Wire Length

[chris]

  I ordered a Whizbang Jr last week....and trying to make plans for setting everything up.

I wanted to know how long the Purple wire was?
If it's to short....can I extend it?
will that effect the accuracy?

Thanx

[Vic]

Hi Chris,

The purple wire is about 2 meters in length.

It CAN be extended.   The increased length could possibly allow some noise pick-up.   The chance of noise pickup can be reduced if you use two wires twisted together with the extra (ground) wire is connected to a good ground on one end only.

The purple wire could be shortened,  and the twisted wires added as an extension  --  this would shield more of the entire length of this wire.

It is also possible to use a shielded cable,  with the shield grounded only on one end as well.

Approximately what will be the total length of the WBjr's purple wire plus the extension?

Have a couple of systems here,  where there has been an extension of the purple wire,  by shortening the furnished wire to about to two inches,  and about 102 inches of shielded cable added (for each system).   This has worked fine  so far.

Vic

[chris]

Thanx Vic,

  I'm going to need about 6-8ft......so I might be close.
So, by noise, do you mean electrical interference to say a radio? or will the wbjr it self omit a sound?

[Resthome]

Thanx Vic,

  I'm going to need about 6-8ft......so I might be close.
So, by noise, do you mean electrical interference to say a radio? or will the wbjr it self omit a sound?

Depends on what you run the extend wire near. If your are running it by any large power source it could pick up interference on the wire. I ran my wire (non twisted) about 7 ft from my shut at the battery bank to the Classic mounted inside a closet inside the boat and it works. There is a little jumping of the WBjr Amp readout on the Classic, but I think even those installation that have no extensions on the wire have some of this. As Vic pointed out a twisted pair is a good idea.

boB has done a pretty good job with the software averaging to make the readout fairly stable.

I have another monitor on the same shunt with twisted pair running 35-40ft to the helm and that meter reads to a tenth of and amp and reads almost exactly what the the WBjr reads.

[Andrejs]

Hi Chris,

The purple wire is about 2 meters in length.

It CAN be extended.   The increased length could possibly allow some noise pick-up.   The chance of noise pickup can be reduced if you use two wires twisted together with the extra (ground) wire is connected to a good ground on one end only.

The purple wire could be shortened,  and the twisted wires added as an extension  --  this would shield more of the entire length of this wire.

It is also possible to use a shielded cable,  with the shield grounded only on one end as well.

Approximately what will be the total length of the WBjr's purple wire plus the extension?

Have a couple of systems here,  where there has been an extension of the purple wire,  by shortening the furnished wire to about to two inches,  and about 102 inches of shielded cable added (for each system).   This has worked fine  so far.

Vic

I'd say that mine WBjr had less than 2 meters (maybe 1) of the purple wire. I extended it with a single wire and it seems to work fine. But a twisted wire should be a better option.

[SolarMusher]

Hi Chris,

The purple wire is about 2 meters in length.

It CAN be extended.   The increased length could possibly allow some noise pick-up.   The chance of noise pickup can be reduced if you use two wires twisted together with the extra (ground) wire is connected to a good ground on one end only.

The purple wire could be shortened,  and the twisted wires added as an extension  --  this would shield more of the entire length of this wire.

It is also possible to use a shielded cable,  with the shield grounded only on one end as well.

Approximately what will be the total length of the WBjr's purple wire plus the extension?

Have a couple of systems here,  where there has been an extension of the purple wire,  by shortening the furnished wire to about to two inches,  and about 102 inches of shielded cable added (for each system).   This has worked fine  so far.

Vic

Hi Vic,
I don't understand where you can add an extra wire connected to ground when WBjr is connected directly on shunt, could you explain it? I have little noise on TV and I've checked about everything without success, I suspect that it could come from the WBjr , purple wire is short though.
Thanks,
Erik

[TomW]

  I ordered a Whizbang Jr last week....and trying to make plans for setting everything up.

I wanted to know how long the Purple wire was?
If it's to short....can I extend it?
will that effect the accuracy?

Thanx

Chris;

Cable is about 3 feet long.

Folks have extended it but it can introduce noise so sheilding may be needed.

Good luck with it.

Tom

[chris]

  Ok......so I think I understand the twisted ground wire thing, but is there a pre-shielded wire I can buy to extend it?

[TomW]

Chris;

Maybe sheilded audio cable?

I would try twisted wire with the second wire attached to ground.

Actually, I would try without the sheild and add it if it is a problem.

Tom

[boB]

Running 10 feet shouldn't be a problem at all.

If there is noise, a shielded cable should help if grounded at one end.  Not sure which end would work best
but I would think grounding it at the lowest noise end should work best.  I would guess that in most
cases that end would be the shunt end.

The data running on that cable is fairly slow and I think that the edges of the waveform are more than likely
slow enough that you don't have to worry about it, BUT, if you have quite a few feet of open cable, it
might tend to act as a radiating antenna.

[chris]

so....for extending the wire....is a regular crimp on connection acceptable?

[Resthome]

so....for extending the wire....is a regular crimp on connection acceptable?

Crimp should work. Solder and shrink tubing would be better.