Question for the Humminbird Electronics Junkies out there.....

[KevinWI]

Ok....the Helix, Solix, Apex units all use a transducer of one form or another. SI/DI/2d etc. Transducer cable goes from the transducer to the head unit. They also have power cable for each head unit.
To have units talk to eachother you need an ethernet cable. To have 2 units talking to eachother, it's an ethernet cable between units....add a third unit and you have to use an ethernet switch.
Mega 360..... It comes with a transducer cable and power cable...so if you hook it to a head unit that already has it's own transducer, you need a Y splitter cable...... ok....all fair enough.
Now we have Mega Live. It comes with a power cable and an ethernet cable....no transducer cable....WHY? Why is it that every other transducer needs a transducer cable, but the Mega live only needs an ethernet cable? I mean Mega Live LITERALLY IS A TRANSDUCER. Anyone??? Bueller???

 

[Still Afloat]

I would guess that the Megalive has multiple built in transducers and the signal processing takes place at the unit. So rather than trying to move analog data around it does the A/D conversion as quickly as possible then it just moves the resulting digital data via Ethernet. Otherwise, moving the massive amount of analog data would be a big bottle neck and “realtime” would not be possible.