Adapting a Garmin 200Khz transducer to Raymarine

[carlosproa]

My GARMIN GPSMAP178C finally died or burned out the screen
Only used for depth
I want the cheapest depth display; Raymarine i40 depth display for $180 can do the job
I do not want to change the transducer as it will require pulling the sailboat out of the water
Anybody knows how to interpret the transducer cables? So I can connect them to the back of the Raymarine?
I know I must cut them as Garmin has a 6 pin conector and Raymarine i40 has 3 blades.

Thanks

[Lake-Effect]

Our Raymarine ST40 gave up the ghost last year, after only 7 or 8 years of seasonal use (grrrr). The cheapest decent depth instrument I could find was a Garmin fishfinder, which has that neat colour sidescrolling display, built-in GPS for heading and speed over ground, and including transducer was still around $70 cheaper than just a new Raymarine depth display. Just an fyi, before you lay out the bucks...


I mounted our transducers to shoot through the hull rather than make a hole, and it's been working fine.


Can you give us the make/model of the transducer itself? That might help.

[carlosproa]

not Sure as it came in the box with the Garmin GPSMAP 178C
Is a thru hull model that I adapted to shoot thru the fiberglass with a pvc pipe filled with mineral oil
Transducer Nylon - GSD-22 Depth Sounder 6 pin plug ? Maybe?

[meridian28]

Transducer is 2 wire, lookup pinout online and splice wires. I did this with a 15 year old transducer and it worked fine.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by carlosproa

not Sure as it came in the box with the Garmin GPSMAP 178C
Is a thru hull model that I adapted to shoot thru the fiberglass with a pvc pipe filled with mineral oil
Transducer Nylon - GSD-22 Depth Sounder 6 pin plug ? Maybe?

If your transducer is a 'shoot-thru' like ours, then you don't have to haul out to replace it! (I did the exact same PVC pipe thing with our original transducer, too. Except I used nontoxic antifreeze)

So I had the same choice to make. It was cheaper and easier to get the Garmin fishfinder WITH transducer, and I fabricated a new tank out of a PVC octagon box ($10) for the new transducer. Much less hassle than trying to make the old transducer work with the new display, voiding warranties in the process.

[Lancerbye]

The operating frequency is only one parameter you need to consider when using a different company transducer. Some also include temperature monitor. The basic transducer is usually 2 wires but some proprietary transducers are tuned to a slightly different frequency just to prevent what you are trying to do. The other thing you need to consider is power, if you are transmitting using a high power depth sounder into a low power transducer, you can burn it out. Unfortunately just matching the frequency may not work. On the heavier commercial units one could just get a heavy duty transducer from any supplier at the same frequency and it would work. The other common frequency used on the more powerful units is 50 Khz. Mine is a Garmin dual frequency unit for a Garmin black box unit that sends the info back to the chart plotter as a nema 0183 signal.

[Squanderbucks]

If you are wedded to the transducer the easiest thing to do is get a compatible Garmin depth recorder. Check before hand about which transducer it uses and see if you can find one that matches. Or look for a replacement for what you have on eBay.

[billgewater]

For what it is worth I had a Navman (NZ defunct company) 200 khz transducer and display.The display suffered from screen failure. The old Navman 200 khz transducer is not happy with the Raymarine i40 which really wants to work with a dual frequency transducer (50 and 200 khz). Plastimo have a stand alone 200 khz instrument that will (does) work well with the Navaman 200 khz. Called the advanSea S400. But it isn't cheap.

[carlosproa]

Thanks
Heap is what I am going after

Thanks

[belizesailor]

Depending on the transducer style you may be able to change it in the water. If its the type that threads thru a female thru hull then that can be done in water. A toilet plunger or flexible plastic sheet material (like the flexible cutting boards) work for minimizing water flow while the transducer is out.

[belizesailor]

....alternatively, mount the new transducer inside the hull till you get a chance to haul. If you do it right, you may decide to leave it mounted in the hull. With most single shot tranducers you suffer very little loss in performance.