Fish Finder Power line question

[TNDiver]

I have a Garmin Echomap 93 and I was working on getting it installed.  I had hoped it owl die easy and of course I ran into my first problem.  The power cable to the fish finder is only about 5 feet long and not long enough to reach my battery.   Should I bite the bullet and buy battery cables that I can hook to it or can I just splice into the line that goes to my ignition.  The concern is will I get interference or is there a good argument to be made that it should be wired directly to the battery? 

Also, it had two other wires for NMEA hook ups.  What is that for?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Princeton_Man]

Your concerns about interference are valid. You need to be concerned that the supply line can carry enough current also. I power my Garmins from my accessory line, but I upgraded my accessory line to a 14ga wire and it runs the master switch on the starting battery.

[TNDiver]

Your concerns about interference are valid. You need to be concerned that the supply line can carry enough current also. I power my Garmins from my accessory line, but I upgraded my accessory line to a 14ga wire and it runs the master switch on the starting battery.

Good point, I didn't think about what the AWG was for the accessory line.  I guess I am running to the store to get new wires.

[Donald Garner]

When I installed my new electronics on my Stratos I ran new 14 gauge wires with an in-line fuse to the battery.  I ran the wires from the battery's location up to the location of the unit.  There are different ways to connect the wires to one another its all a personal choice.

I twisted the wires together and took electrical tape and covered the splice together.  I got some side post battery terminal connectors for the connection to the battery.  We were up in running in about 30minutes.

I put the in-line fuse down at battery location where it would be easy to get to.

[Bud Kennedy]

Do yourself a huge favor.  Solder the splice, do not use wire nuts ever.  Dont use crimp butt connectors. Solder and shrink tube will be your best and most reliable connection.

[apiazza]

Yeah the power wires weren't even long enough to run my kayak! Follow the advice given.

I believe the NMEA ports are for linking multiple units together.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[TNDiver]

THanks for all the advice.    I found a MinnKota charger extender cable that was 10 gauge and 15 feet in length!  That will do great.  Even has extra fuses within the wiring.