are all nmea 0184 depth transducers the same ?

Many are made by Airmar...if you find the right area on their web page then there is a large table of compatability. Tbh..I am not sure if that is simply the plug fitting as different plotters use different sockets.
But a simple answer is no..transducers are generally plotter specific not generic.
EDIT..reading other replies I did assume you meant will any transducer simply plug into and work with anything....I had not considered you might want to chop the cable and make up a new plug ...?
 
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can i just wire make A up to display B ?

transducer is 2000 vintage, display is new, VDO. will take 0184 input.
I'm assuming you mean 0183. Yes basically 0183 is standardised and you can mix brands. IF the transducer outputs 0183 (not all do) then you can wire it to the 0183 input of a display and it doesn't matter about mixing brands/makes
 
I'm assuming you mean 0183. Yes basically 0183 is standardised and you can mix brands. IF the transducer outputs 0183 (not all do) then you can wire it to the 0183 input of a display and it doesn't matter about mixing brands/makes

+1

to be absolutely sure you have to find models of both sensor and plotter, and see what SENTENCES the sensor outputs, and what sentences the plotter accepts. There may be 3-4 sentences that refer to depth and you may be extremely unlucky and have the sensor send one and the plotter accepting other.

V.
 
Many are made by Airmar...if you find the right area on their web page then there is a large table of compatability. Tbh..I am not sure if that is simply the plug fitting as different plotters use different sockets.
But a simple answer is no..transducers are generally plotter specific not generic.
EDIT..reading other replies I did assume you meant will any transducer simply plug into and work with anything....I had not considered you might want to chop the cable and make up a new plug ...��
gigm you would be correct if the transducer plugged into the plotter (or whatever) with a direct analogue cable. But the question here relates to a transducer unit that has a little computer inside it that makes it output nmea0183 sentences, rather than analogue data. Once you have got a 0183 sentence, you have an international standard and can usually mix up brands as much as you want.
 
Absolutely correct.
BUT, and it's a big but, have you ever heard of any 2000 vintage Xducer with anything else than analogue, display/brand specific output? I for one can't think of any.

In fact, the OP says that the display accepts NMEA IN (unsurprisingly), but I have a funny feeling that he doesn't know what's the Xducer output... :ambivalence:
Happy to stand corrected from SF, though!
 
Yup. The thread title says it is a nmea 0184(3) xducer. If it isn't then ignore everything I say. I'm just going on the data provided. I had a seatalk 1 transducer in a 2004 new build, which is different from 0183 but same era of technology, so maybe they did exist then.
 
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