Do-it-yourself heated clothing assembly information

[Venturing Sole]

…from past threads seams to be missing some details and I hope some of those past contributors (or anyone) can fill in some gaps for me. Here is the scenario I was thinking of:

• Fieldsheer Air-Tex mesh jacket with zip-out “water-resistant/thermal liner” (on-hand).
  
• 30-40 feet of 30 AWG multistranded Teflon coated wire ($4)
  
• WarmGear Heat-Troller Single Portable Temp-Controller WG-SPCOAX ($70)
  
• WarmGear SAE to Coax Jack (Female) WG-DCJK150SAE ($5)

In theory, I could plug the SAE-to-coax adapter to the existing SAE jack that came already attached to my battery, then plug the heat-troller coax to the coax adapter (in lieu of using the battery harness that comes with the heat-troller), and plug the jacket coax into the other heat troller coax. (right?)

…but naturally I would have to wire the jacket liner in such a way as to end up at a coax connector. This is where I am lacking information.

I assume I would turn the liner inside out (?) and lay out the 30 gage Teflon wire back and forth around the jacket and hitch it down so it will stay put. I further assume I would leave a pigtail of wire near the waist/bottom for attaching to the coax jack.

What I don’t understand is how to attach the 30 AWG (isn’t this a single wire?) to a coax jack. I thought I read somewhere that the 30 gage wire has to be upsized into an 18 AWG wire (if so, what kind of wire is this [two-wire?]? I.e. red/black zip cord from bulkwire.com? how is this connection accomplished?) and then the 18 AWG is attached to the coax jack (how is this accomplished? Where can I find a coax jack to match?).

I’ve seen all the comments about just buying a heated vest, but dang they’re expensive. This looks like a project I could spend the summer doing since I won’t need the liner in the jacket. I’m pretty good with a variety of hand and power tools and a civil engineer by education (but by definition merely dangerous in the electronics department).

Bottom Line: I don’t quite understand how to make the wiring connections for a DIY heated jacket.

 

Hope someone can help. Thanks.

 

David

[RPG]

I'll give this a shot, I'm not real good at explaining but here goes;

I stitch the teflon wire into the vest using one strand of copper wire, I think its 8 guage, sharpened to a point on one end and the other end flattened and drilled (end result looks like a darning needle, which you could use if you wanted, I just couldn't find one long enough to suit my needs)

I started the stitch at the waist band under the left arm, after running the wire looping through the vest, I finish the stitch beside the one I started at the waist band area below the left arm. I then connect a short length of lamp cord to each teflon wire using solder first then a blue crimp wire connector over the soldered area.(You have to remember to slide the wire crimps on before you solder the wires)

I then securily sew a rubber washer below the connection and knot the lamp cord to the washer, this prevents the teflon wire/lampcord connection to be accidently pulled appart. Now solder your two wire coax connection to the lamp cord using the connector that matches the right hand connector in your photo third from the right. That should be it.