courtesy lights conext bipass

[robert843]

So I understand Yamaha adding conext to try and keep up with everyone but really some of these things should have been left on old school switches. One of my pet peves is the courtesy lights I hate the fact I have to turn the whole system on just to get the lights on for a second to find something in the boat at the end of the night on the dock. Anyone know if there is a way to bypass this and add a switch I really don't even care if it means disabling it from working on the conext screen.

 

[gmtech16450yz]

You mean like this?...



It's pretty easy, they're controlled on the power side. It's a sky blue colored wire. I cut the wire coming from the ECU just to be sure it didn't backfeed and do anything weird. I then simply ran the switched power from my dash switch to the sky blue colored wire going up the right side of the hull from the rear lights to the front lights. I pulled the 12v power from a circuit that has power whenever the house battery cut-off switch is turned on. It works great. And yeah, I had the EXACT same thoughts.

 

[robert843]

You mean like this?...

View attachment 68366

It's pretty easy, they're controlled on the power side. It's a sky blue colored wire. I cut the wire coming from the ECU just to be sure it didn't backfeed and do anything weird. I then simply ran the switched power from my dash switch to the sky blue colored wire going up the right side of the hull from the rear lights to the front lights. I pulled the 12v power from a circuit that has power whenever the house battery cut-off switch is turned on. It works great. And yeah, I had the EXACT same thoughts.

I will have to dig into mine and check it out thanks. It is a hot wire I'm disconnecting from the ECU correct?

 

[Mainah]

It should be pin 7 on the wider of the two SPU connectors and labled CT LTS+. If you have tower lights that will be the same or similar color on pin 25 in the same connector and labled TWR LTS+. As the + would indicate they are both +12 volts. The SPU is the black box mounted in the starboard cabin under seat storage.

Good luck.

 

[Rod5]

You mean like this?...
Wow this is an awesome total dash display mod! We’ll done working in the gps display.

View attachment 68366

It's pretty easy, they're controlled on the power side. It's a sky blue colored wire. I cut the wire coming from the ECU just to be sure it didn't backfeed and do anything weird. I then simply ran the switched power from my dash switch to the sky blue colored wire going up the right side of the hull from the rear lights to the front lights. I pulled the 12v power from a circuit that has power whenever the house battery cut-off switch is turned on. It works great. And yeah, I had the EXACT same thoughts.

 

[Sbrown]

If you add a diode into the line at a point between the splice from your added switch and the connext unit, you could have both work.

 

[robert843]

If you add a diode into the line at a point between the splice from your added switch and the connext unit, you could have both work.

Hmm I'm not real familiar with diodes but a quick google search and I understand the concept now and like the idea. Do you have a diode you would recommend for an application that is this low voltage? This would eliminate me having to run a wire from the stern to the helm as I just added 11 additional led lights to the interior and tied them to the courtesy light circuit of the boat so I can throw power to one of those close to the helm and just tap into a power wire that has power with the house battery on maybe the blower switch I think that has power if the conext system is off.

 

[Sbrown]

I'm not an electrical engineer by any means, but I would think that a standard PN diode of sufficient voltage and amperage capability should suffice. These can be had for a buck or two from Radio Shack, or you can get them from Painless for 11 bucks.