Another of my summer 2016 projects was to install a USB charger on the flybridge near the helm. As I often use my ipad and the Navionics app to navigate, it uses up the ipad's battery before the day is done leaving me with no power to use the ipad for other tasks later in the day. And, as the engines are shut down, charging the ipad becomes a real problem.
A boating friend, thank heaven for them, told me he had installed one of the fast chargers and it made all the difference.
It is made locally here in Bellingham. I liked that. So I drove over to the factory and was actually able to meet the engineer who designed it. He gave me plenty of tips for installing it. Pretty simple really.
Here is the
Blue Sea website where you can look up the device and its specs. They cost about $45.
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| Hole Saw |
It's an "intelligent device" meaning it will rapidly charge a phone, tablet or other mobile device much quicker than normal USB charging plugs. It also has an internal filter to prevent it from interfering with your GPS Chartplotter or VHF radio which may be nearby on your helm.
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| The finished project |
It was an easy hole to drill using a hole saw through the face of the helm and then only required that it be wired into the circuit breaker system behind the main helm. Run the power wire up to the and connect to the charger.
flybridge
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| Schematic for installation |
It is waterproof with a plastic cover that hides the dual USB plug.
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