SRMark
Member
I had no idea what a NMEA 2000 backbone was when I did mine either. I contacted BOE marine electronics where I had purchased the Garmin. The NMEA 2000 backbone is a series of connector tees that will allow you to connect older components that are NMEA0183 to your new unit. Emily at BOE was very helpful and assembled a NMEA 2000 backbone for me and sent it to me. That plugged directly into the back of the Garmin and I was able to connect the cord from the transducer into the backbone and it worked.The DST800 transducer gives you depth, speed and water temperature displayed on the Garmin screen. If you want the sonar and fish finder features to work on the Garmin you need a different transducer. BOE can probably help with that if you want those features to work.Purchasing is the EASY part.....but the devil, as always, is in the details. NMEA 2000 backbone....Its not as simple to make that happen without an installer....at least not for me. And here in NJ I cant seem to find a professional electronics installer! At this point I would happily fly SRMark, ttmott and my buddy Jaybeaux in to do this install!