Transducer question
 

Hey guys, looking for a little help...all manufacturers involved haven't really been much help so far.

Here's the deal...I currently have a Livorsi depth gauge with a shoot through the hull transducer mounted in the bilge, everything currently works fine. I also have a Garmin GPSMap 5208 plotter that doesn't have depth capability right now, no transducer hooked up to it. I'd prefer to have the depth read through the Garmin instead of the Livorsi gauge, this will allow me to remove the gauge from my dash and also the switch from the switch panel. Garmin makes a NMEA 2000 adapter/converter kit https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-t...prod68537.html that supposedly is used to connect non-NMEA transducers to a NMEA GPS.

First question, does anyone have any experience with this adapter?

Second question, the transducer is a Humminbird XP-9-20, does anybody know what wires are connected to this or have a wiring diagram?

Obviously if i can use the existing transducer already epoxied into my hull and in working condition it would make my life a lot easier, but based on my past experience and the fact that we are talking about a BOAT, I'm sure it won't work :lolhit:

Where I'm going with all this is to try and run as much as possible through the GPS since it seems everything now can connect via NMEA 2000 or Garmin marine network connections...I'm also looking into the Fusion stereos that can connect to/through NMEA 2000...seems like a good way to streamline some redundancy in electronics and cabling.

Thanks guys!

Have you tried to give Airmar a call? they have pretty good customer support and make a lot of the transducers and cables for the display companies. I just looked at the manual for the adapter kit, seems pretty straightforward as there are only 3 wires to connect. How many wires does the XP-9-20 have coming out of it? What color are they? strip back some of the jacket and have a look before you cut anything, you can also check the voltage and or resistance on each wire to see what they do.

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/NM...structions.pdf

Yeah the manual for the adapter kit does look pretty straight forward and I'm thinking it should be simple, but the guy I talked to at Garmin today told me "he wouldn't recommend it", but I don't think he had a clue. I didn't try Airmar because its a Humminbird ducer, I guess I could give them a call and see what they say...

I didn't think of peeling back some of the cable jacket to see if I can tell what color wires are in there before I cut it, I think that's what I'll do. That way if it doesn't look right it should still work, lol.

Still like to hear from anybody who's used this...if anyon has.

Nobody has any experience with either of these things?

Well I finally had a chance to strip back the insulation on the existing wire...and...a bare wire and a plastic tube! WTF, why is nothing easy??? Oh yeah, it's a boat :lolhit:

Does anybody know if there are wires in the plastic tubing? I'm assuming so but would like confirmation BEFORE I cut it. I mean there has to be wires in there right? It's a two pin plug connector so the bare wire goes to one pin I guess and there must be wires in the tubing that go to the other pin...right? Lol

Hoping somebody has some experience with this or something similar.

the two signal wires are probably in that tube open it up already! What else can be in there it wouldn't work if there are not wires in there.

Yeah that's what I figured...there HAS to be wires in there, lol, but it's just once I cut that wire there's no turning back.

I guess I'll cut it tomorrow when I'm down there, I ordered the adapter kit off of fleaBay and imagine that, a less than accurate description and shipment...so I was hoping to have it today but it won't be here until Monday. I suppose if the adapter kit doesn't work I could always splice the end back on...hopefully...

does anyone have any experience with transom mount transducers on an offshore boat? Just got Garmin 740S and would like to mount one if it would hold up.

Pstorti need your input...there's only another bare wire in that tube. Now what say you? :)

The adapter kit instructions says connect the three wires from your transducer to the three wires on the adapter cable...what to do if you don't have three wires, lol, guessing its probably not going to work :angry-smiley-038:

Ok, update...

I hooked this thing up this weekend...and...IT WORKS!!!!

So to summarize, coming from the transducer mounted in the hull was one wire running up to the gauge on the dash. I stripped back the insulation and there was a bare wire and a plastic tube. I stripped back the plastic tube and there was another bare wire in that. So I connected the grn and blk on the Garmin adapter cable to the bare wire outside the plastic tube and then connected the bare wire in the plastic tube to the blue wire in the adapter cable. Then just plug the adapter cable into the box and then connect the NMEA 2000 cable to the backbone and your transducer will now be connected to your GPS!

Hopefully this helps somebody else down the road.