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Connector for joining pitot heater to 12awg

jamcgee1978

Active Member
Morning all,

Struggling a bit in determining a good quality connector/method to join the 18awg dynon wires from the heater unit into the 2 x 12AWG and 1 x 22AWG I’ve installed in the wing conduit

I’ve got butt splices and bullet connectors but it’s more the fact that I’m joining different sizes . Ie the yellow is too big for 18awg .

Ordered a super seal waterproof connector but unfortunately can’t accept wire as thick as the 12awg

Thanks
James
 
Much simpler to solder and then cover with heat shrink. When done cover all the splices with a single larger diameter heat shrink, then secure the joint in the wire bundle.

If you really must use those clunky crimp butt splices, use the size for the larger cable then add a wire to the smaller cable end. Crimp then trim off the extra wire.

Carl
 
Faston male/female.
Flip the sexes if you have a + / - pair of wires. You should be able to mix the crimp sizes, but if you can't, strip the #18 long and fold back it on itself to fatten it up for the larger crimp.
 
I was planning on using these for my pitot. Probably covered in heatshrink.

The red and the blue connect together.
 

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Much simpler to solder and then cover with heat shrink. When done cover all the splices with a single larger diameter heat shrink, then secure the joint in the wire bundle.

If you really must use those clunky crimp butt splices, use the size for the larger cable then add a wire to the smaller cable end. Crimp then trim off the extra wire.

Carl

I don't solder anything except headset jacks and CAN bus connections, properly installed crimp butt splices (amp) are an aviation industry standard and more reliable than any connector, easily cut out and redone if necessary. Plus they are much easier/faster to install and self insulated.

Just double over the 18 to fit in the yellow butt splice.
 
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I don't solder anything except headset jacks and CAN bus connections, properly installed crimp butt splices (amp) are an aviation industry standard and more reliable than any connector, easily cut out and redone if necessary. Plus they are much easier/faster to install and self insulated.

Just double over the 18 to fit in the yellow butt splice.

Cheers Walt, so this is how we marry to different gauge wires with a connector , you can’t see me knocking head against wood right now (basil fawlty style)
 
Faston male/female.
Flip the sexes if you have a + / - pair of wires. You should be able to mix the crimp sizes, but if you can't, strip the #18 long and fold back it on itself to fatten it up for the larger crimp.

These connectors are a smart choice; since they are small, you can easily fish them through the pitot mast if you need to remove the pitot assembly, wiring and all. This is exactly what I did for my heater wires.
 
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Here's a photo of mine. Knife splices for wires to the controller, male/female splices for wires from the controller to the Pitot.
 

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Just curious - why are you connecting 18awg wire (or 22awg in the initial post) to 12awg wire? If the pitot heat requires a 12awg wire, wouldn’t you just use 12 awg wire all the way to the pitot? If running the smaller gage wire, what size fuse/CB are you using to protect that smaller gage wire? I’m trying to understand the wiring for pitot heat. I thought it would be simple.
 
Just curious - why are you connecting 18awg wire (or 22awg in the initial post) to 12awg wire? If the pitot heat requires a 12awg wire, wouldn’t you just use 12 awg wire all the way to the pitot? If running the smaller gage wire, what size fuse/CB are you using to protect that smaller gage wire? I’m trying to understand the wiring for pitot heat. I thought it would be simple.

18AWG is what the Dynon pitot controller comes with. 12 AWG is what you end up using to wire up the power/ground runs from the ship, though, based on their install manual recommendation. I find it odd that the wires at the box are so small relative to the supply line, but I can only surmise that they're very concerned about voltage drop. Despite the large wire size callout, they also only call for 10A circuit protection.

The 22AWG wire would be for the pitot status signal line. That line is rated for 1A max, which makes it weird in an opposite direction that there's an 18AWG wire at the controller box...but such is life.
 
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