Location: 31 | Mark ONeill - 5/1/2013 10:12 AM
The kit Mad Musky listed will work for hooking up the puck, but my guess is that your connectors are the older blue ones, so an adaptor cable (from Lowrance, it adapts the blue connector to the newer black ones) will be required to hook up the puck to this network.
Mark is exactly right; it's not a simple hook up with the newer Lowrance starter kit if you have a GPS antenna with a blue collared connector. You're going to have to do some research if you want to use one GPS antenna for both units. It might be a good idea to just get a newer black collared antenna and the starter kit if you plan on updating/networking with newer electronics in the future (they also have red collar that's the same as black, and then there's the old-old gray collars).
His original question wasn't linking the sonar, but certainly the Ethernet cable would be the best way to accomplish that, provided there are yellow Ethernet connections on the back of each unit.
The simple answer regarding using one GPS antenna is to use a properly configured GPS connection for the two units, which can be done without having the units networked. The only way to share waypoints/Icons/trails between two or more older units is by installing a properly configured backbone network with compatible units.
Here some pretty good information I found in March.
Lowrance Networking 101
If you are new to the concept of networking your Lowrance units, this thread may be of some value to you - especially if you are looking to network older Lowrance units.
I am attempting to share what I have recently learned regarding Lowrance networking; I think of there being two generations ("my words, not theirs") of Lowrance networks:
1) The first generation (roughly 2003-2007) was proprietary to Lowrance and used "blue" (actually, two-tone blue/gray) network cabling accessories/components. During this period Lowrance manufactured and sold units that used the "blue" network components. Most of the "blue" networking components have part nos that end with a "BL" suffix ("BL"=blue). Examples of some of the more common/affordable units sold during this timeframe are the LMS-330c/332c/334c/X102c/Globalmap 3500c/3600c, etc. (none of these products have the additional "yellow" ethernet jack)
2) The second generation (roughly 2008-present) is based on the NMEA 2000 standard where the networking components are more interchangeable between brands (Lowrance and Hummingbird). Lowrance's initial NMEA 2000 cable accessories/components were two-tone red/gray in color. The newest Lowrance NMEA 2000 cable accessories/components are all black. These NMEA 2000 compliant products are functionally interchangeable even though they are different colors. i.e. red/gray and black components work perfectly together. Most of the "red" networking components have part nos that end with a "RD" suffix ("RD"=red = black). Examples of some of the more common/affordable units sold between 2008-2010 are the LMS-520c/522c/525c/527c/X510c/Globalmap 5200c/5300c, etc. (ALL of these products have the "fourth" yellow ethernet jack). Note: most simple networks need to be terminated on each end by 120 ohm resistors.
Thus you will hear people referring to their Lowrance's network as either being "blue" (first generation) or "red/black" (second generation). Most of the units referenced above, shipped with either the Lowrance PC-26BL or PC-27BL power cords - which has the integrated network power supply cable. Up until this point the network was designed to be powered by one of the networked units. When Lowrance introduced the HDS units, this changed - Lowrance now designed the network to be powered using a separate power node (N2K-PWR-RD) which supplies DC power directly to the network backbone.
Lowrance has manufacturered a network adapter cable (NAC-MRD2MBL) that enables blue units to be added to a red/black network, OR conversely, a network adapter cable (NAC-FRD2FBL) that enables red units to be added to the older blue network.
Network versus Ethernet:
The NMEA network allows all networked mapping units to share one GPS antenna, share new waypoints (as new waypoints are saved, they are transmitted and shared with other mapping units), and allows sharing of some basic digital data. The network does NOT allow the sharing of any SD card (Navionics, Lakemaster, Fishing Hot Spots) map information between units.
An ethernet connection allows the sharing of the actual sonar information. The simplest setup involves plugging one transducer into one unit. Run one ethernet extension cable (yellow ends) between the two units with ethernet capability. The second unit sees the exact same sonar read-out as the source unit. In other words, when you have two ethernet units, you no longer need the Lowrance transducer switch box (SB10-BL). The broadband sonar unit, expansion ports, etc. have numerous ethernet output jacks. With this additional investment one transducer can be shared with three+ units.
One networking caveat that I am aware of; NMEA and ethernet networked units need to be updated to the same (preferably, most current) software version. AND updating the software on the sonar units without the SD card slot (example: X510c) can be done via the network, but is a bit tricky.
Edited by Jerry Newman 5/6/2013 9:54 PM
|
