ID Transducer and GP7000f to 1971f upgrade

[Limu]

Aloha--

Have a new to me boat. Has a GP7000f (I did latest software update). It is paired with a presently functioning transducer.

From the boat construction and electronics install, it appears a previous owner purchased a "no connector" transducer and then spliced on a furuno 10-pin connector (I re-did the splice as I found it).

Question 1) Please help me "name that transducer". I think its an Airmar B260 with internal diplexer (526TID-HDD).
Details: Thru-hull, large bronze housing, completely flat black surface (no speed, no high speed temp). 212mm (8.5") long, 112mm (4.5") wide, 65mm (2.57") thick, asymmetric "football". At the splice, seven (7) wires (Brown, Orange, White, Blue, Black, Red, Green). Black and Blue are bundled internally.

Why do I doubt my guess? This was probably installed in 2007/2008 and I don't know how long the 526TID-HDD has been around. There are no tags on the wires. The dimensions are are off by a couple millimeters. The GP7000F was set to 600W (when supposedly this is a 1kw transducer).

Question 2) Anyone see any issues with upgrading to a gp1971f and using the same transducer?

Question 3) Shouldn't the GP7000F sounder be set to 1kw for this transducer no matter what? Or am I missing a model/wiring/diplexing configuration?

Mahalo in advance.

 

[C-Bass]

Good morning Limu,

Thank you for your inquiry.

With the photos you provided it does appear to be a Airmar B260 housing. Based on the date that you mentioned I don't believe it is a 526TID-HDD, if the transducer was from that era I would guess it is a 525t-hdd or 526T-HDD. I don't believe back then Airmar was building transducers with TID technology.

Regarding the wiring, based on what you said it does appear to be diplexed transducer even though it did not have a plug on it. One way to tell would be to connect it to the GP7000f and put the GP7000F in dual frequency mode so both High and Low frequencies are displayed on the screen. If you get two good pictures showing returns then it is a diplexed transducer. If you only get one frequency then it is non diplexed and would require a MB1100 matching box in order to get two both frequencies to work on the GP7000F.

The transducer does appear to be a B260 housing which would indicate that it is 1kw.

If the transducer does check out and it is diplexed it would be compatible with the GP1971F

You can run the transducer at 600w and it will not hurt the transducer, if it is indeed a 1kw transducer then when running it at 600w it would not perform quite as well in deeper water. However you will not be damaging the transducer.

Kind Regards,

 

[Limu]

C-Bass—

Many thanks for your reply!

Previously, on the water, at the 600w setting, I get images in the side-by-side view for both frequencies. Next time I go out I’ll check if that happens at both the 600w and 1kw setting. I will also check more closely whether the two images are different based on the properties of the different wavelengths. It’s not hard to get to very deep water fast from where I live.

In your experience, have the red & green always been disconnected in ‘non-speed’ models? That seems to be what I’m finding in specs of all current models.

Also, maybe the previous owner cut the wire to install (rather than buy a bare wire model and a pigtail). The hole through the transom is the exact diameter of the wire. This makes the built-in diplexer scenario more plausible.

Again, many thanks!

TK