We had to wire the Garmin GMR 18 HD Radar RJ45 connectors - 2012

April 2012 - Marina Kona Kai Shelter Island San Diego, CA

Ok so the Garmin RJ45 connector came in for the Garmin GMR 18 HD Radar RJ45 cable coming out of the mast. 

The cable connects directly to the Garmin GPSMAP 740 chart plotter. But the cable is not long enough.😅

 We purchased a longer cable 20’ and now have the connector to connect the two together.

 Now we need to run the extended cable up to the binnacle to the Garmin GPSMAP 740 chartplotter.

To do this we need to cut off one end and that means cutting off the RJ45 connector on that end. The Garmin GMR 18 HD Radar ships with a field installable RJ45 connector which we can use to put a new RJ45 connector onto the cut off end.

 So all is good the routing of the cable did not go to badly and we were ready to put on the new RJ45 connector on to end of the cable. Plug it into the Garmin GPSMAP 740 chartplotter and connect the power to the radar and we would have radar! Not so fast. After reading the instruction (I already cut the cable and ran it up the binnacle) I remember it saying the colors of the wires for the RJ45 connectors had to match. Hmmmm. OK well then there is a 50 – 50 chance I cut the right end off 😟

So I dug out the connectors from under the settee and took a look.

Darn either was I placed then they did not match. 

 Did I get the wrong cable?

 A call to Garmin support was in order .

 Garmin support said that the only place they need to match was at the end I cut off. I guess even fools can get lucky at times 😁

 So no sweet I can match these up.😎

 After trying for some time I realized I just could not see clearly enough the wires. They are in twisted pairs right up until the end of the plug. 

I dissected the plug until there was just the clear plastic end, still I can not tell which wires they are. OK maybe not. 

 I gave up and was going to ask, yes I was going to ask Debbie for help!

 I went up to the spa and took a Jacuzzi and steam bath and there it hit me.

 First off I lost my spa card and now will be on the shit list with Jim the manager again. Last time I lost his lock!

 OK so what I think I figured out is this color wiring thing. I had read in the instructions, before discarding them, as they were not for me because this was a diffident cable is that the color sequence of wires would math one of two tables that were in the instructions. 

They can be seen in the picture above. 

 After thinking about it and thinking about where my spa card was it came to me that maybe this was for all the RJ45 cables! Yes! So now it is too late to get it working for this day but at least it could be the solution. Darn I wanted it now, you know, the radar working and me showing it off to Debbie when she came home. Yes this was it they did match table B and now to have Debbie confirm and see how smart I am, not as good as the radar working but props to me none the less!

 Debbie came home and yep it is as I suspected and now to attach the RJ45 connector onto the end. Does not look easy, maybe I can talk Debbie into this??