Airmar PB 200 bringing down my network....

[lateral]

Up the mast again ^ put the GH2183 (known good) on at MH in place of PB200 .....still brings network down.
Test PB200 on pc independent of mast N2K cable.....PASS.
Network fine with no MH cable.
So disconnect and in process of doing continuity test.
Can-L & Can-H electrically separate, bar 120ohm terminal resistor, but ran out of time to do the rest.
ie Can L & Can H to ground & shield......open circuit....tick.
Shield continuity with ground (one only)...
12v integrity.

Anybody had the junction at PB200 shorting?
I suspect chaff with the genoa halyard further down. (wire)
Guess I could replace with dyneema?
Still gonna have to pull the n2k cable and repair.
Any body got magic?
Grrrr!

Cheapish cameras to lower?

[lateral]

Update:
A couple of days ago I did a "between conductor " test an found a high resistance between both Can-L & Can-H & ground.(Done obviously disconnected from any electronics.) I surmised that it could be a short between either as they are connected with a 120ohm resister at junction with PB200.

Yesterday pulled the cable without dropping mast. It was not an easy task as I had cable tied it on installation to stop it slapping against the side of the mast. Actually it was a PIA at MH. (2.5hrs)
NO SIGN of chaff to cable....

So it must be faulty design in junction or water ingress? Perhaps capillary action between rubber casing of plug and cable?

Anybody had a similar experience?
The Resistance starts at a little less than 1M ohm and increases. Owing to volt drop of the small voltage put across it?
I am disappointed with the cable at over $200.
Getting exasperated with this PB200 set up.
PB checks out with non-in-cable terminated cable on PC (with backbone terminated) weathercaster and NMEA reader.

[tanglewood]

I'm not sure I'm following you.

When you take the measurements, is the cable disconnected at both ends, or is it connected to the PB200 at one end?

If you measure 1m ohm between CANL and ground, or between CANH and ground, that sounds just fine. Especially so if the PB 200 is connected at one end.

I think maybe you are confusing high resistance and low resistance?

[lateral]

Originally Posted by tanglewood

I'm not sure I'm following you.

When you take the measurements, is the cable disconnected at both ends, or is it connected to the PB200 at one end?

If you measure 1m ohm between CANL and ground, or between CANH and ground, that sounds just fine. Especially so if the PB 200 is connected at one end.

I think maybe you are confusing high resistance and low resistance?

Disconnected both ends.
Should be over- load infinite resistance...I would have thought.
Could I megger it? Could blow the resistor?

[lateral]

S'pose I have to cut the PB200 fitting off to ascertain whether cable or fitting.
I was warned about investing in the Airmar....didn't listen.

[tanglewood]

1m ohm and climbing could be nothing more than capacitance in the cable. I wouldn't take it as a definite problem.

Now that you have the cable down, can you create a small network with just the PB200 and something that can display the data coming out of it? In my experience it's much more likely that there is some sort of software issue creating a conflict between devices, or causing some device to go whacko. It's guaranteed, of course, but seems the most likely.

I think you said earlier that you connected the PB200 to a PC and it worked fine? How did you connect it with the cable still in the mast? The connector on the PB200 is proprietary to Airmar, right?

[lateral]

Originally Posted by tanglewood

1m ohm and climbing could be nothing more than capacitance in the cable. I wouldn't take it as a definite problem.

Now that you have the cable down, can you create a small network with just the PB200 and something that can display the data coming out of it? In my experience it's much more likely that there is some sort of software issue creating a conflict between devices, or causing some device to go whacko. It's guaranteed, of course, but seems the most likely.

I think you said earlier that you connected the PB200 to a PC and it worked fine? How did you connect it with the cable still in the mast? The connector on the PB200 is proprietary to Airmar, right?

I have a GH2183 on the coachroof, same connector. I terminated the end node that goes to MH & swapped the GH2183 for the PB200 then to weathercaster via a NGT1.

This is my second PB200 as the first suffered a rapid deceleration onto the deck. After, it worked ok for a time, but developed an intermittent to permanent fault. (I dropped it installing, rather. I didn't check a crew members knot on the tool bag and it came undone)

But the point being, it worked fine for months with this cable. No conflicts, or network errors even though a connector between the two PCB's had de-soldered itself from the board from the fall.

The replacement PB200 I purchased was a nib -old stock.
System:
At nav table
* 1x Triton
* 1x power node
* 1x T for NGT1
Forward node(s)
* 2x dst800 triducers only one connected at a time. (The clean
one!)
Mast head node (An extension of Forward node)
* End of backbone, terminated in cable, pin 5 removed from
PB200

Aft Node(s)
*1x Rudder angle sensor N2K
*1x auto pilot
*1x GH2183 rate compass & gps
*1x Triton Stb daisy chained to AP remote
*1x Triton Port
*Another power node
* Oh f@#k it just occurred to me that I may not have set the
the new PB200 to "0 Hz" for All nav and compass parameters.
Not
that I think it matters unduly, as it always took the standalone
as default and ignored the PB200 of everything except wind.
How vacant not to consider at least.

Thanks TW, for the mind jog.
Love your adventures.
BTW I have a PB200 6m cable (unterminated) and the resistance from CanL & CanH to ground is "overload", not M ohms.

[Paul L]

The PB200 puts some load on the power bus at 13LEN. Maybe your bus power isn't clean?

[lateral]

Originally Posted by Paul L

The PB200 puts some load on the power bus at 13LEN. Maybe your bus power isn't clean?

At time of testing there was no charging, only 12v dc from batteries. Not that I know of how or if you can dirty your dc.

Still can't figure if 1-4 M ohms has any significance on the cable. Personally, end to end I think they should be completely independent and electrically separate.
I know little about testing insulation, esp in data cables.

[Paul L]

Can't answer your cable question. On the power, you can have poor connections from the batt to the bus distribution - connector issues, fuse corrosion, etc.

[lateral]

Solved.
I pared the rubber plug carefully off the cable at PB200 end and found the liquid dielectric rubber had voids around the solder connections. The ground wire was very close to the CanH. I separated them a little and retested- bingo, O/L.
Now to remold a waterproof plug to fit the PB200.

BTW, Paul, the 13LEN is max when the heater is in use.
Average is 5LEN according to AIRMAR.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by lateral

Solved.
I pared the rubber plug carefully off the cable at PB200 end and found the liquid dielectric rubber had voids around the solder connections. The ground wire was very close to the CanH. I separated them a little and retested- bingo, O/L.
Now to remold a waterproof plug to fit the PB200.

BTW, Paul, the 13LEN is max when the heater is in use.
Average is 5LEN according to AIRMAR.

That makes sense. It is a lot of cable being added too, and if there was some poor connection like you had it could certainly be the issue.