[C320-list] Pedestal ICOM command mike

[Quentin Murphy]

Bill,

This route through the engine wiring supply tube seems much easier than
through the starboard side of the pedestal guard.  I have a major wiring job
coming up once we're out of the deep freeze in Toronto.  In addition to the
remote mike I require a Cat 5 cable for VHF & GPS interconnect and speaker
wires through the pushpit to under the rail seats.  Rather than use dish
detergent, I would use wire pulling lube such as made by "Greenlee" or
"Yellow 77" as soap is acidic which is not a good thing left in there.  This
is available at any Home Depot or electrical supply store.

Quentin

-----Original Message-----
From: c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com
[mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com]On Behalf Of Bill
Culbertson
Sent: March 4, 2008 10:09 AM
To: c320-list at catalina320.com
Subject: [C320-list] Pedestal ICOM command mike


You'll definitely love having the command mike at the pedestal and as others
have said it
is definitely more complicated that other locations.  IMO it's worth it.

What I did was somewhat less complicated than Allan. I'd read his first and
decided to
see if I could try the engine pod.  It worked so I stuck with it.  What I
did the same as
Allan is to buy the extension as well as cut the cable.  I bought a terminal
block same as
he did and reconnected the cut ends via the terminal block except that I
mounted mine under
the aft berth next to the fresh water pump.

What I did differently was run the cut cable end through the tube to the
engine pod and
mount the connector on that small flat section of the pod on the port side.
I clip the mike
up high just under the sailing instruments.  I had hoped that cutting the
cable end would
allow me to thread the cable up the engine pod stainless tube without
further ado.  Turns
out, it just won't go.  So I disconnected the engine wiring pulled it down
into the aft cabin
while messengered from the pod.  Then I inserted the cut cable end from
inside the engine
pod and threaded that down the tube into the aft cabin.  When I ran out of
cable, I had the
connector end ready to mount into the hole in the pod I'd already drilled
for it.

Disconnecting the engine wiring sounds scary but actually there is a
terminal block inside
the pod connecting the incoming cable harness to the various engine
instruments.  So you
are really just undoing the wires from the harness side of the terminal
block.  With one
exception, they are all uniquely color coded and the color code of the
harness wire exactly
matches the color code of its mate on the terminal block.  I labeled the one
which didn't
match its mate.  So for reassembly, you need only match the cable harness
wire color
code to the wire left attached to the instrument side of the terminal block.

Once the harness wires are disconnected, I gathered them together, tied the
messenger
line into place with a series of half hitches spaced an inch apart and then
spiral wrapped
the whole thing with electrical tape.  There was probably an 8" length that
was taped.  My
son helped me with him below in the aft cabin gently pulling the cable (I'd
removed the
access cover from the aft cabin roof) and me up in the cockpit
pushing/feeding it into the
tube.  I can't remember if I sent the command-mike cable down as part of
this operation or
if I fed it down separately after the engine cable harness was removed from
the tube.
Regardless, you end up with the engine cable in the aft cabin and the cut
end of the
command mike in the aft cabin.  I secured the radio cable and my son and I
fed the engine
cable back into the tube him pushing on the cable and me pulling on the
messenger.  I
think I slathered joy dishwashing detergent on the engine cable harness to
ease the
process since it was now rubbing against the command mike cable on its way
back into
the pod.  Once it was in the pod I unraveled the tape and messenger and
reconnected
each wire to its mate on the terminal block.

For the mike cable, I ziptied it every 12-18" or so to existing wiring that
was exiting the
pedestal guard and fed it under the aft berth (easy).  As I said before, I
mounted a terminal
block to the board on which the fresh water pump is mounted and connected
the free
wires to that block.  I connected the other end of this cut cable to the
terminal block and
connected the connector to the 2nd intact 10' command mike cable from ICOM.
I ran that
one under the fridge and under the stove (access by removing the teak
"thingy" under the
stove) and fed up to the navpanel.  I've run lots of cabling from the
navpanel to the under-
the-stove area so that part was pretty familiar already.  One of those was a
cat5 cable that
I had managed to squeeze into the port-side of the pedestal as Al Ahlman
recommends.
I'd done that in an earlier wiring project.  That cable brings seatalk from
the pedestal
instruments back to an ST60 Multi unit on the navpanel

One last note.  For mounting the mike itself to the pedestal I borrowed an
idea either from
this list or from a dock mate or from a sailing magazine.  I bought a broom
handle mount
at the hardware store.  These clips expect something about 1" in diameter.
I screwed the
broom handle clip to a small piece of plywood and screwed the mike connector
to the
opposite side of the plywood.  Now you just clip the mike to its connector
and clip the
broom handle clip directly to the 1" pedestal tube anywhere you like.  I
tend to keep it just
below the instruments.  But if I later put another navpod below the
instruments for radar, I'll
just clip it to another part of the pedestal tube.

I have a bunch of pics of the process.  I should upload them to the website.

 -bill
 Harmony #859

----- Original Message ----
From: Chuck and Kathy <katchu at chartermi.net>
To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2008 6:38:39 PM
Subject: Re: [C320-list] C320-list Digest, Vol 27, Issue 1

Thanks for all the help.  Allen - I particularly appreciate knowing that the
Icom cable won't fit without cutting it.  That will save me a lot of time.