Airmar b256 and bottom discrimination

[Bradleycloud]

Just bought a boat with an older b256 transducer glassed in. It’s a 1 Kw 50/200.
If I change the plug on this transducer to work with a gp 1971, will bottom discrimination work?

 

[FishTech]

The B256 was not tested and approved so there is no official support for it working. The 526TID-HDD (B260) was tested and approved.

 

[Johnny Electron]

If you select manual and 1kw for the transducer setup it should work fine for normal fish finding but it is not suitable for Accu-fish and Bottom Discrimination.

 

[Bradleycloud]

Just curious but what is different for the transducer for bottom discrimination?

Also, how does the fish finder functions of the gp 1971 compare to that of the new FCV 800?

 

[Johnny Electron]

We haven't started selling the FCV800 so that information and real world comparison is not available. The FCV800 would have more dedicated circuits for the sounder so it should easily be the better sounder of the two. Bottom discrimination uses overlapping freqs of the HF and LF and algorithms to determine what the bottom might be composed of. The beam angles need to be suitable and the parent company has to approve each as suitable by machine to enable the feature in the software. There are transducers that work for BD in some machines that won't be considered compatible in others. Always check the transducer list under the accessories of the sounder to see which transducers offer that feature in a particular machine.

 

[Bradleycloud]

Previous boat had a fcv628. It was simple but really effective bottom machine.
I’m mainly fishing 60-200 ft.
Really like how the gp1971 will color code tracks based on bottom type. If the forthcoming fcv800 is better sounder than the gp1971, then decision got tough. What exactly should I expect the fcv800 to be better at than the gp1971?
Thanks for your time to answer.

 

[Johnny Electron]

When this unit becomes an option as being offered for sale, more information will become available.