I have an Eagle fish finder mounted on my stearing console. The transducer goes out on the back of my boat w/ the speed wheel and temp sensors. I have seen boats with another finder mounted up front near the electric motor. Is there a way to link the two together or do you have to buy another complete set-up?
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As far as I know, you can't link one transducer to two display units. Each one needs its own transducer.
I have often wondered how this works when you have two completely separate systems on a boat, one in the stern and one in the bow. Why don't the two transducers interfere with one another? For example, wouldn't the bow transducer pick up the echo sent from the stern transducer, and vice versa? To avoid this I'm sure they have come up with some kind of encoding system so each unit sends out a unique code embedded in its signal, and only displays readings when it receives an echo back containing that same code. This would be a way for each fishfinder to be uniquely identifiable. That would explain why each display unit must have its own dedicated transducer. They only know how to read echos from the pings they personally send out.
I may be completely wrong, but this is my best swag.
Thanks Libertized. I have seen the transducers that shoot through the bottom of the boat, I guess that is the way to do a bow mounted finder. It sure would be nice to be able to link up an extra monitor from the same transducer. Ohh well.
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]They also make transducers that mount to your bow mount electric trolling motor.
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Libertized
What you are suggesting would be great if that is what they do, but they don't. If two sonar units are operating on the same frequency, and their sonar cones intersect under the water, they will interfear with each other. Some units have filters which can sometimes minimize the effects but it is not ideal. I have seen what looks like a series of fence posts standing in a row on one of my sonars. When I turned off the second unit the "fence posts" disappeared. Having two units running within "earshot" of each other is just like trying to listen to two people talk at the same time. You can get most of what is said but sometimes it gets a little confusing.[
] If you have each unit set to transmit a distinctly different frequency, like 200 khz and 50 khz, then there is no problem.
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I have a two finder setup: 1 ducer mounted to the stern for the console unit and the bow mount has the ducer built into the trolling motor. I have not experienced any interference between the two units, but this may be due to the fact that each cone originates from its source and the sources are 20 feet from each other? In addition, the bow mount unit has six ceramic transmitters that each receive their own echo back to the unit and combine the six signals into a 3 dimensional display. It might be possible to "T" the transducer cable to units, not sure if that would decrease the signal strength though?
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I have read somewhere that one can have two transducers hooked up to one unit by using an A/B switch, thus giving you the choice of bow or stern capability. If this is what you want to do, then a Google search can help you locate a switch box. Some units have built-in interference filters that can get rid of extraneous echoes from other finders, i.e. Garmin, Lowrance, Vexilar, etc. I don't have any experience with a two-FF setup, but I have read up on a bunch of literature when I was shopping around for a fishfinder.
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KD is right. Most of the time you'll get interference when you're deep enough for the cones to intersect. But it depends on the transducer frequencies. If a transom-mount transducer is a 50 Khz and the bow is 192 Khz, then you won't have interference even if the cones intersect.
My Pinpoint system has multiple xducers and you can view any xducer from any LCD in the boat. Other newer sonars have features that compensate for xducer cross-talk.
So technically there are solutions for this common problem. But maybe you just need to think whether or not you'll ever really use both front and rear units simultaneously.
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I have been running separate bow and stern systems for several years, both on the same frequency, and never once had any interference problems. Is this only because I have never fished water deep enough to have the 2 cones intersect? My boat is a 19 footer, and the deepest lake I frequent is Fish Lake at over 100 feet in some spots. Surely that is deep enough to see interference, is it not? The vast majority of the time I fish other lakes, and usually stay in 30 feet or less.
I'd say you have been fortunate. 100 feet is certianly deep enough that the cones would intersect. It might be that the interference has been slight and you have just not noticed it. Did you have a noise rejection feature turned on? I would be interested in what brand and model of sonars you are using. I'd like to be able to run two units on my boat but haven't been able to without interference.
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The bow unit is a Pinpoint, which has built-in transducers in the trolling motor. The stern unit is an Eagle Optima. I don't know if I have noise rejection turned on or not.
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]I'd have to agree with kd and Gumbo. I run multiple units and multiple transducers with the same frequencies and I get interference. I called Lowrance and talked with their techie and we discussed it at some length. Bottom line, it's pretty tough to eliminate the interference problem.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Finders don't need to have intersecting cones to pick up interference. Just look at guys on the ice for example. sonar signals can echo or deflect depending on bottom structure and conditions. I've been on BL and had to move away from my buddies boats over 100ft to eliminate the interference problem. We both run Lowrance and 20 degree tranducers. The cone diameter at 100 feet is only aproximately 35 diameter so no intersection of the cones was taking place.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]All units claim to have filtering or noise reduction features but the reality is when you turn your filters up, you decrease the unit's sensitivity so filters and noise reduction features can be a double edged sword.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]As for the chef's question about running one console mounted unit on two transducers, one up front and one in the back, I have to ask the question. What is your reason for wanting to do this? [/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Most folks who have sonar on the bow also have bow mount trolling motors with transducers attached in one way or another. They used it in conjuction with those electric motors therefore needing it for their specific purpose, whether its bass fishing and using some sort of side finder or vertical jigging directly over the transducer. [/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I'm trying to understand, in a smaller boat, what advantages you would have with with dual tranducers and a console mounted sonar unit? Logistically, mounting a permanent transducer in the bow, even a shoot thru, would be tricky. Obviously, an externally mount transducer would be asking to get ripped off. Maybe I don't see the whole picture.[/size][/font]
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