raymarine depth sounder module or not?

[erice]

i just purchased a used raymarine c120 gps/chartplotter and radar unit. my son & wife are urging me to get the dsm & transducer in order to have a better depth finder/fish finder. however, the cost is around $900, and when i fish, i usually just use the raft. any thoughts?

[mhanna]

I also have a C70 series Raymarine MFD and was thinking about adding the DSM30 sounder unit, it is about $500 and of course you then need a transducer (but any solution would need one).
I did not end up doing this because I felt my screen was to small to be a charplotter, radar screen and a sounder all at once. You have more screen on the 12" unit so things could be different there.

When I spoke to the Raymarine sales guys about doing this then later buying a newer C or E series and doing some screen sharing I was told you cant share this kind of info between C and E (seems very unreasonable) but that is what I was told.
The good news was that the DSM30 can support the old C series OR the newer C&E series by wiring it differently but not both at the same time. So when its time for an upgrade you do not have to take that out.


Matt

[loubennett]

If you have an existing depth sounder check the transducer. It may be usable with the DSM 30 or 300. Airmar makes nearly all of the transducers and puts the proper connector on to match a brand of sounder. The way to track it down is through the Airmar website. It has part number cross references and wiring diagrams. With a little luck you will only have to put a new connector on the cable rather than buying and installing a new transducer.