Replacing depth sounder and knot meter

[shank]

I have an 82 Catalina 27 with the old SR Mariner separate depth sounder and knot meters. They both just kind of work when they feel like and would like to replace them with something more modern but simple like the Raymarine , i40 E70066 Bi-Data display. A tech rep at Raymarine assured me that the old transducers will work with this new unit and are "are completely compatible with the i40 Bi-data" because the SR Mariners are analog instruments. Does anyone and direct experience with this unit/transducer combination? I'm a little skeptical of this information from Raymarine.

 

[dlochner]

I have an 82 Catalina 27 with the old SR Mariner separate depth sounder and knot meters. They both just kind of work when they feel like and would like to replace them with something more modern but simple like the Raymarine , i40 E70066 Bi-Data display. A tech rep at Raymarine assured me that the old transducers will work with this new unit and are "are completely compatible with the i40 Bi-data" because the SR Mariners are analog instruments. Does anyone and direct experience with this unit/transducer combination? I'm a little skeptical of this information from Raymarine.

A long time ago, I had SR Mariner instruments. Very affordable at the time and not fancy. Anyway, the Tech Rep's advice is a good incentive to look at Navico (B&G, Simrad, Lowrance) or even a Garmin product.

The i40 appears to be a SeaTalk network device, which, I believe is RM's implementation of NMEA 0183. RM users can correct me if I'm wrong. The analog devices from SR mariner are not 0183 compatible.

You can download the manual and read it from the RM site.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

If you are buying new instruments, why wouldn't you want to use the new transducers that come with the unit? Also take into consideration warranty issues. If you have an issue with the new electronics and are using the antiquated transducers (if they actually work), I would think a warranty claim might be difficult.