Lowrance HDS-5X to Garmin Etrex Legend

[camaro82]

Hi All,
I want to hook up my Lowrance HDS-5X to my Garmin Etrex legend via NMEA 0183. There are 4 wires on the garmin, V+, RxD, TxD and Ground. But there are 5 wires on the HDS, Tx+, Tx-, Rx+, Rx- and ground, what wires connect to what? thanks.

[hiwayman]

to tranasfer waypoints from the garmin to the lowrance hook the nmea out wire from the garmin to the nmea in wire on the lowrance. owners manuals from each should have a wiring diagram telling which colors these will be. I did this years ago, but cant remember the wire colors, but it worked pretty quickly.

[camaro82]

I know i have to send the receive to the transmit and vice versa, i just dont know what ones on the HDS and there is receive and transmit in positive and negative?

[Shellback]

I'm not experienced in transferring waypoints between manufacturers, but a previous post talked about sharing info between a Humminbird unit and a Lowrance unit. I believe it was stated Lowrance uses NMEA 2000 and the Humminbird NMEA 0183, so it wasn't possible. If you can't share directly between the 2 units, I think there is a computer program that allows you to download waypoints and convert them over. If you find you need to do it that way, check out crappie.com and ask for Canepole, he's a wizard on that stuff and runs Lowrance and garmin equipment.

[yarcraft91]

Spend a few minutes with both manuals, but here's what I expect you need to do:
Legend TxD <-----> HDS5 RX+
Legend RxD <----> HDS5 TX+
Legend Ground <-----> HDS5 TX-, RX- tied together (may also need to tie the Shield/ground in to this connection, try and see)
Legend V+ ----- no connection
I made a similar NMEA 0183 connection between a Garmin Legend and Lowrance LMS-334i.
http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41151&highlight=garmin+334i
The main difference is the 334i had only 3 data wires- Tx, Rx and Shield/ground.

[camaro82]

Thanks Yarcraft91, thats what i needed to know, ill try it out and see how it goes, thanks for your help!