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I installed a WS-420 EQ over the weekend. What should have been a really easy 10 minute project ended up taking about 2 hours. I thought I would share what went wrong and hopefully help others avoid the issues I experienced.
To begin my story, I knew that I would need to extend the power and ground lines longer than what came with the factory unit, so I contacted Wetsounds and asked what gauge wire I should use. They recommended 16 or 14 gauge. I bought 14 gauge to be safe. I knew I had some 16-14 butt splice connectors at the boat, so all was right with the world.
Unfortunately, when I got to my boat to do the install (WS-420 was already there from prior week when I did not get to it), I found out that the power, ground and remote lines were 22 AWG. Butt splice sizing goes 22-18 or 16-14, but not 22 - 14, so I was up a creek so to speak. I reluctantly decided (foolishly) to just butt splice these into my old power and ground that used to be hooked up to my head unit (to the dash pod) before I re-wired the head unit to my distro block and dedicated audio battery. After doing so, I realized how stupid this was, as it would defeat a large part of the purpose of having a dedicated audio battery (i.e., I wanted to turn off the cranking power and key and still have full audio).
Then I had an epiphany. I was not sure where I was going to mount the WS-420, so I wanted to be able to unhook it easily. Insulated quick connect ends would work, but I still had the different wire gauge problems. Just for fun I tried out the 2 different size quick connects to see if they would go together, and they did! Finally, a brilliant design out there. The 22-18 AWG and 16-14 AWG quick connects will fit together (wish I had known this a long time ago). So I was able to re-wire the power and ground the way I wanted (to my distro block)using quick connects and use a 2-1 splice on the remote start. I need some extra line for the remote start to tap in where I wanted to tap, so I used some extra line and another set of quick connects.
Brilliant right? Except it did not work. No sound, no LEDs, no anything useful. After about an hour and a half of messing around testing everything, including taking off the power and ground quick connects and just hand splicing the ends, I finally isolated the problem. My remote line quick connects had not gone together properly. The flat metal internal piece on one connector was bent and had jammed below the plastic cover of the other quick connect, making no connection. Bent it back, put them back together, and everything worked perfectly. I was just about to give up too.
At any rate, if you are like me and learning about a ton of this stuff as you go and find yourself needing to splice wires together of different gauges and a butt-splice won't work due to the size difference, try quick connects, just make sure they make the connection when you put them together!
Oh, and the WS-420 seems like it is going to work out very nicely. Set-up takes a few minutes, but if you follow the directions, it is pretty simple.
To begin my story, I knew that I would need to extend the power and ground lines longer than what came with the factory unit, so I contacted Wetsounds and asked what gauge wire I should use. They recommended 16 or 14 gauge. I bought 14 gauge to be safe. I knew I had some 16-14 butt splice connectors at the boat, so all was right with the world.
Unfortunately, when I got to my boat to do the install (WS-420 was already there from prior week when I did not get to it), I found out that the power, ground and remote lines were 22 AWG. Butt splice sizing goes 22-18 or 16-14, but not 22 - 14, so I was up a creek so to speak. I reluctantly decided (foolishly) to just butt splice these into my old power and ground that used to be hooked up to my head unit (to the dash pod) before I re-wired the head unit to my distro block and dedicated audio battery. After doing so, I realized how stupid this was, as it would defeat a large part of the purpose of having a dedicated audio battery (i.e., I wanted to turn off the cranking power and key and still have full audio).
Then I had an epiphany. I was not sure where I was going to mount the WS-420, so I wanted to be able to unhook it easily. Insulated quick connect ends would work, but I still had the different wire gauge problems. Just for fun I tried out the 2 different size quick connects to see if they would go together, and they did! Finally, a brilliant design out there. The 22-18 AWG and 16-14 AWG quick connects will fit together (wish I had known this a long time ago). So I was able to re-wire the power and ground the way I wanted (to my distro block)using quick connects and use a 2-1 splice on the remote start. I need some extra line for the remote start to tap in where I wanted to tap, so I used some extra line and another set of quick connects.
Brilliant right? Except it did not work. No sound, no LEDs, no anything useful. After about an hour and a half of messing around testing everything, including taking off the power and ground quick connects and just hand splicing the ends, I finally isolated the problem. My remote line quick connects had not gone together properly. The flat metal internal piece on one connector was bent and had jammed below the plastic cover of the other quick connect, making no connection. Bent it back, put them back together, and everything worked perfectly. I was just about to give up too.
At any rate, if you are like me and learning about a ton of this stuff as you go and find yourself needing to splice wires together of different gauges and a butt-splice won't work due to the size difference, try quick connects, just make sure they make the connection when you put them together!
Oh, and the WS-420 seems like it is going to work out very nicely. Set-up takes a few minutes, but if you follow the directions, it is pretty simple.
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