splicing transducer

Hey all. Would there be any harm with splicing a transducer? My cable was cut (not ALL the way through). I have extra wire coiled up and the transducer is fine…. Thoughts?

I’ve never done it but “they” say it can be done.

Here’s a link to a thread from the past.

CLICK HERE

If your good with soldering and splicing small wires it can be done right. We work with small wires like that at work all the time, and only 2 guys here can do a good job.

Yes. Key is to have zero impedance in the slice

Not knowing you at all and not one to judge.

I have done it, years ago and it worked good enough.

With all the data running through the newer transducers, I would want to be completely confident that I getting all that important information. Only you know if you can be that certain that the job is done correctly.
If it was me with my current setup, I would bite the bullet and buy a new transducer.

I did it years ago on an older simpler fish finder. That splice lasted ten years until I sold the boat. Soldered the connections and replaced the shielding with aluminum foil and heat shrink tubing. I’d at least give it a shot before buying a new one.

Thanks all.. I know a guy who is good working on “small things”!! LOL

I have tried repairing a damaged transducer cable or two. Never had any luck with it.

I have used garmins splice kit and it worked great and was super easy with just a small screw driver and a cable pliers.

I spliced the transducer cable on my FL-8. It was a simple matter to solder the wires together, and then I made sure I had it waterproofed as good as possible. The unit worked perfectly.

The signal might be ultrasonic, but it’s still audio. It’s not RF. No need to worry about impedance bumps or any of that. Just make sure you keep the water out.

SR

There is obviously no harm in trying to repair it. The worst is that it does not work as well as you want it to and you buy a new one.

You did not specify what kind of transducer you have and where the cut is. It makes a big difference. The splice has to be absolutely waterproof or water can seep down through the cable and wreck the crystals in the transducer. Heat shrink tubing is not good enough to prevent water getting in. You can cut the ends clean and solder the ends of each wire together but they must be foil wrapped as in the original cable. The entire bundle must be foil wrapped to prevent interference.

Older transducers were truly in the very high “audio” range. Newer ones are in the RF range and as Randy said above you have to keep the impedance zero or very low. (Keep the spliced portion as short as possible, ie keep the original pairs twisted as much as possible if they are twisted).

If it does not work, Google “Airmar D00342H Inline Cable Splice 10 Conductor IP67 Waterproof”. Airmar, the company the makes many of the transducers out there makes a splice kit for many different number of conductors. The 10 is less than $30. Simple screw connectors. Price goes up corresponding to how many conductors your cable has. If it is an 18 conductor cable, I would forget it myself even though I know how to solder them

Good luck.