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Dan Corcoran (b393capt)

Can you mix & match micro & mini

By Dan Corcoran (b393capt) on Mar 6, 2009 at 9:37 AM 5 Vote 0 Votes

I put together a mini N2K network on my sailboat using Maretron wiring, including a nifty adapter to connect my raymarine e-80.

Now that I think about extending the network out to the rest of my boat I have two questions:
1. Can I reuse all my micro wiring ? E.g. can you mix & match micro cables to sensors and instruments onto a mini backbone ?
2. www.defender.com is where I buy lots of thinks like this, they don't have the mini cabling in bulk. Seems odd, is that a common commodity now? Where is the best place to buy that ?

Thks
Dan

5 Replies

  • Ben E
    Ben E | March 6, 2009 10:57 AM

    You can definitely mix Mini, Mid, and Micro size N2K cable. It's really all about getting the power where you need it without too much voltage drop due to long lengths of small gauge power wire. And there's another way to deal with that issue, which is having more than one 12v power input. The installation guide in the back of Maretron's catalog tells some of this story:

    http://www.maretron.com/

  • Dan Corcoran (b393capt)
    Dan Corcoran (b393capt) | March 6, 2009 12:43 PM

    Using multiple 12v power inputs ... would be a great solution for me.

    Is it as simple as viewing my N2K network trunk as three segments. The left and middle trunk sections with power and ground provided by Power Tee #1; the right trunk section provided power and ground thru Power Tee #2 (leaving power and ground on Power Tee #2 for the middle section disconnected) supplied by independent power & ground wires that run back to the location of power tee #1 so that the ground leg can meet the requirement page 72/73, Section 4, Ground the Network, "should be grounded at ONE location".

    Each section would then have a common ground, but the ground wouldn't be running end to end thru the trunk. The +12v leg of the three sections of trunk would have 4 amp fuses.

    Got it right?
    -- last line ---

  • Ben E
    Ben E | March 7, 2009 9:57 AM

    I think that's correct, Dan, though I'd feel better if someone from Maretron or NMEA agreed. I'll see if I can get these concepts double checked.

  • mrfugu
    mrfugu replied to Ben E | March 7, 2009 10:50 AM

    I second that. It'd be great to hear the official line before trying my double breakered (common ground at the panel) setup in the next 10 days..


    robert

  • mrfugu
    mrfugu | March 7, 2009 12:30 PM

    I've given this some more thought, and it occurred to me that this is why the maretron MINI power supply (which is a separate item than the MINI Power Cable) has the ground on a large(er) diameter screw.

    AFAIK, you cannot have 3 powered legs, but a centrally positioned power tap will allow 1/2 the network to reside on it's own breaker. (the Maretron MINI Power Cable has 4 wires, +/- for port/stbd from the Power distributor, which contains the common ground.


    hope this helps,

    robert