Electrical

When summer comes, a dozen or more sparkling white lights will adorn every popular anchorage. Visible from miles away, they promise to provide good...

So, you’ve finally purchased that new (or new-to-you) boat of your dreams. Now is a great time to familiarize yourself with its systems—a good...

Running the wires for new electronics requires your best cursing vocabulary, lots of sweat, twisting body contortions, luck, and the occasional bandage. For tips on how to make this job easier, we turned to PS contributor Bill Bishop. A professional marine-electronics installer, Bishop has many ingenious ways to thread a wire from point A to point B.

Connecting two standard-size wires is pretty straightforward: Grab a ratchet crimper, adjust it to fit the crimp connector, strip the two wires to fit into the butt connector, slide the wires into the connector, and squeeze the crimper. The required materials are readily available: butt connectors for inline splices, ring connectors for terminal blocks, and a dab of anti-corrosive grease for the bolts and rings. Done right, these connections can survive some extremely tough conditions. In a recent test of anti-corrosion greases and connections, we demonstrated how these connections can last up to five years in the worst bilge conditions.

If only there was a good standardized 12-volt electrical connector. I’ve never had a boat without multiple connector failures, and most of them involved...

Somewhere around the third carburetor rebuild for our 3.3 hp four stroke dinghy outboard, I decided enough is enough. Four stroke outboards are supposed...

Replacing a battery bank on a cruising sailboat  requires a myriad of choices—driven by one overriding goal. What are you hoping to power with...

Lithium is cool. Your cell phone uses it. Cameras, laptops, flashlights … everything. But “cool” is not a reason. Fire is not a big...

When charging, lead acid batteries generate hydrogen from the electrolysis of water, and some acid gases, the amount of which vary with the battery...

In this short article I want to chat about ideas for making the radio bombproof in an emergency. I haven’t “invented” any of these...