Strange wee things

[mick]

Does anyone know what these are? Couple of cm long and filled with a gel, they came with a Garmin chartplotter. There's no mention of them in the handbook.

 

[steve28]

cable joiners (waterproof) to some degree

steve

 

[mick]

How do you use them?

 

[davidwf]

they are 3M butt connectors, probably UR2 see farnell you push wires unstripped into holes and crimp by using pair of pliers on the red bit. Just bought a box so I can sort out some of my Nema wiring.

 

[mick]

Thank you.

 

[charles_reed]

I'd strongly advise against a botch using pliers - you'll soon regret it.

Buy a proper crimper, preferably a double-action one.

 

[stephenh]

IDC connectors - (Insulation Displacement Connector) - excellent for joining small signal wires.

See:

http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebserver.dyn?6666660Zjcf6lVs6EVs666ylzCOrrrrQ-

Just poke the wires in the holes ( don't even try to strip the insulation) and squash them with ordinary pliers or even teeth ( the gel sqeezes out and doesn't taste nice!) or if you are really posh then the proper pliers - I would beg to differ with Charles, these are not necessary, unlike crimping tools where a cheap tool is worse than none...)
I am pleased to hear that they are being provided - many an expensive electronic array has been let down by poor connections - usually of the 'chocolate block' variety.

 

[Gordonmc]

Stephenh is correct. Crimpers won't work with these beasties as the red bit needs to be pushed down flat or the glue will go all over the place.

 

[mikefleetwood]

They're designed so you don't need a special crimper. Pliers better than teeth as you can apply even pressure to the whole crimp. You could try using a small vice as it's easy to apply even pressure slowly so you can see when the correct amount of "crimp" is applied - but don't over tighten!