NMEA 2000-Help/Guidance where to start.

[BarryL]

Hello,

My plotter is a B&G Zeus 3S. It supports forward scan, but those transducers are big $. Instead I use a cheap in hull transducer that is epoxied to the hull in the v berth. I'm sure that I lose some depth performance, but I don't care about shallow water so that doesn't bother me at all. I bought the lowest cost Lowrance (Navico is the parent company of B&G, Lowrance, and Simrad) unit I could find The only important part was that it operate at a frequency other than 200KHz.

I had a B&G Vulcan on my previous boat and i used the same transducer to make the echo sounder work on that too.

I think this is the transducer I have:

https://defender.com/en_us/lowrance-hst-wsbl-transom-mount-skimmer-transducer-000-0106-72

Here's a picture from the owners manual of what the sonar display looks like

Barry

What is the SONAR unit that you have? Is it the ForwardScan? Does it protrude thru the hull or is it flush?

 

[marcham]

Had the forward scan on my last boat, we really miss it. Best anchoring tool for BC waters....

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Hello,

My plotter is a B&G Zeus 3S. It supports forward scan, but those transducers are big $. Instead I use a cheap in hull transducer that is epoxied to the hull in the v berth. I'm sure that I lose some depth performance, but I don't care about shallow water so that doesn't bother me at all. I bought the lowest cost Lowrance (Navico is the parent company of B&G, Lowrance, and Simrad) unit I could find The only important part was that it operate at a frequency other than 200KHz.

I had a B&G Vulcan on my previous boat and i used the same transducer to make the echo sounder work on that too.

I think this is the transducer I have:

https://defender.com/en_us/lowrance-hst-wsbl-transom-mount-skimmer-transducer-000-0106-72

Here's a picture from the owners manual of what the sonar display looks like

View attachment 222925



Barry

Thanks for that info! I have the same Zeus model so the ducer you mention could be useful to me. I know that where you sail, there are more underwater hazards, including some granite, I suppose, and more abrupt changes. We have more or less endless stretches of flat plain sand and silt so there isn't really anything to watch out for except that we have to be on constant alert that when the bottom is about 6', we need to be careful that we don't absent-mindedly run into 4.5' depth because I then won't be getting off the sandbar on my own!

So it appears that you are shooting thru the hull with it and it may be located some distance from your DST 810. I'm thinking more about how to utilize the existing hole right next to my DST 810, which is now filled with the old depth transducer (I had separate depth and paddlewheel ducers basically side-by-side.

I thought maybe you were talking about this one: https://defender.com/en_us/b-g-forwardscan-depth-transducer-000-11675-001

It does cost a lot but isn't out of the ordinary for boat purchases. Given the info about interference between transducers, I'd be looking for something to fill the existing hole and plays nice in close proximity to the DST810. I'm not sure the diameter of this will match the existing thru-hull (probably not) and the kit comes with a thru hull fitting but at even greater pricetag. (about $790). It really isn't something I need or want that badly.

Sorry for thread hi-jacking, but sometimes interesting info comes out of a thread that goes in a new direction!