Switching from a Garmin 541s to a 740s

[Nepidae]

I had purchased a Garmin 541s Chart Plotter when I purchased our boat, what I thought to be a preliminary step (due also to the fact it had a working depth gauge).

WM recently had a sale on a 740s which I was told in earlier email conversations with Garmin, was a 'plug & play' switch.

Well I found out differently, in that the collars on the power/data plugs are different and the 541 plug (already run in the boat) collar stops the 740 from being able to be plugged in. Garmin says, "It appears that the pin functions are the same with both cables. What you propose is not approved by Garmin but you own the units. I do recommend testing the 740s on the cable prior to installing the threaded locking collar".

Garmin futher says, just to re-run the 740 power cable, and I quote, "the only wires that would be connected are power and ground which should make a cable swap fairly simple on many vessels". What of course they don't take into consideration is what you might have to do to rerun the power cable in the first place.

My question is; has anyone done this swap by just removing the collar on the older cable and snapping on the new collar (which comes with the newer units, seems to be a screw type instead of the twist lock) or solved this problem any other way?

Thanks.

[TimQ]

Check with Garmin telephone support. They will know.