Mast with all the new lights and heading sensors fitted.
It has been over a month since my last update, since then I have managed to fit the rest of the items to the new mast. In addition I decided that I wanted a dedicated AIS aerial which has meant that I have had to pull through another coax. The AIS transceiver has been ordered but at the time of writing has not arrived although I have pupped through the cables for the AIS transceiver awaiting connection.
It was necessary to cut both the data cable from the radar and also the Garmin NMEA 2000 data cable from the data back bone to the AIS unit.
The data cable from the radar to the multifunction display is of the cat5 type so I decided to make the connection using cat5 type connections.
cat5 type data connection
Cable connection kit from Amazon
As time was of essence it was quicker and cheaper for me to obtain a cable connection kit from Amazon which was very easy to make up a connection either end of the cut cable and use a connecter to join the new connections. If I got in the marine electrical engineer there would have been a hefty bill to pay.
The nmea200 cable was rejoiced by using heat shrink butt connectors using a gas heat gun. Both the heat shrink butt connections was obtianed from Amazon. I origianly attained the heat shrink butt connectors because I wanted to make connections which would be in the mast and would be exposed to water so I wanted a conector which would be ressistant to water. I have put a link to the connectors and the gas heat gun below.
I decided to re locate the power supply for the new chart plotter through a new cable grommit which I also used to take the Garmin NMEA 200 cable and the radar data cable.
I then commissioned the new chart plotter but found that even thought the radar worked ok, the screen moved round back and forth. This was strange as the image is suposed to be stable. I bumped into the marine engineer who supplied the kit and I told hom about the radar scren not being stabilised. The first thing he said, was the heading sensor fitted correctally. I said yes, he could not understand why the screen is not stable. I relooked at the instructions and descovered that I have indeed not fitted it correctally. I HAD been told that I could install the heading sensor externally and it made sense to me that the sensor would be fitted vertically with the cable facing down which is what I did. Looking carefully at the instructions the unit was to be mounted horizontally with the cable facing forward which made no sense to me.
Heading sensor fitted horizontally.
Anyway I arranged for a new stainless steel bracket to be made up and refitted the heading sensor. I decided to fit an extra nut to the bolt to raise the sensor above the horizontal plate so the sensor does not sit in water. This did require me to pull through the data cable to reach the sensor in the new possession.
With the refitted sensor the radar now works perfectly. So with the mast fitted and the chart plotter and radar working it is time to move on to the next jobs.
Please help to fund this blog by shopping at Amazon using the link from the Amazon icon below. This does not cost you anything extra, just access Amazon and log into your account as usual, make your purchases and Amazon pay me a tiny introduction fee.
Click on image to look at the Deeper Flameless Gas Torch on Amazon.
Click on image to look at the heat shrink soldered connectors on Amazon
Click on image to look at the Ethernet cable kit on Amazon
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