Preparation of DE9 Connectors
The DE9 connectors used in SMT Designs' products are a reliable connector that has been used in aerospace for decades. This style of connector was selected to allow for you to be able to field modify your electronics bay and maintain a high reliability. The connector with pins can be installed in any of the medium or large sleds and the mating socket connector can be installed in any of the connector end plates. The first section covers the sled connector preparation. The remaining selections cover single, dual and redundant dual deploy connector preparation.
What you need for these connectors
- DE9 Connector from a Sled Connector Kit or one of the Connector End Plate kits
- two 2-1/2" x 3/32" Heat Shrink tubing from kit
- nine wires from a sled connector kit or five wires from an end plate kit and four wires from a deploy kit
- 20-30 watt soldering iron
- rosin core solder
- wire strippers
- heat gun
The following preparation guides use a standard color coding scheme I devised to keep all circuits unique and easy to follow.
Sled Connector Preparation
Standard Connections Color Code
Pin 1 - Altimeter Power - Red
Pin 2 - Pyro Power - White
Pin 3 - Ground - Black
Pin 4 - Status/IO 1 - Violet
Pin 5 - Status/IO 2 - Gray
Pins 6 & 7 - Apogee (Yellow/Orange)
Pins 8 & 9 - Main (Blue/Brown)
Step 1 - Verify you have a DE9 connector with pins (male) and place connector into a Wiring Assistant
Step 2 - Strip 3/16" insulation one end of each of the nine standard wires
Step 3 - Insert the first five wires from the right side and slide them into their respective lugs - from the top - red, white, black, violet, then gray. (I use fine point tweezers to slide the wires in place)
Note: 1) Doing one wire at a time may be easier to start with; if you will never use the status/IO connections, it is not necessary to prepare those wire connections; and if you will be using a single deploy altimeter and don't expect to use the electronics bay in the future for dual deploy, you would not need the Main wires.
Step 4 - Solder each wire to its soldering lug. Apply heat to the top of the wire & lug. Feed the solder under the iron tip until the solder melts and wicks into wire and lug as shown (keep your soldering iron tip cleaned and tinned).
Step 5 - Turn the Wiring Assistant over and insert the four deploy wires from the right side. Slide them into their respective lugs - brown, blue, orange, and yellow from the top.
Step 5 - Solder each wire to its soldering lug. Apply heat to the top of the wire & lug. Feed the solder under the iron tip until the solder melts and wicks into wire and lug as shown
Step 6 - Cut nine 3/8" sections of 3/32" heat shrink tubing and place one on each wire. Slide each of them down over its connector lug.
Step 7 - Use a heat gun and shrink the tubing onto the lugs.
This completes the preparation of the sled DE9 connector
End Plate Connector Standard Preparation
Standard Connections - Power & Status/IO
Standard Connections Color Code
Pin 1 - Altimeter Power - Red
Pin 2 - Pyro Power - White
Pin 3 - Ground - Black
Pin 4 - Status/IO 1 - Violet
Pin 5 - Status/IO 2 - Gray
Step 1 - verify you have a DE9 connector with pins (male) and place socket connector into Wiring Assistant
Step 2 - Strip 3/16" insulation one end of each of the five standard wires
Step 3 - Insert the first five wires from the right side and slide them into their respective lugs - from the top - gray, violet, black, white, then red. (I use fine point tweezers to slide the wires in place)
Note: 1) doing one wire at a time may be easier to start with; 2) if you will never use the status/IO connections, it is not necessary to prepare those wire connections.
Step 4 - Solder each wire to its soldering lug. Apply heat to the top of the wire & lug. Feed the solder under the iron tip until the solder melts and wicks into wire and lug as shown (keep your soldering iron tip cleaned and tinned).
This completes the end plate connector standard preparation
Turn the wiring assistant over and follow one of the three final preparation guides below
Single Altimeter - Single and Dual Deployment
Single Altimeter Connections Color Code
Pins 6 & 7 - Apogee (Yellow/Orange)
Pins 8 & 9 - Main (Blue/Brown)
Step 5 - Strip 3/16" insulation of one end of each of the four deploy wires
Step 6 - Insert the four wires from the right side and slide them into their respective lugs - from the top - yellow, orange, blue, then brown.
Note: doing one wire at a time may be easier to start with; and if you do not expect to not need the dual deploy capability, then you do not need the Main wires.
Step 6 - Solder each wire to its soldering lug. Apply heat to the top of the wire & lug. Feed the solder under the iron tip until the solder melts and wicks into wire and lug as shown (keep your soldering iron tip cleaned and tinned).
Step 7 - Cut nine 3/8" sections of 3/32" heat shrink tubing and place one on each wire. Slide each of them down over its connector lug.
Step 8 - Use a heat gun and shrink the tubing over the lugs
This completes preparation of the Single/Dual Deploy connector
Primary Altimeter - Redundant Dual Deploy (L3)
Primary Altimeter Color Code
Pins 6 & 7 Pair 1 - Apogee (Yellow/Yellow)
Pins 8 & 9 Pair 1 - Main (Blue/Blue)
Step 2 - Strip 3/16" insulation one end of each of the four deploy wires
Step 3 - Insert the four wires from the right side and slide them into their respective lugs - from the top - yellow, yellow, blue, then blue.
Note: doing one wire at a time may be easier to start with
Step 6 - Solder each wire to its soldering lug. Apply heat to the top of the wire & lug. Feed the solder under the iron tip until the solder melts and wicks into wire and lug as shown (keep your soldering iron tip cleaned and tinned).
Step 7 - Cut nine 3/8" sections of 3/32" heat shrink tubing and place one on each wire. Slide each of them down over its connector lug.
Step 8 - Use a heat gun and shrink the tubing over the lugs
This completes preparation of the Primary Altimeter Dual Deploy connector.
Secondary Altimeter - Redundant Dual Deployment (L3)
Secondary Altimeter Color Code
Pins 6 & 7 - Pair 2 - Apogee (Orange/Orange)
Pins 8 & 9 - Pair 2 - Main (Brown/Brown)
Step 2 - Strip 3/16" insulation one end of each of the four deploy wires
Step 3 - Insert the four wires from the right side and slide them into their respective lugs - from the top - orange, orange, brown, then brown.
Note: doing one wire at a time may be easier to start with
Step 6 - Solder each wire to its soldering lug. Apply heat to the top of the wire & lug. Feed the solder under the iron tip until the solder melts and wicks into wire and lug as shown (keep your soldering iron tip cleaned and tinned).
Step 7 - Cut nine 3/8" sections of 3/32" heat shrink tubing and place one on each wire. Slide each of them down over its connector lug.
Step 8 - Use a heat gun and shrink the tubing over the lugs
