[CA] [CA11] AirMar B258 Compatibility

[robinspruce]

Dear All

I have just purchased a boat and replaced the old furuno plotter with an eS78 with the Downvision Transducer, which appears to be working ok, i did however, discover that there was an AirMar B258 Transducer in the bottom of the boat and my question is this ;

Is this compatible with an eS78 and if so would i have to lose the DownVision transducer or can i somehow connect both ?

Thanks in advance from a newbie.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Q1. Is this compatible with an eS78 and if so would i have to lose the DownVision transducer?
A1. The eS78's Transducer socket cannot be adapted to be mated to the currently installed B258 Transducer. B258 is a name given to a family of 50kHz/200kHz transducers produced by Airmar which each featured unique circuitry to accommodate use with a specific marine electronics manufacturer's fishfinding product(s). Should the B258 have been designed for use Raymarine products, then it would typically be recommended that it be interfaced to a CP370 1kW 50kHz/200kHz Sounder Module which in turn would have been networked to the MFD. This would however not support DownVision sonar features. The system would then support 50kHz/200kHz conical sonar features. As the B258 transducer appears to have been designed for use with a third party fishfinding product, it would be recommended that Gemeco (843.210.7000), a division of Airmar, Inc., be contacted to determine whether the currently installed version of the B248 may be adapted for use with a Raymarine CP370. It may be helpful to provide Gemeco with a photo and/or information from the transducer's identification tag). If so, then Gemeco may provide you with an Airmar adapter part number which may be purchased from Gemeco or another Airmar dealer. Similarly, this would not support DownVision sonar features.

Q2. Can i somehow connect both?
A2. Should you additionally desire to have the MFD support DownVision and low power, high frequency conical CHIRP sonar, then a thru-hull or transom mounted DownVision Transducer would need need to be interfaced to the MFD's Transducer socket or to the transducer socket of a CP100 DownVision Sounder Module which in turn will be networked to the MFD. If both a CP370 and CP100 will be used in the system, then the CP370, CP100, and MFD will each be networked to a HS5 RayNet Network Switch via an appropriate length of RayNet (F) to RayNet (F) Cable.