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How I Wired My Custom WetSounds Stereo: 2015 242 Limited S

cyclops

Jet Boat Addict
Messages
63
Reaction score
44
Points
107
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2015
Boat Model
Limited S
Boat Length
24
tl;dr: OP has documented how he took his existing house stereo electronics, isolated them from house power bank, and moved them and other desired aux components to an aux bank with independent power controls.

This fall, I made some improvements to my custom WetSounds stereo. I can now independently power the existing house stereo electronics (head unit and remote), in addition to add-on amps and lighting, and NOT have to run the Connext system while at the beach all day. Thus I’m not running things like my depth transducer all day long, just to listen to music, as the stock configuration would sadly require. You can read about the issue I had when doing that here and how I replaced it with an aftermarket AIRMAR transducer for half the price here. My stereo did not cause the transducer issue, but my transducer shorted while at the beach while listening to music, taking down the connext house electronics bus with it. Never again...

Likewise, my LEDs are no longer on the house bank. Nor will my underwater LEDs be on the house bank when I install them in the spring of 2022. Everything that’s “fun” that I’ve added to the boat, plus the original stereo components, are powered by the Aux bank. I can now turn off the house and start batteries while listening to music and powering the LED lights. Sweet.

I’ve also determined, like many, that the original Bluetooth chip in the Polk head unit is garbage, so I’ve added a very-nice-but-affordable Bluetooth receiver and wired it into the Aux port. You can find that here and there’s others like it. I found that this one does super well through high volume and I appreciate its range and that it’s Bluetooth 4.0.

I used stranded tinned copper for everything, and 3:1 heat shrink crimp connectors. Get yourself a decent pair of crimpers-- it's worth it.

Anyway, here's my wiring diagram:
Boat Wiring.jpg

Here's a pic I snapped of my amp board while I was working on it. I forgot to take good/completed pics before I put it away for the winter. I'll do that for ya this spring and update the post. Lesson learned, don’t cover your access to diag ports and fuses with the board! Mount it lower… as is shown and will be shown better in the new photos (coming soon).
IMG_0762.jpg


Here’s some other LEDs that I added to the same RGB controller as the speakers, just for fun. The RGB controller is powered by its own switch on the board. As are additional white cabin LEDs, and underwater LEDs. The Stereo switch, however, is at the helm itself (not in a compartment). Note: I do have a little bit of noise thru the speakers when the RGB controller is connected to the amps via RCA to 3.5mm audio pigtail for music reactivity. I suspect this might be a ground loop issue and so I’ve procured ground loop isolators for testing in the spring. I’ll update with how that goes. If not easily figured out, I might just let it operate off its internal microphone instead.
Boat Wiring 2.jpg

My battery compartment. Yeh, looks a little crazy. It won't come springtime as I'm redoing some of it with more distro blocks particularly for neg terminal.
IMG_0766.jpg

Hope this helps inspire someone. Disclaimer: please don't copy this without applying good critical thinking, as I may have diagrammed something wrong, situations could be different, I could have been wrong when I did it myself, etc. etc.
 
Last edited:
That is one sexy boat and one too many batteries for me to comprehend ?
 
tl;dr: OP has documented how he took his existing house stereo electronics, isolated them from house power bank, and moved them and other desired aux components to an aux bank with independent power controls.

This fall, I made some improvements to my custom WetSounds stereo. I can now independently power the existing house stereo electronics (head unit and remote), in addition to add-on amps and lighting, and NOT have to run the Connext system while at the beach all day. Thus I’m not running things like my depth transducer all day long, just to listen to music, as the stock configuration would sadly require. You can read about the issue I had when doing that here and how I replaced it with an aftermarket AIRMAR transducer for half the price here. My stereo did not cause the transducer issue, but my transducer shorted while at the beach while listening to music, taking down the connext house electronics bus with it. Never again...

Likewise, my LEDs are no longer on the house bank. Nor will my underwater LEDs be on the house bank when I install them in the spring of 2022. Everything that’s “fun” that I’ve added to the boat, plus the original stereo components, are powered by the Aux bank. I can now turn off the house and start batteries while listening to music and powering the LED lights. Sweet.

I’ve also determined, like many, that the original Bluetooth chip in the Polk head unit is garbage, so I’ve added a very-nice-but-affordable Bluetooth receiver and wired it into the Aux port. You can find that here and there’s others like it. I found that this one does super well through high volume and I appreciate its range and that it’s Bluetooth 4.0.

I used stranded tinned copper for everything, and 3:1 heat shrink crimp connectors. Get yourself a decent pair of crimpers-- it's worth it.

Anyway, here's my wiring diagram:
View attachment 168464

Here's a pic I snapped of my amp board while I was working on it. I forgot to take good/completed pics before I put it away for the winter. I'll do that for ya this spring and update the post. Lesson learned, don’t cover your access to diag ports and fuses with the board! Mount it lower… as is shown and will be shown better in the new photos (coming soon).
View attachment 168459


Here’s some other LEDs that I added to the same RGB controller as the speakers, just for fun. The RGB controller is powered by its own switch on the board. As are additional white cabin LEDs, and underwater LEDs. The Stereo switch, however, is at the helm itself (not in a compartment). Note: I do have a little bit of noise thru the speakers when the RGB controller is connected to the amps via RCA to 3.5mm audio pigtail for music reactivity. I suspect this might be a ground loop issue and so I’ve procured ground loop isolators for testing in the spring. I’ll update with how that goes. If not easily figured out, I might just let it operate off its internal microphone instead.
View attachment 168461

My battery compartment. Yeh, looks a little crazy. It won't come springtime as I'm redoing some of it with more distro blocks particularly for neg terminal.
View attachment 168462

Hope this helps inspire someone. Disclaimer: please don't copy this without applying good critical thinking, as I may have diagrammed something wrong, situations could be different, I could have been wrong when I did it myself, etc. etc.
Great job and nice setup!! I'm certainly looking to get some of this completed on my boat.
 
4112F76B-E864-4B79-B3DA-EE8724517B41.jpeg
Last year I added two tower speakers and a second kicker sealed sub. This year I’ve added a KMA800.1 in addition to the existing KMA600.1 subwoofer amplifier; I felt the two subs on one amp had each underpowered with suboptimal quality on bass notes. Also added a 4 zone wifi head unitA9BF5824-1270-4809-93E7-C8ED41C75343.jpeg, Fusion Apollo 770, which allows me to have full control over BT or WiFi from the beach, of levels per zone, separating internal cabin speakers from tower speakers. It came out pretty nice imho. Let me know what you think.

5AA98F29-FDEB-4E2C-8DBF-5B691CF9F176.jpeg
778A74E4-FE3B-4ACD-976F-73599EE38A44.jpeg
In this image, you’ll see I added five BlueSeaSystemsbutton switches. They are pretty slick and blue LED rings are built-in. I have one sending power to a relay to turn on all stereo equipment. Another sends 12v to the remote wire on one of the subwoofer amps, meaning if I don’t want two subs on, it’s easy to turn off. The other three are lights; RGB LEDs throughout, white LEDs, and underwater LEDs.
 
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