New DC panel
The electrical refit project continues with the DC panel. Here is how it looked before with the 35 year old Delab Marine breaker panel:
On the old panel the cigar outlet was next to the panel and cut down at the edges as it didn't fit. The Voltage and Amper meters were disfunctional, as we re-wired the whole system and added a new MasterVolt Battery monitor.
I am installing a new panel (Pros by Ditel) with hydraulic magnetic breakers from Carlingtech. I tried to pick appropriately sized breakers for the separate circuits and where necessary (or practical), combine several functions on one switch, like the NMEA instruments and navigation. In these cases the combined circuits will be fused separately in a fuse box behind the panel and the breaker on the panel is used just as a switch.
I picked the Pros Modular panel because it was the only one I could find that was a fit into the cabinet door frame on the boat. There aren't many nice horizontal panels on the market unfortunately.
The 10 switch horizontal panel (PROSXRC10) and the sailboat light indicator panel (PROSLCL1) fits perfectly in our door frame side by side.
The plywood insert had to be removed from the frame to replace it with a new one, which was not easy. I considered just gluing on one more layer of a thin mahagony plywood first, but then decided to hammer out the existing insert, hoping that the glue of the frame will release. Unfortunately it didn't and the frame broke, but luckily in a "nice way" if I can say so. So that the old insert could be replaced easily and the frame re-glued without it being noticable.
I used a 6mm mahagony veneered plywood, which I treated with oil, then painted with a darker mahagony paint (Cuprinol Ädellasyr) to get a quite close match to the original color.
I purposely positioned the new panel closer to the top so I can fit USB charger and Cigar outlets and any additional stuff below it.
While on the old panel all the fuses were on the panel itself, the new panel has only the rocker switches that are fused so I had to do some extra rewiring work, which was very much needed anyway to clean up the mess.
I installed a new slightly larger plywood over the small plywood that was glued to the the hull, to accommodate the two new fuse boxes and the new busbar. One fuse box for all the circuits that doesn't require a switch on the panel, like the interior lights, and an other one for those that lead to the panel, but where the switch is switching more than one circuit at the same time, like the NMEA 2000 power and instruments. Those circuits got separate fuses too.
I also installed a new negative busbar from BEP (Zbus) with 18 terminals as the new panel has only positive connections. I did some cleanup in the wiring and tried to label everything as well. I used a cable collector from Jula to help leading the wires together with the option to quickly remove if it's ever needed. The cigar outlet and two USB outlets from Sutars got place below the panel.
