NMEA 0183 Cable Repair?

Ok electronic gurus, what am I doing wrong?

This cable is no longer made by Raymarine and someone was gracious enough to send me their's when they pulled their old electronics out. Unfortunately he had to cut the wire, and now I'm trying to put it back together.

I cannot figure out how to get the connector off in tact so that I can notate which wires go to which pins, so I'm trying to solder it back together. Except this is not regular copper wire. Its silver and the solder is not melting to it.

I have thin strand electronics solder, but do I need something special? My iron is hot enough to melt the solder but I cannot get the wire to accept it.

Any advice? Or do any of you know how to remove the connector?

Do you know the cable number?

Yes, its a raymarine r69086. Is the networking cable for the DSM25 to A65 chartplotter.

If you can't work it out with what you have you could try these people who say they have them in stock. No price on their page though. Might be worth a call.

A65 to DSM25 Network Cable, 3.5 meters

Try cleaning the wires with somewhat diluted muriatic acid before soldering. Then put the iron on the wires and touch your solder to the wires rather than the iron.

Thanks.

I took the "bubba been here" route and stripped each wire, twisted them, and put electrical tape on them. I'll test out the transducer, and DSM25 tomorrow and make sure they work and communicate to the A65 chartplotter. If they do, I'll bring it to a local shop and pay them to reconnect the pins properly.

You certainly didn't leave yourself much cable to work with where you cut it but if you can't make a solder connection there's no reason why a simple butt splice connection wouldn't work.

You should be able to use an Ohm/continuity meter to figure out which wire goes to which pin. You probably need solder with more flux to have it stick to the wires. Don't forget to solder the shield.

I'll dig a little further when I get a chance but I have this schematic from my Raymarine DS600 manual. Not sure if this is helpful. Use a multimeter to check for continuity to confirm which wire colour goes to which pin.

I would advise not to solder this until you have more info.

Better still: some older electronics shops (for example Stryker electronics in Port Hardy British Columbia) may well have this cable. Stryker is a veritable museum of old electronic treasures.

Jim

JDCAVE said:

I'll dig a little further when I get a chance but I have this schematic from my Raymarine DS600 manual. Not sure if this is helpful. Use a multimeter to check for continuity to confirm which wire colour goes to which pin.



I would advise not to solder this until you have more info.



Better still: some older electronics shops (for example Stryker electronics in Port Hardy British Columbia) may well have this cable. Stryker is a veritable museum of old electronic treasures.



Jim

Click to expand...

The schematic above is for a nmea/power cable. The cable in question is a hi-speed data/power cable for a dsm25 module.
A color for color connection where you cut it is what’s required to make it work. I wouldn’t invest too much in a replacement cable because both the dsm module and the A-series display have been discontinued for quite a few years.

It worked!!! Now I have fishfinder abilities, water temps, boat speed, and if I can build another cable I can connect my VHF radio for DSC info!

Who knew I did 6 knots at 1300 rpms?!?

boomerang said:

I wouldn’t invest too much in a replacement cable because both the dsm module and the A-series display have been discontinued for quite a few years.

Click to expand...

Right... but unfortunately I’m not inherently wealthy and can not afford to upgrade electronics right now, thus I’m stuck with what I have for now.

toocoys said:

Right... but unfortunately I’m not inherently wealthy and can not afford to upgrade electronics right now, thus I’m stuck with what I have for now.

Click to expand...

Oh I wasn’t critiquing your equipment! Our stuff is by no means the latest either! I just was thinking it’s best not to spend $$ on a cable for a unit Raymarine doesn’t service any longer.
Glad you’ve got your stuff going!

The reason you can not solder, it is copper wire coated with tin, so tinned, but the tin has corroded, even invisibly.
What I have done, is use Oatey plumbing water based acid for soldering copper pipe. Simply dip end of wire in, and solder. Then I rinse it with warm water and a toothbrush. Anyway it works. And has not caused corrosion issues later on.

sdowney717 said:

The reason you can not solder, it is copper wire coated with tin, so tinned, but the tin has corroded, even invisibly.
What I have done, is use Oatey plumbing water based acid for soldering copper pipe. Simply dip end of wire in, and solder. Then I rinse it with warm water and a toothbrush. Anyway it works. And has not caused corrosion issues later on.

Click to expand...

Is that why it’s so covered in powder like substance when you open it up and strip it?

toocoys said:

Is that why it’s so covered in powder like substance when you open it up and strip it?

Click to expand...

The white powder is likely talc ....used during cable manufacturing.
Back in the day....we always cleaned older instrument cable conductors with a pencil eraser then isopropyl alcohol before soldering. I'd refrain from using any acid based cleaners...that's why we use rosin core solder on electronics.

toocoys said:

Is that why it’s so covered in powder like substance when you open it up and strip it?

Click to expand...

Could be, tin corrosion on wires make it look not longer as bright, but I have seen even good looking tinned wire not easy to solder. It takes a strong flux to clean off the corrosion otherwise the solder will not flow onto the wire. Old copper wires on a boat even under their insulation can turn brown and black, somehow from humidity and salt air still runs down the wire inside. Maybe capillary action makes it worse. I have seen solid copper wire on boats and the copper can be bright even many years later. But lots of old multi strand is corroded.

I salvaged some Ancor good quality 12 gauge tinned wire off a sunken sailboat at a marina. It had been underwater in the chesapeake for several years. Marina owner hauled it out finally. The insulation had turned odd colors, the wire inside still looked ok, but it was almost impossible to solder, so using the solder flux from oatey, it soldered up fine. I used that to run to a bilge pump years ago and the connections still looks and functions fine.

I do solder a lot of the connectors onto wires after squeezing with a vice grip and of course ABYC hates that, but not been any problems, and I understand all the reasons. I also usually discard those hard plastic shells and heat shrink tubing onto the connectors, sometimes have put marine grease on them too.

I try the electric solder first, but if it does not work, resort to the acid flux.