Power to the 1198 units

Well, my brother and I decided to make the jump into Hb units. I have asked a bunch of you many questions and have received some awesome responses that have made us feel more comfortable and even MORE excited about the new units.

A couple of quesitons that I still have are as follows:

I have a power switch on my boat that control all the electronics, do you run your power from your HB units through this centeral switch or do you run the power directly to your batteries, knowing that when you disconnent/turn off the units, they don’t draw much (any) power?

Where are you running your fuse? close to the head or closer to the battery? (my assumption would be what is going to be the easiest place to check if something goes out)

I have heard that these babies draw some good voltage and have been recommended to run a seperate power line to the battery vs. connecting it up with other units–what gauge wire are you using?

thanks for all the help–I will post some picture when we get the units installed.

Dan

If HB is like Lowrance, and you are going to be running an external antena, then you will want your power switched (not directly from a battery) The external antenas draw constant power. At least Lowrances do.
I know, I really am not anwersing your question but this is where you want to place your concern.
Congratulations! New toys-for-the-boys are awesome!!!

Always connect to your crank battery not trolling batts, and the fuse should be as close to battery as possible, the fuse protects the wiring not the unit itself.

I have the same unit and you will love it. I ran a seperate lines directly to the battery and a fuse right before you connect to the battery, that way the wire is protected all the way to the unit. As far as wire size I ran 14 gauge.

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If HB is like Lowrance, and you are going to be running an external antena, then you will want your power switched (not directly from a battery) The external antenas draw constant power. At least Lowrances do.
I know, I really am not anwersing your question but this is where you want to place your concern.
Congratulations! New toys-for-the-boys are awesome!!!

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Humminbird GPS pucks plug directly into the unit so there is no additional power wires unlike lowrance needing the NMEA 2000 network and more power.

I would run switched power with a 3 amp fuse either in your fuse block or as close to the battery as possible. Your going to like the 1198! I switched from lowrance to bird last year and love it!

I ran my power on my 1198 from the fusebox after my main shutoff switch, works well for me.

Thanks for the feedback, I will keep you posted on what we end up doing…..bring on Spring fishing