Fusion Stereos - A word of Warning

[blairv70]

Not so much against the product - I have put one in and they work great

But in the process of tidying up all my other wiring I found that the stereo is it's own earth - the screws i had put in through the hole in the dash were earthing everything to there even when the main earth was removed from the battery

About to reinstall with more insulation around it

Blair

[chris69]

A good warning for everyone Blair not everyone would think about that and get a drained battery when they did not need it.

[Rip it up]

Get a fibreglass boat. No problem.

But thanks for sharing the info.


Damo's dodgy boat building factory.

[chocolatemoose]

plastic boat :D

[Seahorse]

Iam considering getting one for the tinnie. So how is best way? Should i put the unit inside an insulated box or an acrylic box so no part of the radio touches the ally.
is this the problem? I dont really understand

cheers
greg

[blairv70]

Iam considering getting one for the tinnie.it waaSo how is best way? Should i put the unit inside an insulated box or an acrylic box so no part of the radio touches the ally.
is this the problem? I dont really understand

cheers
greg

Hey Greg

I ended up getting a plasric DIN adaptor from Whitworths ($20), so it is now completely insulated

There are proabably other ways like you suggested but I think this was the best option for flush mounting

Blair

[Seahorse]

Hey Blair
whats a Din Adaptor. I went onto whitworth site but nothing came up for din adaptor.
So what u are saying is that none of the casing or screws from the casing of the radio is to touch the ally on the boat?
I think i will build an Acrylic box to slide radio into. So did u just run the earth wire straight to battery or to a separate switch.

cheers
greg

[blairv70]

Greg

It is called a Marine Stero Mounting Plate SKU is 69614N

You could also buy a chopping board and cut it down to make an adaptor

Blair

[marto78]

Hey Greg if its going into an open tinny I would steer clear of the fusion and go with something that already has a weatherproof box as part of the stereo like this one:

http://www.gme.net.au/products/discontinued-products/entertainment-systems-1/GD9520

Well not completely weatherproof it will out last most of the fusion ones by a long shot and you won't have any earthing issues.

[SUPERDAFF]

Yes, but one major flaw with GME. No internal battery to keep radio stations in memory and they don't write stations to a chip for easy recall. If you turn it off it goes into standby mode and will continue to drain your battery unless you have a battery isolation switch. If you then turn the battery isolation switch to 'off' you lose the radio stations you have programmed. A $2 internal battery (like the one in your computer, in your watch, in your remote and everything else you own, would have fixed this issue.

[Seahorse]

Marto, they look the goods but as Superdaff says, would be a pain in the arse if you have to reset stations all the time.

Great I guess if you just wanted for music.

Decisions, decisions.

cheers
greg

[marto78]

I found that having to set a radio station or two whenever I used the boat was a lot easier than having to install a new stereo 12 months down the track because it started to have issues.

Thats just my experience with a Fusion stereo in an open boat.

I've actually still got the Fusion head unit if you want it Greg.

[Seahorse]

Thanks Marto

i see ur point. Really glad i saw this post.

I will check the GME ones out. Wheres best place? Prob Whitworths?

cheers
greg

[marto78]

I bought mine at bias a couple of years ago and it came in a package with the speakers.

Not sure what the price was but I remember it being on sale at the time and I couldn't not buy it.

[daveo17]

my gme remembers stations and its just a basic one. i know this because when i flick the isolator on at 4am triple m comes blaring out gets me every time.

[Noelm]

A couple of things need to be investigated here, if you have a fiberglass boat, then how does it get the earth return? The screws you mention may indeed be earthed, but I am pretty sure the power cable has a black and a red wire? I if hats not he case, hen insulating it from the Aluminium boat, it will not work will it? Now to the GME radio, I have a main battery switch, and my radio keeps the stations as they were, even if the battery switch has been off for a week?

[scottar]

It is just that the case provides another connection to earth - same as every car stereo ever made pretty much. The case is not used as a negative to actually run the unit but is grounded in an attempt to minimise electrical noise. It generally isn't a point of contention with an outboard powered tinny as the hull is grounded (connected to negative) via the outboard anyway but could well be an issue with a larger alloy rig that is inboard powered with no negative connection to the hull.

One of the biggest safety issues in this situation is that the radio may become a path for a short circuit if the positive from the battery or any heavy current positive makes contact with the hull. If there is no fuse in the negative line, the much lighter negative wire on the stereo unit would very probably melt or catch fire.

This is not typically going to be what would happen in an outboard powered rig as the much heavier negative via the outboard should carry most of the current. That said - if there is no fuse in the negative stereo line and the unit is mounted directly into an alloy dash, it would not hurt to fit one just to be on the safe side.

[Noelm]

That's more or less what I was alluding to, being earthed does not mean it is supplying the return to run the device.

[Fed]

I think that's exactly what it means noel, whenever the radio is on or the motor is running there would be current flow through the hull.

Bad case would be a dodgy negative connection to the motor either at the block or at the battery then the hull & the radio negative could start carrying higher currents and you may not even know about it.
Galvanic corrosion pales into insignificance when compared to electrolysis.
I say there should only ever be one negative to a tinny hull and that's via the main engine negative and the motor bolts.
You could go nuts thinking about this stuff, too may wotifs for me.