Hi Be Free!
We’re just starting the process and trying to mentally get an idea of how it might work…
We have two Garmin chart plotters with their own transducers.
A ~9” and a ~4” display unit.
Background:
> The 9” display Chartplotter transducer has gone off-line due to what I think is a bum multi pin connector that developed some corrosion.
On my “To-Do-List” is to splice in a new connector from a Y-connector (Garmin doesn’t sell replacement connectors- you have to make your own -\_
_/-). Hopefully this brings that transducer back on-line. If not then I’ll just have to cough up the bucks for a new transducer ($$$
). This Chartplotter has more features and is easier to read in bright sunlight than the smaller unit.
> The 4” display Chartplotter works nicely as does its 4 pin transducer so we’ve been using it as our current primary (fallback) for Nav and depth. This was originally for our little runabout ‘Scrambled’ which we decided not to utilize this year (I simplified my “To-Do-List”). This has been working albeit the screen is harder to read and it doesn’t have a route planning capability.
> Before we decided not to take an extended cruise this year due to a variety of reasons we had planned on using both units in a combined hybrid manner. The larger unit only for navigation and route planning while relegating the smaller to depth and bottom terrain monitoring. Workable but kind of awkward taking up our limited pedestal space.
> When both units had working transponders I had been contemplating making a deployable (slide track) bow mount for the smaller unit’s transponder to allow us to “see-ahead” to potentially allow us to better navigate the extensive shallows of our local estuaries without bumping into something or running aground.
Now all that background is out of the way……
This brings me to the NEMA 2000 aspect I found out about in the process of looking into a replacement transducer for the larger unit.
(It would have helped if I’d actually read through the paperwork that came with the larger unit earlier on
).
It appears that the larger unit has the capability of accessing multiple transducers!
That would allow us to have a ‘built-in’ bow transducer angled forward as an ‘early warning’ function as well as a down pointing stern transducer for standard depth reporting. It would allow us to get back to one bigger/brighter/easier-to-read display.
This connectivity could also extend to connecting up to our new(ish) Suzuki DF60AV engine as well.
There are other do-dads apparently that could also be connected such as a wind speed and direction sensor.
On a similar vein there also appears to be a capability to somehow connect up to a laptop to do real-time depth/terrain data logging and concurrent GPS positional location. This would allow use to develop our own detailed bottom charts of our explorations for future use.
This all opens up a whole new horizon (and rabbit holes
) of opportunity (and time consumption
)!
But this would require me to actually put back on my thinking cap and learn new stuff (which wouldn’t be a bad idea come to think of it
).
So there you are….
Best Regards,
Over Easy
but it seems my two chart-plotters and sonar do and I’ve had no idea of how to even begin to understand it all and how to get them talking to each other. I’ve toyed with having multiple sonar transducers (like someday mounting one in the bow angled forward to let me see if I’m approaching a problem…rather than letting me know after the fact like my current stern mounted unit 
