Raymarine Question For Chuckbear

[Rick D]

Hey, Chuck: if you don't mind offering an opinion, I have a question for you. If you do, no problem.

I put ST60+ instrument heads on but kept the ST 50 transducers except the wind. I figured if I was to put a whole new backbone in, I'd go for NEMA 2000. The depth was a problem initially until someone gave me the transducer wiring magic. It worked great for a couple of months, reading down 500'. However, it later started losing it's reading and randomly increasing and decreasing from time to time. Figuring a bad crimp, I redid all. I left it on for a couple of hours at the slip and it seemed fine, but when I checked the max and minimum, I got 48' and 10' with a 17' depth. So, it did it at least once.

Anyhow, if it continues, I assume it's the head and will send it back for service / exchange. Any ideas in the meantime?

BTW, I was surprised how the ST60's seemed a lot cheaper constructed compared to the ST 50's which I would have been happy to keep if I could have repaired the lighting and gotten a new wind transducer.

 

[rpwillia]

At the risk of piling on

Chuckbear, I was going to respond in the other post, but this seems more on point. If we don't use Raymarine what do we use? For APs for smaller boats there does not seem to be a cost effective alternative to Raymarine.

Garmin and Simrad seem to be more competitive in more area, but not 100%. I was reading in the new BoatUS magazine about displays and they were talking about the multi-thousand units, which are really just glorified PCs, but still are not really integrated. And again, when we talk about marine electronics, except for the sensors (although there are non marine alternatives for some) everything could be off the shelf stuff with a little waterproofing.

 

[Chuckbear]

Rick, Not all transducer are compatible with every display. I would suggest you contact Airmar, who makes pretty much all of the transducers for everyone and check to see if the problem is compatibility. Don't automatically assume it is the head. A quick and dirty test is to get another transducer, The correct one, plug it into the head and just drop it in the water over the side. If it still does not work it is indeed the head. Raymarine is not really N2K compatable. Speaking of N2K, anyone contemplating a new system should go in this direction only. This will answer rpwillia also. You can take any combination from any manufacturer and build yourself a functioning integrated system without commiting to one manufacturer. You can mix and match the best of one or many. Chuck

 

[Don12364]

I had a ST50 depth transducer failure last year on my 1996 H376. It read strange depths and when aground on the scrubbing hard read nothing at all. Like you I thought it was the instrument and took it back to Raymarine's HQ - only 10 miles away. It tested okay so I was obliged to buy a new transducer. The old one was a pig to get out having been sealed in with 5200 (I think). In the end I unscrewed it using stillsons and destroying the threads.
Whilst doing the job I discovered a hidden conduit under the floorboards and INSIDE the starboard side strengthening member. This conduit ran from near to the transducer to the transom. I was able to pull a mouse line through the whole length of this and use it to pull the new lead through.
Now the sounder works as new.

 

[Rick D]

Thanks Guys...

...while a Raymarine Tech did say the ST50 transducers are compatible with the ST60's, I don't have a lot of confidence in his response. Chuck, thanks for the suggestion; I'll test it with the other transducer. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Donald, I admire your tenacity. It looks like a real nightmare to change out the transducers!

 

[Moody Buccaneer]

...while a Raymarine Tech did say the ST50 transducers are compatible with the ST60's, I don't have a lot of confidence in his response. Chuck, thanks for the suggestion; I'll test it with the other transducer. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Donald, I admire your tenacity. It looks like a real nightmare to change out the transducers!

The Airmar website has wiring diagrams for their transducers and a very good cross reference data base.

I just got rid of my last two non-Raymarine instruments and was looking at having to change out the transducers. I found that the wiring on the new transducers was the same as the ones I have in the boat. I was able to just cut the connectors off and install the spade connectors that Raymarine supplies with the instruments and everything works as it did before. The only reason I was changing the instrument heads was because the displays were failing and they were the last NMEA 183 bits on the boat. Now it is all SeaTalk and the boat is happy.

In general, Raymarine, Navman, WestMarine, and Standard Horizon instruments all use Airmar transducers. With a little bit of research you can mix and match all you like. Cutting and splicing connectors and cables can be finicky, but if done properly is no problem at all. RF suppression ferrites are your friends.