Hi Peter,

I can't find a manual for the DS45 online. Do you have a link, by chance?

And what does the transducer look like -- fixed or in a casing that let's you pull it out for cleaning?

Offhand, I'd favor replacing with a Triton2 display and ducer like this:

https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|344|2028690|2028820&id=3470293

There's got to be a way to mask the hole size differences with a wood or plastic bezel style piece and you'd get nice integration with the Zeus2 (also true of any other NMEA 2000 all-in-one display and compatible transducer). You could even get a "smart" DST from Airmar or others that would just put the depth up on the Zeus and leave the dead DST45 as filler.

But then again, many have solved the problem of using an old depth transducer with a new display, like the great Rodd Collins at Compass Marine:

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/new_depth_old_transducer_ducer

Also, Actisense has a module that can digitize analog ducer info into NMEA 0183 which your Zeus2 may still have (?).

https://www.actisense.com/product/dst-2/

What I doubt you'll find is someone who can fix the DST45, but maybe a reader will pipe up...

Thanks Ben,

I have the manual, but I don't know where to find it online. The transducer is fixed bronze. 

Actisense is interesting, but they have no outlets in the US.  I need some sort of immediate solution. 

I am trying to find out the frequency of the DS45 transducer. Hopefully it is 200 or 210 KHz as Rodd Collins suggests. 

Correction to my earlier post: Aria is 39', not 30'!

Ben, I found the manual online.  Frequency is 203. Here is the link:

http://www.standardhorizon.com/?cmd=showMarineManuals&DivisionID=3

Bless Standard Horizon for keeping all their old manuals online (and don't know how Google missed it).

Actisense is distributed in the U.S. by Gemeco Marine, so a local outfit like Midcoast Marine Electronics could get one quite quickly I'm pretty sure (or maybe Hamilton's). I also see it from U.S. online stores like  https://goo.gl/VGdthL

And I just confirmed that your Zeus2 does have a NMEA 0183 port, so as long as its receive side is not doing something else, the Actisense DST2 could work. You might want to check with Actisense that the 200khz model with work with 203, but I suspect yes.

Posted by: Peter Coburn

Thanks Ben,

I have the manual, but I don't know where to find it online. The transducer is fixed bronze. 

Actisense is interesting, but they have no outlets in the US.  I need some sort of immediate solution. 

I am trying to find out the frequency of the DS45 transducer. Hopefully it is 200 or 210 KHz as Rodd Collins suggests. 

Correction to my earlier post: Aria is 39', not 30'!

Peter, 

You can get the Actisense DST-2 from a number of vendors in the US - a quick Google Search turned up NavStore, iMarine, and WMJ Marine - all who carry and can ship pretty quickly. I've used one of these before on an older boat I was working on, for almost the same reason - a dead setup midway through the boating season, and the owner needed a quick fix.

Incidentally, Raymarine seems to have discontinued the Depth Pod that Rod appeared to be using back in 2010. They do have the ITC-5 converter than can take 200khz depth all the way to SeaTalkNG (same as NMEA 2000), but it seems like overkill for what you're trying to do:

http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=3338

The DST2 manual says "Depth sounding frequency tolerance around the designed frequency is -2 +2 kHz," which seems very close. Plus I don't think that these types of transducers are spot on frequency perfect, anyway, so assume there's some fudge factor built in by Actisense and others.

The word from Actisense was: "The DST-200 should work fine with this – most transducers have a fair bit of leeway anyway on their centre frequency." I also know via email that Peter has ordered the DST and has a smart guy to install it. Hopefully he will report in on how it works.

I don't know the details yet but apparently the Actisense DST2 easily solved the problem on Peter's boat. Cool!