Install of Garmin DST800 Transducer

[britinusa]

Eximius had a broken Depth Transducer when we purchased her and I removed the old transducer and replaced it with a Garmin Transducer Plug while the boat was on the hard after the Survey. There's a secondary depth system, an Echo Depth Sounder that has an Inside hull transducer (bowl o wax) that works great. And there is a Speed transducer in the Bow but that gave up a couple of months ago (keeps getting stuck)

When I upgraded the electronics with a NMEA 2000 network, Wireless Masthead Wind Transducer, the kit came with the DST800 transducer. It's ready to connect to the NMEA 2000, just needed to be inserted into a through hull.

I have heard from several members and some say 'wait till you haul out' and others say 'just pull the old plug out and put the new one in quickly, not a lot of water) and I had considered waiting till the next haul out.

Then yesterday's job of replacing the Exhaust Riser to Muffler hose with a Hump Hose went so quick that I had time on my hands and decided to pull the plug.

I had a spare plug at hand, unscrewed the securing cap from the through hull in the head cupboard and pulled the plug. The water does rush in pretty quick, but I doubt that I got much more than a pint of water ingress. Then I checked the removed plug with the new through hull that came with the kit and confirmed it was a tight fit. Lubed up the new transducer and pulled the plug again and inserted the new transducer. Took all of 5 minutes from decision to all done.

Just to make sure it was working, I connected the DST800 to the NMEA 2000 network, flashed up the GPS and WoooHoo! I got depth & water temp (boat tide to dock so no speed  )

Knowing that it was working ok, I wire locked the transducer in place and ran the cable behind the head cabinets just under the countertop, then through existing holes in the hanging locker, and into the area at the back of the electrical panel, then reconnected it to the NMEA 2000 network. Flashed up the GPS and still working fine. Last step was to tie wrap the cables in place and ensure they passed through anti chafe tubing where they passed through the holes in the fiberglass.

You gotta love NMEA 2000!

Paul

[SPembleton]

Gotta agree with you.  I did mine on the hard, but the job was very smooth.  One note. I also installed a gWind wireless.  It would work for about 20 minutes and then quit.  Took a while, but finally realized it was not a problem with the gWind, but with the voltage.  Batteries were not holding a charge, and when dropped to about 10.8v, it quit.  I have replaced batteries, and am hoping it is now fixed.  I only mention this to save you some time if it happens to you.  Garmin was not even aware of the issue.

[britinusa]

Yep, same thing! We installed new batteries just over a month ago.

paul