Anyone using a DST810?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by hzcruiser

That might be a bit of overkill compared to a Zener diode.

Especially since you don't expect your bus voltage to ever drop that low for the boost converter to kick in just to power your N2k stuff?

So many boats have low voltage, especially when using the windlass, starting engines, using the inverter etc.

A Victron Orion not just provides a stable voltage of say 13.8V even with the battery at 11.4V but it also provides clean power, especially when you use an isolated model.

[Midas H28]

I'm now on my second Airmar DST810.

The first one, installed about 18 months ago, lasted about 3 hours. That was enough time to get the boat lowered into the water by the travel-lift and motor to a marina berth.


Initially the DST810 showed as an available device on the Network page of my B&G Vulcan 9 chart plotter, but wouldn't display anything on the mapping display pages. And after an hour of trying to get the Depth, Speed, or Temperature to display the DST810 went completely dead.

After removing and returning it to the supplier I got a full refund of the purchase price.

I then waited for a new release of the DST810. When the one with the new Paddle wheel was announced I bought one...... Which lasted about an hour, and it didn't even get into the water.

To install the second DST810 I diligently performed the Pretest routine stated in the Airmar Installation Instructions, which is to:

"Connect the sensor to the instrument and spin the paddle wheel. Check for a speed reading and the approximate air temperature, if there are no readings or they are inaccurate, check all the connections and repeat the test. If there are still no readings or they are inaccurate, return the product to the place of purchase."

Please note that this is an "out of the water" Pretest, which I did with the wire going across the cabin from the NMEA 2000 backbone port to the location of the Thru-hull fitting (the blanking plug from the first DST810 still installed). The Pretest worked fine, and I got real excited!!

I then carefully threaded the cable through the lockers etc. from the NMEA 2000 port to the location of the Thru-hull fitting, and fired-up the system to do another Pretest. Only to find everything working except the DST810, which was completely dead, no Bluetooth and no NMEA 2000!!!

I have now "returned the product to the place of purchase" and am awaiting a response.


I have some choice words to say about the Airmar DST810... Which I will leave to your imagination as I wouldn't want to get banned from this wonderful site.

[hzcruiser]

That sounds rather disappointing. I feel for you.

As some mentioned, voltage spikes are arguably the no. 1 killer of those devices. Unless the N2k power supply is properly filtering the input, there is always the chance that you get short spikes induced from devices like the alternator, fridge motor kicking in as well as radios.