MS 24Volt TV Upgrade

We purchased a 2005 Mainship 430 aft cabin trawler last year (2016). The boat has a Sole` 23” 24-volt TV connected to a Bose system.

We are looking to upgrade to a TV that has HDMI capability, and possibly a Smart TV. We do want to connect it to the Bose system, and we do not need cable with today’s technologies. We would use a HD antenna.

We’re looking for ideas on how other MS trawlers have upgraded their 24V TVs to more contemporary technologies with their TV.

We dismounted the TV today to discover the 24V jack, and that the wiring harness is fished behind a wall that also houses the main salon AC unit. Disassembly appears very cumbersome and complicated to access this wiring harness.

Looking for ideas….

Thanks,

Jim

OK.......but why purchase a TV designed for a non-common power source instead of an inverter to provide 120VAC for any one of the many TVs sold at Best Buy or Wally World or elsewhere?

jimL said:

We are looking to upgrade to a TV that has HDMI capability, and possibly a Smart TV. We do want to connect it to the Bose system, and we do not need cable with today’s technologies. We would use a HD antenna.

We’re looking for ideas on how other MS trawlers have upgraded their 24V TVs to more contemporary technologies with their TV.

Click to expand...

No need to use a DC TV. AC HD TVs work fine.

Inverter if necessary. Small, dedicated, cheap. Or larger, which could have other uses anyway. (Ours services outlets, coffee maker, microwave, etc.

Most new flat TVs will have a choice of innies and outies for video and sound and so forth. "Smart" may be useful if you have a WiFi signal; we have a "Smart TV" at home and haven't found a reason to use any of those features.

The Sole TVs were generally relatively small, IIRC. Larger can be better. We replaced a 24" with a 42" but of course had to devise a different mounting system in a slightly different location. Not difficult.

A TV (UHF/VHF) antenna is an antenna, no "HD" required. Omni-directional is usually more versatile than directional. Your boat may well have come with a Glomex omni (UHF/VHF and AM/FM radio), and if so, it should work just fine as is.

-Chris

Thanks for the responses. I agree a 120V AC unit is best. That is where we want to go, except the wire harness goes into a cavity where it blends with the wires for the Bose system and the Glomex antenna system. There is no apparent access to this cavity. There is no near by 120v AC outlet.

For those who have a MS 430 aft cabin trawler with the salon AC unit not under the sofa, but in the wall between the salon and aft cabon – have you had access to the cavity where the wire harness is?

Best solution – replace the 24V DC TV with a 120V AC TV in the same location LINKED to the Bose system – Looking for insight as to how to access the wiring behind the wall.

Most likely solution, replace the 24V TV with a 120V AC TV, using the existing Glomex antenna and NOT linked to the Bose system. Need to find a close by 120V AC source that doesn’t result in visible wires running outside of the cabinet.

We’re in this for the long haul and don’t want to jerry rig this.

Looking forward to feedback.

Jim

Pics of your "cavity?"

Can you get to the back of the existing TV and to the back of the Bose unit? If so, maybe existing wires can be used as a messenger to pull whatever you need through the area you can't see?

Our TV and the rest of the components came mounted in a two-shelf "box" that fits into the rest of the surrounding woodwork. Some of the inter-component wiring was easily accessible... but some, including some of the antenna connections, were behind the box. And the box has it's own AC outlet. Turns out the whole box can be (relatively) easily removed, and there's room for a '57 Chevy back there...

IOW, maybe there's a way... especially if any of the other MS 430 owners have been there, done that...

BTW, to improve our surround sound (not Bose) connections with the new TV, I had to use additional jacks (like the digital optical audio) on both new TV and old amplifier... something the original installers couldn't use because the original TV didn't have those...

-Chris

Chris,

I appreciate your assistance and ideas.

Here's a link to a pic of the salon: http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh254/lakesponge/Mainship 430 Aft Cabin Trawler/MS 430 Salon.jpg

On the right, you can see the TV/Bose set up. The challenge is that to take off the face of the cabinet, extensive disassembly is required, and will require extensive wood working to make it look acceptable (and I'm a wood worker). It appears the 120AC outlet is behind this face.

I will attempt to get to the cavity from the aft cabin though a locker this weekend.

Concerning the surround sound - I agree. TVs now have the optic cable for sound that the existing Bose system doesn't accommodate.

Jim

Why would you not just put a small inverter behind the TV and use existing wiring.

Reliable RBP-500S-LED 500w Pure Sine Wave Solar Power Inverter 24v 120v 60hz With LED Display (Black) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MF6CJSR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_CKWezb029TCJN

Why not just buy a 12v TV? A lot of them are anyways

jimL said:

On the right, you can see the TV/Bose set up. The challenge is that to take off the face of the cabinet, extensive disassembly is required, and will require extensive wood working to make it look acceptable (and I'm a wood worker). It appears the 120AC outlet is behind this face.

I will attempt to get to the cavity from the aft cabin though a locker this weekend.

Click to expand...

I see what you mean... Yeah, maybe if you can get in there from a different direction, that might help...

What I was describing with our "cavity" is mostly a hole to seemingly nowhere at the back end of that cabinet I mentioned. Couldn't get there any other way other than to move the whole cabinet... but then that turned out to almost be a piece o' cake.

-Chris