Wiring for Speedometer GPS Conversion

Over the winter I purchased one of Dean's (aka Classic Boatworks) Aiguide GPS conversion kits—I had Dean do the conversion. I am getting ready to wire it up and I have a couple of questions (I am sure Dean would have been happy to answer these, but I thought I would post it up so that we could all learn). The instructions say to bond the "Brown wire to Switched Power (+12Vdc)" and to provide "a source of CLEAN (Noise-free) power." I have elected to run the power directly from the ignition switch (this is the same place that I have wired up my power source for my other PrecisionStar GPS speedo, see the red wire with the black shrink tubing on it)—first question, is that ok? I know that purple generally indicates switched power, but couldn't I just wire at the same place that I have the Precision Star "red wire" positioned (they could share the same connector), or do I need to wire it to the purple "switched" terminal on the ignition or from other "purple"/switched source on the back of one of my other gauges? Second question, do I need to put an inline fuse in the run to the Airguide conversion speedo? Note that the Precision Star GPS speedo has a 5 Amp fuse on both the red (continuous 12v source) and the purple (switched 12v source) wires (one 5 Amp fuse on each wire). The total length of the new 18 AWG power wire will be approx. 24" (see that the existing tails are too short). Thanks in advance for helping an electrical "newbie" wire this up correctly.   Happy 4th of July!




Classic Boatworks Airguide GPS Conversion

No Brian, I messed up my earlier post, darn it! The Airguide Speedometer GPS conversion requires only "switched power" and "ground"—I don't now why I was focusing on the constant power wire, that is NOT required for Dean's (aka Classic Boatworks) conversion—it should be wired to the switched power terminal on the ignition; however, the Precision Star speedo does require what you say, i.e., it requires constant, switched power, and ground—I installed this last season and it works perfectly. I guess I can boil my question down to this: Should I place an inline fuse on the switched power lead that connects the new Aiguide Speedometer GPS conversion to the switched power terminal of the ignition switch? Thanks!

Let us know how you like it in a follow up post and a comparison against another quality GPS(like a Garmin, not a phone)
I've been kicking around getting one of those I have an old speedo out of my '95 that went bad and was thinking of converting it. It would save me from taking the one out of my truck all the time.

I'm very much thinking about doing one of these speedos this winter. I might have to ask you 9000 questions in the future.

I installed a Precision Star in my '90 in about an hour. Works great. The only tough part was getting my hands through the little access holes under the dash.