Let there be light - adding a light to my Motorguide Wireless T.M.

[donberry]

Love my new Motorguide W75 wireless trolling motor. Only thing I did not care for was there wasn’t a light on it so when fishing at night, I did not know which direction it was pointed until I started going that way or shined my head lamp on the motor. Forget about seeing it if I was using it from the back of the boat. I was putting on a longer column so thought it would be a good time to add a light to it. Only problem with using the existing wiring was it only has 12v when the motor is on and I thought it might be nice if I am fishing in close to something to be able to see where the motor is pointed before I applied power. Fortunately there was plenty of room under the cover. So I ran to Radio Shack and bought a 3V Blue LED (only color they had in stock actually) and a 2 AA battery holder. I thought their toggle switches were pretty cheap so I ran to my local hardware store for that. Just epoxied the battery holder in place, drilled the holes for the LED and the toggle switch and then siliconed the heck out of it. It’s not too pretty inside the cover, but I put silicone on a few places on the wires themselves to keep them from moving around plus on the end of the LED so there wouldn’t be any stress on the wires coming out of it. Of course I also put it around the toggle switch and the LED so water can not leak inside. I let it dry and tested it under the sink, then wired her up. I am pretty happy with the result. I would guess 2 AA batteries will run one LED light a pretty long time but to change the batteries I just have to remove the 6 screws holding on the cover. Let there be light.

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back on the boat with the new column and light</p>

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[Carl Guffey]

<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">Cool idea. One question though? Couldn't you have ranaLED off the 12 volt side of the wiring harness? </font>

 

[SpurHunter]

Nice mod!

 

[donberry]

Carl Guffey - 1/20/2012 9:06 PM

<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">Cool idea. One question though? Couldn't you have ran a LED off the 12 volt side of the wiring harness? </font>

well, maybe. 1st, most people would not mind, but then the light would only be on when the trolling motor was turned on, I wanted the light to always be on. Maybe not, but was thinking there are times when i am fishing real close to structure and would like to know which way the motor was pointed before I turned it on. Figured the one led would not be so bright to blind me, but would always know where it is pointed - especially as I will often be in the helm or stern operating it (gotta love wireless and StructureScan).
2nd - now I did NOT check the wires because I had decided to go with the batteries, but 2 things here. Was not sure how the pulse modulation would affect the light ? Could be so fast you would not notice or else the light might possibly blink real fast - would definitely check before i wired it that way for good. Next, not really sure how the pulse modulation works, but off the top of my head was thinking depending on speed, it either slows down the pulses, in which case the led would surely blink, or else i would guess it just does not apply the full 12 volts at lower speeds - which would mean the led would vary in brightness.
Could be wrong on all accounts, but was just what i was thinking and since I wanted it on all of the time anyway, I never checked the power wires with a meter.

Now the LED I did put in is like twice the size, but I know my head lamp uses 5 leds and it lasts for months on 2 AAA batteries. So am thinking with 2 AA batteries only running one LED, I should not have to be changing batteries very often, maybe once a season since i do not fish much at night in the winter. Only time will tell on that.
Even if they do not last that long, will be easier to change them then a bunch of my grandkids toys - remove 6 phillips head screws and I am there.

I have zero doubt there is a better way to do it plus someone else would do it a lot neater. I started out putting the silicone on "neatly", but then thought who cares, I would rather go over board. Putting it on the wires for example - I seriously doubt those wires would have been moving around anyway, but thought why not - so put it in places where it would keep them from moving plus on the stress points - where the wires leave the battery case, and all over the bottom of the led itself so there will not be any stress on those wires. All I really cared about cosmetically was the outside.
one thing I am not sure about - the led may be too bright - won;t know until I go out at night and use it. Wouldn't be too hard to change it out if it is. Only thing holding it in is gobs of silicone or I could even color some of it in with a permanent marker to dim it down.
i just wanted to be able to be anywhere in the boat and know where the motor is pointed. Even when in the bow, i really did not like not being able to see it and actually can not believe Motorguide didn;t at least put some glow in the dark tape on it.
To be honest, I would think glow in the dark tape would work really well also, unless you were not sitting in the bow - then you need a light.
Just my opinion of course

 

[Carl Guffey]

<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">Good points. If the light is too bright you might be able to put a light coat of permanet marker on it in either red or some other opaque color. That might darken it a shade and shorten the wave lengths a little.</font>

 

[donberry]

carl, is what i was thinking. While it would be easy to change lights, if it does happen to be too bright, I am trying a marker first.
Looking at them to buy, the normal size seemed to small and the only led holders R.S had were ones where the led was recessed - so depending on how bright it was, would not easily have been seen from the side. Great if I was in the bow, not good if anywhere else (cool thing about wireless is you do actually have to think about those things). Then they had the size I did buy and the base of it had a small "flange" around it w2hich meant i could just drill the hole in the cover and it wouldn't fall thru - then just used silicone to keep it in place. Could have epoxied it like the battery cover, but I believe it would take pretty much a fairly hard direct hit for it to come loose. As you can see, I did not go lightly on the silicone
Oh, one thing i did not mention - I did lightly scuff up the plastic around the holes and around the led light to insure the silcone had something to grab on to. I wanted to be as absolutely sure as i could that it did not leak.

One thing about Motorguide - besides missing a light, I feel they should put a gasket between the top and bottom cover. If the trolling motor is stowed, I don;t think it would be all that hard for water to run under the cover - which then will find it's way down to the motor.
I will try to be fairly neat, but for safety's sake, I am going to put a thin bead of clear silicone around the covers. This is something I would do even if I had not mounted a light in it. maybe over kill, but there really isn;t anything to keep the water out since there is not a gasket. The top cover overlaps the bottom cover, so fine when in running position.......but stowed........I would rather no moisture get into the motor as this was a BIG purchase for me.