Re-connecting Cut Radar Cable - Help Please

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Guy

As confident as some of you sound about taking these kinds of short cuts, you will never find a critical piece of equipment that leaves the ground or goes into war using an exposed terminal board. I think this is another rationalization for doing it the easy way and just another reason sailboat equipment is so undependable.

The critically exposed terminal board is the scary phrase. Our mast is keel stepped. Our boat is a "dry boat". The terminal strip in question is located in a sheltered position in the saloon, inside a drop locker. We are not worried about it. It is below-decks in a dry area. The installation works. I guess if someone wants to imply this is shoddy short-cutting, it IS a forum of opinions. But our experience as cruising yachties has little to do with going into war. The system has been working for quite a while on cruising boats.

Ann

[brankin]

I had the same problem and I split it into three waterproof deutsch connectors. Works great

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Guy

As confident as some of you sound about taking these kinds of short cuts, you will never find a critical piece of equipment that leaves the ground or goes into war using an exposed terminal board. I think this is another rationalization for doing it the easy way and just another reason sailboat equipment is so undependable.

You are entitled to your opinion, mate, so go for it.

Meanwhile, if you were to have a look at WWII electronics, Korean war electronics and even Vietnam era electronics you will find lots of exposed (within the confines of airplane or tank, etc) terminal strips. I believe that they could qualify as going to war, and some of them were noted to work.

Oh, and by the way, if you look inside the dome on my Furuno radar, you will find ... terminal boards!

Jim

[btrayfors]

Bill (montenido),

Take heart! I just did one today and I'm well over 70 with weak (but corrected) eyesight. It came out just fine.

Furuno radar. Removed from client's boat. Data cable was cut in two places....near the radome and in the middle of the long run. A sacrelige, but there you go!

Fourteen small color-coded wires to connect (AWG20, I think), plus a tiny coax wire with braid shield and very tiny conductor (AWG24?). The whole shebang covered with braided shield.

Had to do splices in two places, so 14 wires with 2 ends each = 28 connections. Plus the coax....4 connections. Total 32 connections.

Made the first splice using small nylon terminal strips with positive pressure screws. Needed 2 strips of 8. I stripped and tinned the wires lightly. Put these strips in a little metal box near the antenna.

For the second splice I used 3M red heat shrink butt connectors for the wire, and a small 2-position nylon terminal strip for the coax. Made the connections with a proper heat-shrink crimper, and heat-shrunk them.

This was only to test to see if the radar was working OK. Not intended as the final setup.

Everything worked OK first time.

It ain't rocket science. Take your time, make good tight connections, and you'll be fine.

Bill

[Greg4cocokai]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Jim

You are entitled to your opinion, mate, so go for it.

Meanwhile, if you were to have a look at WWII electronics, Korean war electronics and even Vietnam era electronics you will find lots of exposed (within the confines of airplane or tank, etc) terminal strips. I believe that they could qualify as going to war, and some of them were noted to work.

Oh, and by the way, if you look inside the dome on my Furuno radar, you will find ... terminal boards!


Thanks Jim, I will put my terminal strips in a tupperware screwed to the wall near the mast. It's in the engine room.

[noelex 77]

Personally I think these small wires are best soldered with heat shrink tubing on the top. If you stagger the joints and expose a bit more braid you can cover the whole lot in the shield.

A joint like this takes a bit of time but is very reliable. If you need to unstep your mast/radar arch it needs to be cut and redone.

[twrdocktor]

I used a terminal strip for years on our Morgan Classic. I had it located in the bilge, under the mast step. Used dielectric spray every several weeks and the radar ran fine. New owner says it still works. Our new Beneteau, I connected the radar the same way, only in the instrument housing at the binnacle. On a keel stepped mast, there really is no other way, and the quality of the signal was never in question by me. (radar controller for 35 years) I say fill your boots.

[donradcliffe]

Our terminal strip was in the can cupboard. When the radar stopped working, I found a can touching the strip--a little foam padding solved that problem.

OTOH, one friend had Raymarine install their stuff on his Hunter. When the radar stopped working in Hawaii, their technician couldn't find the problem--he sent everything back to Raymarine and it tested OK after a month of waiting around. He mentioned it to me, and I asked him if they had checked the terminal strip? What terminal strip?? I found it hanging under the deck-stepped mast and was a nice shade of green from salt water dripping down the cable. The new terminal strip was put in a plastic box and the problem was solved.

[model 10]

It's interesting, you get all this anecdotal info about poor crimps, corrosion, maintenace required to keeep it from corroding yet people still defend the practice.
I love how we can do almost anything to our boats and nobody can stop you. A Zarpe and a full tank of fuel and some food and we are good to go.

[FlyingCloud1937]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Why don't you just supply us with an example of the connector that you so glibly recommend? 18 or more pins and waterproof... somewhat rare, likely to require a special crimper for the proprietary pins, bloody hard to assemble, expensive and so on.

The fact is that terminal strips do work, are recommended by at least Furuno for the job, are inexpensive, don't require any special tools or skills to install.

And for Daddle -- I would like to see you snake our cable from the mast to the display in 20 minutes. Took me over an hour and a few skinned knuckles. Then of course there is the issue of the cable ties bundling with other cables. Really, why not cut the wire? If corrosion is an issue (is not in our boat) spraying with one of the proprietary protective sprays will give good life to the setup. CRC makes several such in ascending degrees of permanence.

It was a no-brainer for me, YMMV.

Cheers,

Jim

Sometimes it's worth it to hire a professional to do some jobs onetime. Then you have a aw ay to take it a part as many times as you need without a problem.

DIY is great right up until the short cuts are failure prone. a professional will come out and do it right in a couple of hours time.

Lloyd

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Guy

It's interesting, you get all this anecdotal info about poor crimps, corrosion, maintenace required to keeep it from corroding yet people still defend the practice.
I love how we can do almost anything to our boats and nobody can stop you. A Zarpe and a full tank of fuel and some food and we are good to go.

Which practice is that? A properly protected terminal strip is no more vulnerable than any other connector. A poorly-installed one is a problem waiting to happen. Poor crimps are poor crimps. Nobody is defending that.

I think you are seeing what you want to see, and ignoring everything else. There's more than one way to make good connections.

[sww914]

My boat has terminal strips all over the place. there are problems at the cheap chinese ones with poor crimps. There are no problems at the quality strips with good crimps (those that I've already replaced).
I foresee a good outcome if he does a good job.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Which practice is that? A properly protected terminal strip is no more vulnerable than any other connector. A poorly-installed one is a problem waiting to happen. Poor crimps are poor crimps. Nobody is defending that.

I think you are seeing what you want to see, and ignoring everything else. There's more than one way to make good connections.

Roger that, Paul!

Jim

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by FlyingCloud1937

Sometimes it's worth it to hire a professional to do some jobs onetime. Then you have a aw ay to take it a part as many times as you need without a problem.

DIY is great right up until the short cuts are failure prone. a professional will come out and do it right in a couple of hours time.

Lloyd

Lloyd, it seems that a big fraction of your posts laud hiring a professional to do some job or another. For some things I agree, but sheesh, hiring a pro to install 84 bucks worth of connectors (from your link) at a hundred bucks an hour... we're looking at a two hundred dollar bill for a job that can be accomplished by a typical yottie for less than twenty five, using good materials. And from my experience, and that of other posters as well, our non-professional efforts have worked in the real cruising world for many many cumulative years.

On a different subject... those connectors in the ad that you linked look pretty good, but what in the hell do they have to do with agriculture? I'm surprised that any farmer needs 20+ pin cable connectors very often!

Cheers,

JIm

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by FlyingCloud1937

Sometimes it's worth it to hire a professional to do some jobs onetime. Then you have a aw ay to take it a part as many times as you need without a problem.

DIY is great right up until the short cuts are failure prone. a professional will come out and do it right in a couple of hours time.

Lloyd

An amateur has the luxury of time.
Rejoing the radar cable by soldering the individual wires and redoing this every few years when the mast is re-stepped is not a practical solution when employing a proffesional electrician.

However there are examples, such as this, when an knowledgable amateur can achieve a superior result to a proffesional if they are prepared to put in some effort.

A multi pin connector, can be satisfactory , but is not idea, particuarly around the mast step,

There are other cases where it is worth paying for a proffesionals time.
The trick is to know the difference.

The best proffefesionals, wether mechanical, or electrical, will help guide DIY boat owners what jobs they can do themselves. These people are worth using.

As you gain experience it will help improve your independence when no proffesional help is available.