Transducer adaptation

[bvarney]

I have a Garmin 541s which did not come with a transducer! My boat already has a thru-hull transducer,however, the pin connection is too large for the Garmin [it is a 200khz transducer]—is there a conversion adapter that would make it possible to use the present transducer? Or is there a new connector available that could be installed on the present transducer cable?

[pbmaise]

Originally Posted by bvarney

I have a Garmin 541s which did not come with a transducer! My boat already has a thru-hull transducer,however, the pin connection is too large for the Garmin [it is a 200khz transducer]—is there a conversion adapter that would make it possible to use the present transducer? Or is there a new connector available that could be installed on the present transducer cable?

I am looking at the Garmin Striker 4 and it contains a short cable designed to connect to an existing transducer. Wires were already prepped for soldering. I will have to splice my cable myself. Didn't the 541 come with such a cable? If not you may be able to buy the part for the Striker 4 and it may fit.

Note: Make sure you select proper frequency.

[bvarney]

Thank you for your input! The Garmin 541s came with my boat,with no transducer! There is a dedicated depth finder mounted on the companionway bulkhead,although the sun/elements have destroyed the viewing surface. This depth finder has a thruhull transducer [a 200khz]—same as the Garmin requires per the manual.The pin at the receiver end of the cable is too large diameter to attach to the 541s. West Marine said no adaptation is possible,however,I know they are in the business of selling new equipment! I was just hoping there would be a new pin available that I could solder on? I will investigate your suggestion regarding the Striker! Thanks again!!!

[Bill O]

Check Airmar to see what they have for the transducer and information. They make a majority of the transducers for manufacturers. Also others may use the same transducer for their instruments.

If you want to do a DIY connector, you may need to do some sleuthing to find the wiring to connect everything properly or you may find the connector in your search.

Bill O.

[Ziggy]

Try Gemeco (Gemeco | Home). If they don't have a "plug and play" adapter cable, they will have a cable that fits your Garmin. You may need to cut off the transducer end and splice it to the transducer cable you already have.

A new dual frequency transducer for Garmin may be only slightly more expensive. But if you need to snake the cable through tight spaces you might still need to cut it.

[W32PAMELA]

@bvarney - There are basically 2 styles of transducers found on boats today. The older style I call passive and the newer active transducers.

The passive transducers simply transmitted the pulse and received the return. The control head then converted the time differential into a depth and displayed it.

The newer active transducers have all their circuitry in the transducer and the control head simply displays the result. The signal between the transducer and control head is a NMEA signal (0183 or 2000).

If you have a passive transducer and the 541s uses a transducer that sends/receives NMEA or some other digital signal then you won't be able to use it with the 541s. You can get power data cables for the 541s on ebay. If your existing transducer is an active transducer and you can figure out the which wire does what you may be able to connect the existing transducer to the 541s NMEA 0183 wires on the 541s power/data cable.

@pbmaise - I recently put a Striker 4 on my 13' whaler. My unit had a prewired transducer cable. It is possible to buy extensions for it but they are all have a male and female plug on them. The second cable in the package had 4 wires, 2 are for power and the other 2 can carry data to an echomap chart plotter but it appears that signal is a Garmin proprietary signal and not standard NMEA 0183. There are various Striker 4 versions and I bought the base version so you may have a different contents in the one you are looking at.

[pbmaise]

Originally Posted by W32PAMELA

@bvarney - There are basically 2 styles of transducers found on boats today. The older style I call passive and the newer active transducers.

The passive transducers simply transmitted the pulse and received the return. The control head then converted the time differential into a depth and displayed it.

The newer active transducers have all their circuitry in the transducer and the control head simply displays the result. The signal between the transducer and control head is a NMEA signal (0183 or 2000).

If you have a passive transducer and the 541s uses a transducer that sends/receives NMEA or some other digital signal then you won't be able to use it with the 541s. You can get power data cables for the 541s on ebay. If your existing transducer is an active transducer and you can figure out the which wire does what you may be able to connect the existing transducer to the 541s NMEA 0183 wires on the 541s power/data cable.

@pbmaise - I recently put a Striker 4 on my 13' whaler. My unit had a prewired transducer cable. It is possible to buy extensions for it but they are all have a male and female plug on them. The second cable in the package had 4 wires, 2 are for power and the other 2 can carry data to an echomap chart plotter but it appears that signal is a Garmin proprietary signal and not standard NMEA 0183. There are various Striker 4 versions and I bought the base version so you may have a different contents in the one you are looking at.

Bob, Thanks for that information. I indeed was under wrong impression that short cable was to connect to an existing 4 wire transducer. I was wondering why it didn't appear to be shielded. I will need to go back to the store where there is a display unit. I suspect based on what you wrote that I will have to cut the cable from the transducer they include. I will then use that cable to connect to my existing transducer. I kind of liked the idea of using that extra transducer as a spare. But it is not to be.

[pbmaise]

duplicate