Thank you for all of the information located within this forum. My question is about best practice or thoughts around two alternatives for wiring the Orion XS 12 |50 in my setup. Basically can I just run the negative from the Orion to the Lynx and have the grounding go from the Lynx to a chassis point roughly 2 feet from the Lynx OR should I also run a wire from the Starter Battery to a Junction point then to the Orion and the Lynx? The Starter battery is about 15 feet from the Lynx. This install is in a RAM Promaster 159 (Fiat Ducato).
Logically it seems it would be better not to have two chassis ground points but I think in diagrams I have seen it both ways. If it is ok to go the Starter Battery→Orion→Lynx→Chassis Ground route, I am assuming I just leave the short (12” chassis ground wire from the starter battery to the chassis under the seat in place for the van’s main electrical system)?
Option 1
The Orion XS 12 50 is not isolated so it only has a single ground. In an installation like a van build, when the chassis ground between the house and starting batteries is shared you are fine with just grounding the Orion to chassis. Your idea to ground to the Lynx is fine. Just make sure your grounds are very good.
Thank you for the feedback. The two chassis grounding points I’m using are the factory point next to the starter battery and then a tie down spot in front of the rear passenger wheel well. I think they are both good as I checked voltage from the starter battery positive to each ground and they were identical at 12.14v with the engine off. My follow up question to your response would be is it ok to leave the original ground wire attached to the starter battery in addition to the ground from the Lynx. I ask because they are vastly different gauges (2AWG vs 4/0 AWG). My guess is if it is about the path of least resistance then the 4/0 would likely be the grounding path from the Orion since it’s about 2ft away via 4/0 rather than 20ft or so the other way.
These are the two grounding points. I need to finish sanding the one in the rear down to get rid of all of the paint.
I wouldn’t mess with the starting battery ground at all. Just get a good ground to chassis on the Orion and go with it. Grinding to bare metal and using the correct size cable is most important and it looks like you are doing that. A star washer that digs into the metal isn’t a bad idea either.
Good idea to paint the area after the cable is bolted down to stop corrrosion. For some reason a tasteful light blue paint seemed common on aircraft so helped udentify the earth. No idea why blue, I do remember in the 60s and 70s the military job peg-boards had green pegs for electrical work so the electricians were known as Greenies. Perhaps they did not like that so chose blue instead.
