e/o cord source or something else?
- Thread starter Whitrzac
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They're within patent and there's a fee to pay to the owners, hence they're expensive.
E/O connectors do work reasonably well. There's different qualities of cables; some break more easily than others (drysuit heater cables).
Tips include don't bend them. Do clean them. Do use grease on them. Don't disconnect them underwater unless you have to.
Oh, and if the cable breaks make sure you find where the break is. I ass-u-me d that the break was in the middle where it went through the valve, but it turned out to be the other end. Could have just shortened the cable and resoldered the internal connector instead of paying $100 for a new E/O cable!
E/O connectors do work reasonably well. There's different qualities of cables; some break more easily than others (drysuit heater cables).
Tips include don't bend them. Do clean them. Do use grease on them. Don't disconnect them underwater unless you have to.
Oh, and if the cable breaks make sure you find where the break is. I ass-u-me d that the break was in the middle where it went through the valve, but it turned out to be the other end. Could have just shortened the cable and resoldered the internal connector instead of paying $100 for a new E/O cable!
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they are also not terribly cheap to manufacture.
In terms of a more preferred alternative, E/O is actually a terrible connector for what we use it for, no different than the Fischer connectors in CCR. They worked decently well at the time, but they are not designed for what we use them for with Fischer not actually being pressure proof, and neither of them designed to wet-mate underwater. Subconns are much better, but they are not "standard" and they're actually a bit more expensive than the E/O's for the power carrying versions.
Pros and cons to each, but unfortunately it's the industry standard which makes it tough to change from.
The Electro Oceanics patent ran out decades ago. They hit the market in the 1960s. There are at least two manufacturers in the US:
Marshall Underwater Industries, Inc.
Teledyne Marine
This is an important point. E/Os actually are the cheapest of the underwater wet mate alternatives. Subconns are even worse pricewise.
Are you having any reliability problems with EOs? We literally had thousands of EO contacts on the Bathyscaph Trieste II in the 1970s. It was the only underwater mateable connector available.
There were quite a few failures until somebody figured out that plunging each male pin into a tube of silicone grease before mating solved it. It is way faster and more effective than trying to smear grease around each pin with your finger, especially underwater.
Before EOs were refitted to the boat, they either had to have a huge service loop of cable so the device could be brought up on deck or degas (remove 67,000 aviation gasoline), bring her aboard the floating drydock support vessel, fix the problem, and reverse the process to get the TII back in the water. The maximum operating depth was 20,000'/6,100M and she was used to find the Scorpion and the K-129.
One of the weaknesses of the EO, especially for power, is there was no effective way to lock them together. They machined these very expensive Nylon locking sleeves that screwed together but we found that they caused a lot of failures. They could be screwed together too tight, which deformed the connector and made it leak salt water that would short the contacts. We welded more than a few cables together before figuring that out.
There were quite a few failures until somebody figured out that plunging each male pin into a tube of silicone grease before mating solved it. It is way faster and more effective than trying to smear grease around each pin with your finger, especially underwater.
Before EOs were refitted to the boat, they either had to have a huge service loop of cable so the device could be brought up on deck or degas (remove 67,000 aviation gasoline), bring her aboard the floating drydock support vessel, fix the problem, and reverse the process to get the TII back in the water. The maximum operating depth was 20,000'/6,100M and she was used to find the Scorpion and the K-129.
One of the weaknesses of the EO, especially for power, is there was no effective way to lock them together. They machined these very expensive Nylon locking sleeves that screwed together but we found that they caused a lot of failures. They could be screwed together too tight, which deformed the connector and made it leak salt water that would short the contacts. We welded more than a few cables together before figuring that out.
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