Monday, July 25, 2005

J109 H1000 Installation

J109 H1000 Installation

As any boat installation of any kind it takes twice as long the first time. Picking the route for the network cables took longer than anticipated, we wanted to stay out of the bilge and also did not want remove the molded on connectors, creating unnecessary splices.

Boatspeed/ Depth Interface:
In the J109 forepeak there is a light weight dividing bulkhead separating the sail locker. We mounted the boatspeed/depth interface on the forward side of this bulkhead. (The photo is looking aft) The two transducer cables cable clamped to the underside of the center support through holes drilled through the bulkhead again keeping the cables protected. We always leave a little extra cable to make any repairs or changes easier. Unlike the old depth transducers this cable can be cut to length.

We ran the network cable forward and up the starboard side behind the vertical teak trim up into starboard side cabin liner and aft through the bulkhead again up inside the cabin liner in the main salon and back into the electrical panel. The two cables you see in this picture are masthead interface cable and the boatspeed. We ran the masthead interface forward to the boatspeed interface to avoid the use of another junction box.

Masthead Interface:
We wanted to mount the masthead interface up forward to avoid using a junction box and adding additional connections. We mounted the interface on the forward side of the starboard bulkhead running the mast cable along side the existing radio antennae cable making for an easy disconnect for rig removal. We could of have either run the network cable aft along side the boatspeed network cable but chose to go forward backtracking the boatspeed network cable and attaching to the network cable on the second connector of the boatspeed depth interface. Another solution would have been to use a junction box at the bulkhead and plug the boatspeed network cable the masthead network cable and run the third network cable back to the navstation. We also had the network cable for the two mast mounted displays. To keep the hole in the mast to the minimum we cut the cable and instead of soldering we used a B&G mastcable junction box that you see mounted on to left of the interface on the trim.



Companionway Hood Displays:
It was very easy removing the hood and cutting the holes for the two H1000 displays and the H1000 Autopilot control head. The hood is pre-wired but only with a generic 7 core wire, not a B&G network cable. So I had no choice but to cut a network cable and splice it to the generic cable by soldering and covering with heat shrink tubing. When splicing the two most important things are a good solid connection and a waterproof connection. The pre-run cable is nicely coiled up behind the electrical panel where we soldered and covered with heat shrink tubing the splice to the other network cable pigtail.

Mastmounted Displays:
We elected to mount two displays onto the mast with the B&G dual display mastmount and decided we were better off cutting the network cable to allow for a smaller hole in the mast. We drilled a small hole in the sailtrack and fished the network cable back out of the mast along side the masthead cable, antennae cable, and mastlight cable. We used a B&G mastcable junction box to attach the other connector to allow for quick disconnect for mast removal.



Be careful on the mast bracket mount, make sure the bracket is mounted far enough aft to allow room for the reef line and cunningham to run through the bracket. We missed by about a ½” because we using hole from a previous instrument bracket.




Compass Sensor:
The best place for a compass is always down low and middle of the boat to minimize the effect of heel and pitching, but try finding a place that is safe and out of the way of interfering items. The aft stateroom’s hanging locker appears to be good clear space but since we had the autopilot processor getting mounted in starboard cockpit locker we opted for mounting the sensor in the cabinet in the head. This a easy cable run to electrical panel and another easy run to autopilot CPU. We will see how sensor calibrates and if there an issue we will move it to the other side of the boat. Here you can see cable heading up into the back trim of the cabinet and forward to the navstation. The empty connector will be used for the autopilot.








Universal Interface:
We mounted the Universal Interface behind the electrical panel along with a four way junction box. We always used Velcro pads to mount the interfaces and junction boxes, this makes it very easy access to and avoids drilling holes. We have used all six connections our compass sensor, companionway hood displays, power cable, Universal Interface, and our network cable coming from the bow.
The cable you see coming from the bottom of Universal Interface was split to take the two NMEA leads into the to the interface box and the two power leads that power the GPS sensor over to the circuit breaker.
With everything connected flip the instrument breaker and away you will go. Don’t forget to calibrate boatspeed, swing your compass, and then your masthead unit for the greatest accuracy.



Randy Draftz
J109 Hoodoo

Rdraftz@comcast.net

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