GPS/Locator wiring

[jparrucci]

My brother owns a new Crestline 1600 Angler, single consel. We put a Lowrance X-52 on the dash of the counsel, but are thinking of upgrading to a GPS/Locator combo. I also have my Lowrance h2Oc mounted to the dash. The h2O is only good if you are sitting in the drivers seat directly behind it and is not a very big screen. We would like to upgrage to a combo unit with a larger screen. I have been looking at the 334-altough some of the stories on here have me thinking otherwise. Oh, forgot to mention that I have the Lakemaster chip.

Ok, now for the tricky question on the basis of this. Is there anyway to get/buy/mount/wire a GPS/fishfinder combo so that it can be placed both at the counsel and then again up front at the casting deck. It would be much more nice to have a unit that can go on the counsel for cruising around spot to spot and being able to view while driving and also having the unit where the person controlling the trolling motor can view it while they fish. So is it possible to rig up the wiring so the unit can be moved around the boat to multiple locations? Having the units on the dash does no good while fishing if you cant see them from either the front or back deck, and mounting it way up front does no good while moving from spot to spot. If the H20 was easier to read and bigger we would just add a unit up front at the casting deck and just leave it there in addition to the setup we have now, but as much as I like it, that thing is impossible to read at any angle during the day, let alone in the sun. Any help/thoughts/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

[TroutAngler]

They do make mounting brackets that allow you to swivel the locator in many directions from the same mounted position on or near your console. Also, RAM mounts might be an option.

[jparrucci]

We pondered getting a swivel mount to put on the dash. It would require us to get a new windshield for the boat though, as the current one is tinted very dark and not easy to see through. I doubt that it would fit a larger screened graph/gps in the space above the dash regardless. Another issue is the sore neck always looking backwards from the front deck, as the unit would be behind the person in the front deck.

[bigbucks]

I have the 332c which is the 334 that still requires the external antennae. I've moved that back & forth from front to back on a trial basis swapping with my X-125 which is the same depth finder in B & W, with no GPS, & uses the same power hookup & transducer.

On mine & I'm assuming on the 334 as well, you need a second power connection for the GPS portion, but only one per boat, that you can connect multiple units to. From my understanding you could run the regular power & GPS power to both spots & switch the unit back & forth. You could simply purchase a second transducer to go on your bowmount that would be used when operating up front. I think it would be a bit of a hassle moving back & forth, but if you had a detachable swivel mount (Johnny Ray's what I have) in both places, that makes it easier as well.

I didn't have the GPS portion connected when I was using it up front, because I didn't wire it for that. I have the H20 B & W handheld as well.

[SteveWilson]

Lowrance has instructions on how to wire the GPS anntena to serve multiple units. That is how you will want to set up your wiring, then just move the unit from the console to the front.

[PerchJerker]

I don't think the LowranceNet will work for this. I think you always need all the ports or connections "closed", ie. connected to a unit or sensor. I don't think the Network works if you have an "open" network, ie. have a cable that is not connected to anything. It will let you use one antenna to serve multiple units, but I don't think it will let you wire 2 locations for 1 unit where 1 location is always open. I'm not positive about this, but that is what I understand from reading their NMEA network installation manual.

[SteveWilson]

you might need to rig in a terminating resistor when you move the unit.

[PerchJerker]

That might work for a simple network where you only have 1 unit and 1 antenna -- you could probably get it to work by running an extension cable to the "other" location and putting a 60 Ohmm terminator on the end of the "open" cable.

But if the network is expanded with T connectors to tie in additional units or sensors or devices you will always have 2 open ends from the T connectors and need two 120 Ohmm terminators there - leaving you SOL for the "extra" set of network wires for the 1 unit. At least this is the way it looks to me from their manual, but I haven't tried it so I can't say for sure.

[SpecialK]

I thought they sold terminator units / plugs already?

[PerchJerker]

They do. But the way I understand the manual you have to have one 60 Ohmm terminator OR two 120 Ohmm terminators in your network - no other options or the network won't work.

The gps unit comes with one 60 Ohmm terminator. If you start buying network nodes (ie. T connectors) to expand, it comes with two 120 Ohmm terminators.

Again, that's the way it looked to me from reading the manual and looking at the diagrams. I might be wrong.

[PerchJerker]

I have an update on this.

I switched the locations of my sonars and gps today, and just for kicks I unhooked one of the units in the middle of the network just to see if the rest of the network would still work, and it did (even though someone at Lowrance Tech support told me it wouldn't work like that).

So, based on that little experiment I think you might be okay if you have a small network with the ends terminated with two 120 Ohm terminators like they show in their diagrams, and have an extra T connector and "open" set of cables in the middle of the network (ie. one set of cables to the bow, other set to the console).

I didn't play around with it very much but I had my gps unit disconnected from the network, and I was able to use my sonar unit to read info from my gps module and from my temperature sensors. Small test but it seemed to work even though the network T connector for my GPS was "open", cables just laying there waiting to be hooked up.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have more questions.