furuno radar wires connection

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roam

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we have a very messy connection of the radar wiring at the base of the mast to allow the mast to be unstepped - all the wires (about 20) lead in and out of chocolate box junctions and the 'co-ax' wire is cobbled together. this has then all been squashed into a box to hide all the mess (we didn't install it). as you can imagine the wires are getting bent and the connections are iffy to say the least, especially the co-ax one, which i have to fiddle with to get a picture on the radar screen. (it's also getting shorter as i have to keep re-fixing it.)

there must be a better way to may nice tidy connections, but will allow the mast end of the wire to pass through the large-sish deck cable gland so the mast can be unstepped is needed.

does anyone have any suggestions how to make this a more reliable ?

thanks
 
The coax cable ought to be screened so suggest a tv cable plug and socket.

For the unscreened cables, if you have space for a second terminal strip the cables can be terminated into seperate strips then the two strips con be connected together using short pieces of single core conductor such as domestic earth wire so that the two blocks are touching. This also eliminates chance of incorrectly wiring the connections.
 
Just a small comment. Don't use a TV connector for radar coax.It is more than likely to be 50 ohm coax so one should use a 50 ohm connector such as a 50 ohm bnc or one of the better 50 ohm connectors.

It would still work with a TV connector but the mis-match could give some anomolies on the display.

Iain
 
Can't remember where they came from but you can get 'chocolate block' connectors that have male/female sockets so that you can just push them together.
 
The coax video wire is normally a pain. There are so few inner strands in some of them.

The first thing is to add an extension piece to the centre conductor. This should be good quality wire 2" long (about the area of the largest wire in the radar cable). The joint should be soldered and then hot melt glue and heat shrink sleeved. You can get heat shrink with the glue already in it.

Then solder a longer wire to the shield of the coax. This should be done about 1/2" behind the end of the inner insulation.

Put two small tie raps around the outer shield wire locking it to the cable physically.

Then tie-rap the inner conductor 2" wire to the outer one leaving a slight kink of slack in the inner.

Any pull on the inner will then be transfer to the cable and not the joint

Hot melt glue and sleeve the outer joint. Should now look like a cable with two wires coming out of the end.

On the ends of all the wires fit proper crimp terminators. The ones that are sticks of metal to go into terminal blocks.

If you stagger the wire lengths so they match the order of the connector blocks you should end up with something that will go through glands but will not keep falling apart. Any junctions in a cable are bad for the signal but they do not seem to make too much affect. Use cable clamps on the main outer before wiring up the connector block to reduce the strain on the individual wires. This is the only way I know without using connectors.
 
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For the co-ax cable, you may be better off fitting an F - type connector - two male connectors on the cables, and a double female connector to go between. Very low signal loss as they are used for satellite systems.

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Not possible if it is similar to raymarine cable, the video cable does not have a braid but a single gnd wire and wrapping of foil.
 
See here

They do a 19 pin connecter especially for radar. Not cheap but does exactly what it says on the tin and after three seasons all my masthead connections are dry as a bone. No connection with the compay btw just nice occasionally to see something that works as it should.

Chas
 
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