Glen-L.com

I am at a point now at which it is fairly easy to install a thru hull transducer, I have done some reading on the net however can't tell if a particular transducer from one manufacturer is compatible with the equipment from another. I do not wish to buy the whole package now (budget constraints) and also warranty issues . Is there some kind of generic transducer which may work with several fish finders , sonar .I am going with a thru hull since all I have to do is uncover a small hole Most Glen-L builders spend a lot of time planking ie covering large gaping holes Any and all suggestions welcome.

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) Champagne dreams and wishes are possible on a beer budget. Just build the boat.
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I'd bet the answer to your question is "NO" because the Xducer and the Cable are part of a well developed tuned circuit.
Each Xducer will be part of that Circuit in the Readout(processor).

I've never tried what your thinking of though.
A long time ago I "Repaired" a Sheared Cable in a "Flasher" unit. But it never was the same after the repair.

I am not aware of any generic components persay that I would even depend on in the area of swapping bits and pieces as you are considering, not to say that its not possible, but I have never tried it.

Yes, they are in fact pretty much generic. They are all made by Airmar. Dont matter if you got a Furuno, Raymarine, Simrad, or Garmin , they all get their xdcrs from Airmar and package them up on their own. Yes, there is difference in each units cables, this is how the mfgrs get your money, they bastardize the cables to make you buy their shit from them exclusively.
However, you can buy adapters as you mentioned.
http://airmartechnology.com/2009/marine ... esults.asp
I put a B60 in mine, just forward of the engine.

There is a company close to me that is a big time distributor of Airmar, I had called and he got me the scoop on all the cabling hookups. I'll try to get that webpage. here, i found it:
http://www.gemeco.com/

Airmar also supports their stuff with wiring diagrams, here is a example of my B60, see that they are color coded and labeled, you can match it up with a depth finder if the dthfinder unit gives you a wiring dia to match up to.
http://www.airmartechnology.com/uploads ... 91_271.pdf

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God Bless our Troops; especially our Snipers

The problem that I have had over and over has been warranties period with electronics. The prices that local and small electronics people charge in the long run no matter what the label states has always saved me money down the road if and when I have had problems. And yes if you boat in salt water, you will have problems and normally its not the transducers but the units and wiring harness plug ins. So consider several other issues when purchasing electronics IMO.

[quote="kens"]Yes, they are in fact pretty much generic. They are all made by Airmar. Dont matter if you got a Furuno, Raymarine, Simrad, or Garmin , they all get their xdcrs from Airmar and package them up on their own. Yes, there is difference in each units cables, this is how the mfgrs get your money, they bastardize the cables to make you buy their shit from them exclusively.

That was pretty good of you Ken.
Way back in the 70's if we made circuit like that we had to tune it with as many as three Tuning Cap's and a couple of Chokes to adjust.
Maybe now it's all done with logic?

Are you sure all the Xducers, large n' small are the same? Or did I miss something easy there?

When we are "re-rigging" boats this question comes up often.

There are a couple of basic transducers but they work on different frequencies with 200, 80 and 50 khz being the most common. So as long as the new (unit) is operating on the same frequency as the old transducer they can often be "spliced" in.

What is proprietary is the connectors such that if you are replacing a humming bird unit with a garmin there is no (adapter) so that one will plug directly into the other. A soldering gun and some shrink tube usually fix that issue however.

But as suggested here if you toast your new unit with it jury rigged to another companies transducer the warranty may be voided...

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Graham

Yes, Plywood is "real" wood

A "professional" is someone who gets paid for their work - it doesn't necessarily mean they are good at it

I always used the transducer that came with the unit....mine all came with transducers(Garmin)

Just figure out which unit you want,and get what they recommend.

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On Ebay, Yard sales and Craiglook you get a lot of Fish Finder's that are stolen. That's why they come with no Xducer, just the Head.

Even though they all seem to work on a few Frequencies, they are all tuned circuit with differing voltages and even some 'Cyclic' Readings by the Processing Circuit to see the Temp and some of the other features.

I still don't understand how a transducer can see a Temperature at a depth. Which Depth is it showing?

The really powerful WWII Sub hunting Sonar and a talented guy on the head sets could 'see' a Temp change in the water below. Zig Zag across that Temp change and you might be on the trail of a Sub!

Side scan for instance would have a tremendously complex Xducer and a program "chopper" to get the right reading at the right time to make a whole screen of inputs.

ultasonics can be an extremely complex subject, but in a nutshell if you can match the transducer frequency to you instrument frequency and connect the two any ducer will work for you. A ducer is a piezoelectic crystal that has the ability of converting electrical energy, voltage, to mechanical energy, vibration. The pulse generator of your instrument applies a voltage to the crystal making it vibrate, thus creating a sound wave that travels out from the transducer, that wave bouncing of off something and returning to the ducer as a vibration, mechanical energy, causes the ducer to produce a voltage that is sensed by the instrument's timing circuit. Knowing the amount of time between the initial electrical excitation of the ducer and the returning echo and the velocity of sound in water that is programmed into the unit it can calculate the water depth or depth to a fish. As far as i know there is no practical way for a ducer to read water temp, if your unit provides that reading it is coming from a separate temp. element. A sound wave will bounce off any interface of two materials with different sound velocities thus, a thermoclime, a boundary between a warm and cold