transducer wires

[juandesooka]

I have a transducer that has some exposed wire and has become a bad connection. A replacement transducer is $80, but a splice is almost free (not counting the many hours I could possibly waste on this project).

Anyone have any bad experiences with splicing transducer wires? I'd think as long as the splice is water tight, it should work ok. But the wires are teeny tiny, and this gadget is a little more sensitive than a stereo speaker....so any sage words of advice?

 

[island idiots]

Hey Juandesooka,
More than likely the wire is of the shielded variety and will have to be repaired as such to retain integrity. It will require soldering to make the repair. Use marine grade heat shrink as well,
cheers,

 

[SIR]

I've always wondered about how sensitve those wires would be to a splice and getting the shielding right. I'd appreciate it if you could post back to the board on how it goes.

My overkill suggestion would be solder the wires, then wrap each one in a tiny piece of tinfoil until you overlap the previous sheilding material, then coat each wire in liquid electrical tape (making sure not to let the two pieces of tinfoil come into contact with each other - coat one, let it dry then coat the other) then shrink wrap to cover all. The only challenge will be if the wires are multi-strand and too thin to solder effectively.

PS - don't forget to thread the shrink wrap on the wire before you solder the connections - been there, done that, been pis**d off at myself for missing an obvious step

 

[Island Fish Lifter]

Ive spliced them a number of times, has always worked for me, although many people told me it couldnt be done.

 

[juandesooka]

Thanks for the tips.
I did a bit of searching on the web, and found some similar suggestions. Although the tin foil one is a new one!

Several of the posts agreed with II, were told it couldn't be done, and then it worked just fine. They also suggested it's no loss to try, because if it doesn't work, you have to buy a new one anyway.

I'll post how it goes.

 

[SIR]

I actually made a mistake - apply a layer liquid electrical tape before the tin foil. You need to isolate the foil from the conductors otherwise it won't act as a shield between the two wires.

Good luck!