Stereo/Amp wiring help

[drisso88]

Finally pulled the trigger on an upgraded sound system, and have everything coming in on Friday. Went with the Wetsounds MC20 head unit, going to install it on the lower right side of the helm, where the 12v and aux input are. 2 questions, and probably dumb ones. 1- can I use the power wire that originally went to the 12v charger to power the head unit? Seems like the easiest option and I'd think that runs to the house battery anyway. 2- where can I wire in the 0/1 ga for amp power to the DVSR? Originally thinking I would follow the power wire to the OEM Wetsounds amp and just wire it there, but for whatever reason that is wired to my start battery. I want this system to be able to run only off of my 2x100ah lithium house batteries, while leaving my start battery off. I also noticed the DVSR says 140amp max, and with 0/1 ga I'm going to be running a 250 amp fuze so not sure if that's going to cause an issue. I'm sure this has been done a bunch of times and I'm probably overthinking it, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BlueBulls]

The phone charger looks like it is ~10 watts, so about a single amp - the MC20 looks like it has a 20A fuse so that idea is probably out.

For complete independence from any of the boat's electronics and start battery (which is what I wanted as well) I installed a third battery paralleled to the house and ran two sets of wires from it to under the helm - one for the three amps (~250A) and one for a distribution point (~50A?) to run the head unit, pre-amp, Epicenter, USB and phone chargers, LED lights, VHF, chart plotter, spare bilge pump, inverter, and trim tabs. Both of these wires are on the same disconnect, identical to OEM, and mounted directly besides the others. If you are replacing the OEM Wet Sounds amp I wouldn't plan on using the original wires for more than one unless they seriously upgraded them, on my 2021 it was about a 10AWG.

I never thought to look at the amp rating of the DVSR, and haven't had any issues with mine feeding both banks (3 batteries). I do keep the batteries charged independently on a 3-bank charger at home and with the solar panel have never gotten close to running the house batteries down - even after 12+ hours on the lake.

Good luck with the install!

 

[Btsnhos]

I don't know how the DVSR works compared to a blue-seas add a battery kit, I do know that with my Lithium batteries and start battery the lithiums would try to charge the start battery since they are at a high voltage. I did not add the kit (and have no idea if the DVSR works the same) I just added a second perko switch and all my accessories not needed for water safety (i.e. navigation, lights, starter etc.) are ran off the lithiums. I charge all of this with a noco 5x3. Both lithiums are ran in parallel with 0AWG to a positive and negative bus bar under the helm, the amps are wired with 4AWG to the bus bars, along with the stereo and VHF radio. I added a smart shunt to the negative side to monitor voltage. So when i get into the boat i flip both switches, drive to the sandbar and turn off the start perko switch to make sure i can get home.

 

[drisso88]

Awesome, I’ll run a bus bar for the head unit. Follow up question, what the hell am I missing when trying to pull this cup holder to get to the back of the stock controller? On both sides they just spin, and it won’t come out.

 

[Btsnhos]

Im not sure, my plastic silver cover turns, then there are three screws but i have a 2020 ar195. Make sure you put a circuit breaker inbetween the positive terminal and the bus, close to the positive terminal. My CB is 150A.