RDP 149 VX2 sounder issues

[weigle metal fab]

Hello,
I recently acquired a boat with the following furuno electronics:

RDP 149 w/ ETR 6/10N, transducer is un known but it appears to be a 744V fairing style.

The FF does not work well, My last boat had the FCV588 w/ the 1kw flush thru hull transducer, it worked amazing. This one not so much.
I'm attempting to troubleshoot. I've been tossing around the thought of upgrading, but I feel for the amount and what I do fishing wise, this set up should be fine. I'm thinking of adding another rdp used 149 to have one as radar and other as ff/chart. I would like to make it a 1KW system for my winter rockfishing trips. what other sounder modules can I hook up to the RDP 149? i keep seeing 10 pin diplexer, can I get a MB 1100 and hook up a 1 kw transducer? What transducer would work best for my fishing, offshore 2-5k feet of water but fish are upper 300' (tuna, yellowtail, etc) like to bottom fish for ling cod and vermilion max 600' ? Obviously I want to fix what I have before I start throwing parts at it but I really don't know how to trouble shoot other that try a known good unit and swap. I can't recall exactly what the unit was doing but I remember it was cluttered and not showing a clear picture of bottom, marks, etc. hoping a new module and ducer will fix it. TIA.

-marcus

 

[Sparky Wire]

The ETR6/10N (called BBFF1 in the USA) can support either 600w or 1KW transducers. The unit does not need an MB1100 as long as the 1kw transducer is diplexed. For example one of the best 50/200 1KW transducers is the Airmar B260. They make it in a diplexed version (like 526TID-HDD) and a non-diplexed version (like 526TID-HDN). The non-diplexed transducers would go to something more commercial like the FCV295 or FCV1150 while the diplexed would go to fish finders like the BBFF1 or FCV588. If someone purchased a non-diplex version for an FCV295 and later wanted to attach it to an FCV588; that is where the MB1100 "matching box" (aka External Diplexer) would come into the picture. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[Johnny Electron]

The B260 is one of my favorite transducers but you must have the space. Using the fairing block they recommend only for 30ft or larger boats unless putting it up into the boat. Transducers grow in size the more power they support, typically.

 

[weigle metal fab]

That makes sense, thanks alot for the reply's. So the route I went is to add a RDP 149, dedicating one to chart, other to radar/ FF. I bought a DFF1 sounder module and 525TID-BHD Transducer. hoping for better results.

 

[weigle metal fab]

I know this has probably been beat to death, but i can't seem to find if I can connect my simrad auto pilot AP24 w/ AC12 course computer to my rdp149 so i can have overlay capability, is there a way to achieve this? I found this thread: https://furunousaforum.com/threads/connecting-simrad-ap24-to-vx2.2252/ So,
I already have the AT 10 thing. so i need to get the 000-154-054 cable, how do I wire that into the AT 10? get a sim net cable and cut it, then splice the furuno cable into it? OK, I think I got it, so apparently ap24 is "talking" nema 2000 and the simnet converter takes it and converts it to nema 0183 and vice versa. you just splice to the corresponding wires on the 000-154-054 cable, is this correct?

 

[Johnny Electron]

You would wire the heading data into White (+) and Black (-) of the 6 pin heading NMEA cable going into the vx2. (000-154-054)