   the breaker and now you lose everything   and he's right mike brings a good point   there is an argument here about   redundancy and certainly on some boats   not all boats but some boaters are going   to want to have the upper and the lower   helm actually be on separate breakers   the challenge with that is that   sometimes and depending on the   manufacturer of equipment that you have   you want to have   how should i say this   when electronics   turn on after the circuit breaker as was   energized what's going to happen is   they're going to be looking for certain   devices on your network so for instance   if you turn on the upper helm   electronics the upper helm electronics   is going to remember that last time it   was booted up it was seeing a lower helm   electronics and so that's maybe   sometimes some of the issues with having   different breakers but what i end up   doing in those situations and i've done   the same thing on my boat because i   don't have two helms but i certainly   have a lot of electronics   what i do is i basically turn them all   on at the same time so by the time they   all wake up they're all pretty much   online in the sense that they're sensing   each other on the ethernet ports and   this is relatively important for maybe   sounders radars not transducers but   sounder boxes which are connected to   ethernet and or   a radar so what i would suggest as a   starting point i think all of us that   have two helms should certainly consider   having multiple breakers for your   navigation and the reason is and it's   true is that you could find yourself in   a situation where that one single   breaker or one item on that breaker   trips and then you lose everything so   it's pretty common to have autopilot on   its own breaker radar   often on its own breaker right those two   big loads   and then you're probably maybe going to   have a vhf an ais transponder on another   breaker and then maybe you're going to   have instruments on this own breaker and   you might have then a chart plotter   upper and lower now that's a lot of   breakers and not all of us have space   for that so i'm not telling you you've   got to do it but if you've got spare   breakers or in the past your boat was   set up with you know two three four five   breakers for your electronics for your   nav then i certainly wouldn't collapse   those breakers unless you really really   really need them for something else   so i think it's a good idea to have more   breakers so that you can turn on and   isolate certain components of your   navigation system so that would be one   thing   mike didn't talk about this    because   he's talking about upper and lower hem   but something that we do often and i   certainly did on my own boat is this   concept of having an instrument breaker   separate from your chart plotters   and this is useful when you're an anchor   sometimes you want to have you know   maybe depth and wind   but you really don't need to see your   gps and you certainly can't afford to   have your chart plotter run all night   so on my own boat and we've done this on   a lot of motors we'll install the   instruments right so that could be a   wind vane maybe a simple transducer   that's connected to an instrument packed   right      sometimes it could be a furuno rd-   right to me instruments are   what maybe navigation systems were    years ago   for many of us would that would be   basically depth sounder   maybe gps   maybe wind information water temp not   that that's critical but that's   generally going to come with a   transducer and then you could literally   have one breaker that you're okay with   leaving on when you're at anchor   sometimes when it's a little sketchy   because not all the anchorages are   always calm right the wind comes up you   never know so i have certainly an   instrument breaker and i'm a big fan of   an instrument breaker and if i had two   helms   or if you're a boater that has two helms   then certainly doing an upper and lower   make sense but you can even go further   like i said think about the radar it's   not crazy radar is a good one   and having a vhf ais breaker makes a lot   of sense as well   so   yeah i think mike's going on the right   direction   i would certainly have different   breakers if i can if i can't   well then you know and that happens to a   lot of us then know where your fuse   block is right because you're going to   have one breaker that turns on or   energizes a whole fuse block and that   fuse block is going to have maybe five   six seven different circuits   and no so if every one of them gives you   grief   you know how to isolate one item on   that single breaker and that's how i   would go about   installing the power to a navigation   system   on a dual helm boat so great question   for mike if you've got further questions   or comments please      put them down below and we'll make   sure to read them and you know sharing   is caring so thanks everyone for tuning   in if you're curious we've written whole   articles about this go on our website   search it out   and we've got a lot of other tech talks   about this very topic if you haven't   subscribed to this channel please do   it actually it really 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