Cetrek Depth Gauge

[dottieshusband]

Hi, the display on my bridge Cetrek Depth sounder has gone out. I believe they no longer make or service the units. Does anybody know of another head unit that is compatible with the Cetrek transducer?? Thanks

 

[jim rosenthal]

There is a possibility that the transducer was not made by them in fact, but was made by Airmar, which makes most of the transducers sold worldwide for sonar units such as ours. It would be worth phoning Airmar to find this out; you can find them on the web as they also sell their units directly. Sonar transducers are made to standard kHz profiles for different purposes, and you should be able to find out what you have there- more than likely 200kHz or 235 kHz. You may have to buy an adapter plug to connect the transducer to a unit from another manufacturer, but that still beats having to haul the boat, remove the transducer, and put another one into the boat. There may be some ID on the transducer itself, or Airmar may be able to tell you if they made yours if you give them the model number of the original Cetrek depth sounder. More than likely, it will be a 235 kHz unit and compatible with later ones from different brands if you can get the wiring issues sorted out.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I neglected to mention that you could always look for another head unit for the Cetrek system on eBay, as well, or in marine stores that have used items.

 

[Boatsb]

Don't throw good money after bad. Buying a used sounded will be a temp fix not a solution. The old unit died after 2x its expected life. This is the boat gods telling you its time for a new sounder.

Do hou have a mfd that can use a sounder module? Can you get to the area of the transducer to mount one temp that shoots through the hull.


Todays technology is so much better that its crazy to get another old one.

 

[dottieshusband]

Thanks Jim, the unit is really not that old, or that good! It was installed around 2004/2005. Ironically the "old" one, in the pilothouse still works fine. I've been checking ebay with no luck for a few months now. I think the displays on all of these Cetrek units was a weak point. I would love one of the new Raymarine, or Garmin units.. but as you correctly point out, the issues is getting the boat pulled for a new transducer. The Raymaring unit would require a new transducer, and I assume the Garmin would as well. Unfortunately, the transducer was painted with the bilge, so there is no possibility of getting a model number or mfg, but I also assume it is a "standard" type that would work with a variety of display heads.. if I had a pinout. So I guess I'll just put it on the list of "to do's" for when I have the boat pulled.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Is Cetrek still in business? They can tell you which transducer was shipped with that model. More than likely it was made by Airmar, who can also sell you a cable adapter to connect it to another display head which will power it. Also, as he said above, it may very well work with a MFD unit, at least for the depth information. Hardly anyone uses them for speed info anymore, since we all have GPS that tells us how fast the boat is moving over ground. If it is a transducer that also does speed and temp, you just need to figure out how to connect it for the depth information only.

I agree that replacing obsolete items with other obsolete items is kind of pointless. But transducer technology hasn't moved all that far, and a transducer installed in 2005 may still be pretty modern. It's worth finding out if you CAN connect it to a different system, or integrate it into a more flexible MFD system. Good luck on all this and let us know what you find out.

 

[dottieshusband]

I have a Raymarine E7 on the flybridge, and with the rf control, and Ipad app, it really is the best thing out there. I have been told that you need a "special" transducer to interface with the E7, but til then, I would really like to just get a previous generation display head, and use the existing transducer. I found a Cetrek transducer, and it only has 2 pins.. so I getting optimistic that I might actually be able to use the current transducer with a different display head. Tomorrow I'm going to pull the old head and see what I'm dealing with.