Tether Disconnect w/ Locking Connectors

Here is my version. Parts are shown in pictures, look closely for suppliers. Turned out very nice, don’t expect any issue. About $125 spent, the 3M molding kit was about $75 of it.











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Looks great Shannon. Personally, I’d go with some bigger cable ties like what come with the kit to secure the thimble. If you’re in the US “Harbor Freight” carries them.

Thanks for the suggestion, may do that. These are T & B brand with stainless steel tabs and are extremely strong, may add some of the large ones on top of these.

Shannon,

This looks excellent. I’m impressed with the splice job.

-Rusty

Thanks, very easy with the 3M kit, think it was $68. A little big for the 2 wire, but would work for more splices as well.

The locking rings on the connector work well, but they are ABS plastic, not Aluminum. :frowning:

 

Professional quality job! Quick question, if you don’t mind. Are the splice kits good for more than one splice?

The kit is a “One Shot”, with a 2 part rubber resin. You could get several wires, maybe 8-10 in one splice, but what you see in the pic is what comes in the kit. The resin is a divided bag that you open the divider and knead the bag to mix, then you got a few minutes to pour. If you made your own mold, you could maybe get a few pours out of one bag.

Another thought- we had a small splice, which means it took a lot of resin to fill the mold, and we still had a bit left over. Had we wrapped the splice in electrical tape, as suggested, instead of heat shrink, you could build it up a little and not need as much resin to fill the mold. If you had more molds, you could do multiple pours at once. It is feasible to separate the resin into smaller batches, mix as needed, and reuse the mold. may want to put a little silicone spray on the mold to make it easier to remove and not damage it.

 

Good to know, thanks!

@Shannon - An alternative to using more electrical tape to make the wire bundle larger, you could also make a smaller mold. Some scrap, easily milled plastic (such as HDPE or UHMW), a router, and a bit of time at the bench and you could probably make a mold that’s closer to what you need.

3D printer would do a great job.

 

A customizable splice mold is available for free :

Download and install OpenSCAD after downloading, it has all parameters required

Hi all,
this is my version:

I used seaconn 4 pin. Differently from Shannon I added an ethernet connector on the “deck” side of the cable. I further built an extra cable to be more easily handled during bench operations. Female ethernet connector has been installed in the Fathom x ethernate surface box. No communications issues at al.
Total cost: 200 Euro

Davide

Thank you Shannon and Davide. I just ordered up some seacon connectors and scotchcast to make up a tether disconnect similar to yours. ROV will transport in a smaller package once I get the tether separated.:+1:

Jake

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The removable tether makes it much better. I do need to work on a small reel that magically hold 350’ of cable :slight_smile:

What do you think the depth rating is for this splice?
Best,
Doyle

Is there any reason that noboby is using a bulkhead connector for the tether disconnect?

I was thinking about this:

The bulkhead connector doesn’t fit in the penetrator holes as is. One of them would need to be drilled out by a few mm.