The other amazing thing about the connector is it’s size. I am sure that someone who has installed more than two, can further expand upon the instructions. (For some reason the center location and tall post seemed to scream out “me first”, but alas, you will find the other wires more flexible to work with if you save connecting the short red wire to the tall post for last.) (3) Leave the center (tall post) wire for last. (2) Connect the ground lead before the others (the ends of a stripped ground wire become quickly separated if you handle the other wires first) (1) Don’t forget to slide cable relief up the wire first A recommendation on the sequence of attaching the five wires would be especially helpful, something like: There are none actually, unless you count the picture on the bag. Something that could be better is the instructions. The positive feedback on the terminal screws and the strain relief design yell quality and long life, both apart and as a finished assembly ready to screw into the backbone. The strain relief compresses as I tighten down, a design that provides compatibility for a wide range of cable widths. To reassemble the connector pictured above, I screw the bottom of the protective case over the connector, slide the strain relief down, and screw the strain relief onto the case. Shortening up backbone and spur cable can be both a weight savings and power drop savings, especially since I tend to order cables that are 4-7 feet too long as pre-made cable is sold in lengths of 1 meter. This connector is so effective, I wouldn’t hesitate cutting off a pre-made end of a backbone or spur cable to make it easier to snake and/or shorten it up to the ideal length for my boat. This product accepts each of the stripped ends of a five wire N2K cable, into tiny sockets that get a positive lock on the wire with small screws, much like you would have on a 120VAC marine outlet or plug, and now on some 120VAC switches and outlets for home use. Of course, setting up the backbone was the easy part. The real fun starts this weekend when I climb the mast to drop a new cable and mount the wind instrument.This product is useful for connecting products from other N2K cabling schemes as well as creating custom length cabling in the field, after one cable end has already been snaked through the boat and the correct length has been determined. Now all it takes to add new devices to my system is another T and a NMEA 2000 cable. So after plugging a terminator onto the end of the backbone, I turned on the chartplotter again. It turns out there’s a resistor in those terminators, and unless they’re on the open plugs, no signal gets sent anywhere. I figured they were just to keep the dust out or something. The starter kit had come with two terminators, and I hadn’t bothered to put them on. NMEA 2000 doesn’t work unless there is a terminator on every open T plug! I finally resorted to Google and almost immediately I found out the most important detail of this system.
I pulled the breaker panel off again and re-checked my power connection. I switched the chartplotter to the “gauges” setting, chose wind, and … nothing. I ran the other cable to my GWS 10 Wind Instrument. I ran a cable from one T to my chartplotter. The starter kit came with two T connectors and two terminators. (Note that there was terminator plugged into the open end of the backbone when I finally took the photo.) Once it was tied into the power system, I started adding T connectors. However, I chose to hook the yellow cable, which is the 12 volt power cable, to the chartplotter circuit on the back of my breaker panel instead of directly to the battery.
The only directions that came with this kit was the diagram on the label. We went with this Garmin NMEA 2000 Starter Kit that cost about $60 through eBay.
#Nmea 2000 wiring install
The first step to setting up any NMEA 2000 system is to install the backbone. However, since we’re starting from scratch when it comes to the electronics on Gimme Shelter, we decided to stick with Garmin as much as possible. Theoretically, any two NMEA 2000 devices will connect and communicate with each other no matter the brand. Garmin sticks with a NMEA 2000 nomenclature, but Raymarine SeaTalk, Simrad Simnet, and Furuno CAN are all rebranded NMEA 2000 systems that only need a plug adapter to be compatible. NMEA stands for National Marine Electronics Association, and 2000 is the standard set for communication between devices. The chartplotter was our first electronic device with a NMEA 2000 plug. One of the things we liked about our new Garmin chartplotter that we installed in December was its connectivity.