Lowrance TH-FLW-P19 and Airmar/Simrad B60

[psubill78]

My '98 310 Sundancer has the generic P19 by Airmar in it for the depth finder.

I purchased a B60 to use with the NSS8.

My hope would be to use them both, so I'd have a depth backup on the little dash display, then use the B60 as the fish finder/depth/temp.

Is it possible to have both 'working' as the same time? From what I can tell, they are different frequencies, but I'm not 100% sure I'm comparing the proper stats...

The P19 is 350 watt and 200 kHz, 11 degree beam width...
The B60 is 600 watt and can be 50/200 kHz, 12 and 45 degree beam width

The P19 is more forward in the engine room, on the glassed block by sea ray, starboard side. My mounting options for the B90 would be on the port side, directly opposite -- no glassed block, or on the port side, more stern towards the engines, on the glassed block meant for the macerator sea cock....

Any recommendations on of these two can 'play' together and if either placement is 'better'?

Thank you!

 

[Alex F]

Take a look at this thread (http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/14626-Thru-Hull-Transducer-installed) and you'll have much better idea. As you could see from my posts I had both ducers working just fine and had them both show me depth reading. This was very good system redundancy feature, which added a lot more comfort, specially when navigating in new waters.

 

[psubill78]

Take a look at this thread (http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/14626-Thru-Hull-Transducer-installed) and you'll have much better idea. As you could see from my posts I had both ducers working just fine and had them both show me depth reading. This was very good system redundancy feature, which added a lot more comfort, specially when navigating in new waters.

I did read that thread. While I don't have the P17, the P19 single frequency is the same as the B60. Do you just run your B60 at 50 kHz so it doesn't interfere with the 200 kHz of your P17?

 

[Alex F]

.... Do you just run your B60 at 50 kHz so it doesn't interfere with the 200 kHz of your P17?

Hmmm....very possible, but I don't remember 100%. It's been couple of years since I did the project. But, one thing I know is that I never had issues with them conflicting with each other.

If you have doubts, contact Airmar tech support.

 

[psubill78]

Hmmm....very possible, but I don't remember 100%. It's been couple of years since I did the project. But, one thing I know is that I never had issues with them conflicting with each other.

If you have doubts, contact Airmar tech support.

Thanks, no worries. Yes, I contacted Airmar via email 2 times, with no reply. Gonna have to pick up a phone

Thanks

 

[psubill78]

They finally replied... Not the answer I was hoping for. He claimed that even though the B60 is a 55/200 that is does both frequencies at once, so even if my display was setup for 55, that the B60 would still interfere with the stock depth sounder... CRAP!

 

[Alex F]

Oh well, look at it from the positive point of view. It's much better to find out about this over then phone rather than after you drill the holes.

Did they provide a solution (an alternative unit)?

 

[psubill78]

Oh well, look at it from the positive point of view. It's much better to find out about this over then phone rather than after you drill the holes.

Did they provide a solution (an alternative unit)?

No, they were actually pretty useless. His solution "contact your marina electronics guy"... I did look for alternative 'ducers, it seems nearly all the transducers are 50/200....

Even with what he's told me, I'm looking for folks who are using multiple transducers, and what they've experienced. Google shows lots of folks doing this successfully.

 

[Alex F]

It's possible that airmar tech support just giving you general guidelines. I just looked back in to my thread and frequencies of my ducers. Based on the specs both P17 and B60-20 should conflict on 200kHz-A frequency. The fact is I've used them for couple of years and they worked just fine. According to the specs I have on P19 it uses 200kHz-U (not "-A"), I'm not sure how big of a difference "-U" makes, but I have a feeling that this should work just like my install.

I hope more folks who did similar mod would chime in.

 

[psubill78]

Same here LOL - it's been a quiet thread!! I'm surprised more folks don't have more than one transducer. Seems most mid-sized cruisers would come factory with the depth finder... and adding a transducer for 'better' bottom coverage would be common.

I'm going to do it this weekend, but still unsure of placement. Sea ray provided a great print of my engine room (www.yazji.net/310da.pdf) where it's marked transducer, that is where the depth finder (P19) is... I'm thinking of putting the B60 at the glassed block area where the macerator output would be. Only issue I'm thinking here, it's directly stern of my AC and genset inlets... which might add some turbulence to the water, which might cause an issue.

This sucks. I should just rip out the existing depth finder... seems that would make this so much easier