I have a 30 year old Signet depth meter in my Catalina 30 which is still working but the lcd has delaminated to the point of being unreadable. I would like to upgrade to a new Garmin chartplotter/sounder in the near future. Since the Signet is working, and accurate, the transducer must still be ok and I do not want to haul the boat until next year or replace the transducer if it still works. Would the transducer be able to work with a new sounder? Has anyone done this with a Signet?
Old transducer - new chartplotter/sounder
- Thread starter Glenn17467
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It depends on the frequency the transducer transponds on. You may be able to look it up in the Signet manual or contact Signet to find out. Then contact Garmin to find out what frequency their product requires. Friend of mine recently was in the same situation with an old Datamarine Transducer that worked quite well when hooked up to a Garmin 400 unit.
Almost all transducer were made by Airmar. For fish finders they have 2 frequencies. One for depth one for resolution but shallower. For depth sounding it seems they use the same ultrasound frequency.
I tried Datamarine, Lawerence, Navman on the same transducer. They all work the same. The transducer is nothing but a pizzo electric speaker for ultrasound frequency. There is only 1 optimal frequency to reach deep water.
It may just work.
I tried Datamarine, Lawerence, Navman on the same transducer. They all work the same. The transducer is nothing but a pizzo electric speaker for ultrasound frequency. There is only 1 optimal frequency to reach deep water.
It may just work.
The frequency is 200 MHz - this is a common frequency. I replaced my display unit and it all works fine. Some of the new display units has setting to pick this frequency. Sometimes this frequency is printed on the cable that is attached to the depth sounder. Also there is usually a paper label that has a transparent shrinkable tubing on it. Look for that for model and frequency specs.
The previous post is correct that Airmar makes almost all of the transducers. Call them and tell them what you have and what you want to connect to. They will tell you if it will work rather than speculation. In addition, you will have to deal with the different connector plugs. Chuck
Thanks. The transducer is 200hkz according to the original documentation. The cable connector will have to be replaced. Main Sail had a good article about how to modify the cable, complete with photos as usual. I am thinking, why spend $175 or more to have the display repaired and then upgrade my handheld gps. I'll get a new gps/sounder for less or the same cost.
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