Nevada Space Grant
Student
High-Altitude Ballooning

NV SGC
This program is generously supported by the Nevada Space Grant Consortium


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 In order to connect your kenwood to a GPS you can either buy a connector or you can make one.  To make one you will need several things.  A 2.5mm phono plug (stereo), wire, and the connector to your GPS which can be serial, or specific to your GPS.

This page will show you how to create the phono side of the connector while the hyperlinks in the paragraph above will tell you about the individual GPS connectors we have dealt with

It is important to note that the RX (receive channel) for your radio is the same as the TX (transmit channel) for you GPS.  Both pieces of electronics should have connector instuctions in their manuals if you prefer to use them instead of this website.

There are three channels to consider when making your plug.  Make sure that that any part of your plug that needs the wires run threw it is on before you start soldering.  It is really hard to get those parts on when you have the plug soldered to one end and the GPS connector on the other.

First solder your TX wire to the large diameter contact.

RX from your device should be soldered to the smaller contact that extrudes farthest out.

Ground is usually the largest connector and easiest to solder.
The example shown here is from a Garmin 25.  I used a blue wire for RX, white for TX and black for ground.

This wiring keeps the color of wire consistent from the connector on the Garmin 25 to the plug for the kenwood.

After you are done check the continuity (use an ohmmeter, if you get a couple of ohms thats ok) their should be a connection between a wire and one section of the plug.  The relation between the plugs front and back is shown in the top picture.

Also, this is a 90 deg plug.  We use it because it can get pushed up against things without bending the wires while it's inside the Payload.

There are also straight plugs.  The difference in soldering these plugs is that it is easiest to solder ground, RX, then TX.