Aquascan magnetometer project

Commdiver23 · Nov 3, 2025

Hello guys,
I am a retired commercial diver. I have a project I am getting into and I am looking for some insight.
I have an older aquascan wreckfinder Mc4 magnetometer unused. I want to connect this unit to my laptop. I know I can just buy a newer mag and do this but this seems like it's going to be fun.
I have tested the mag it works just fine.
I only have the towfish and power cable no data cables.
Here is what I am thinking. I am on my yacht right now and I think this may work. I have a raymarine network on my yacht. I have a 0183 to nmea 2000 converter on board connecting older instruments to my new MFD, I also have one of those yacht devices nmea 2000 to usb converters connecting the network to my pc. Everything works 1000%. I even run AIS decoder to decode and package nmea sentences to output udp packages via starlink to Marine traffics website (i am a mobile ais station).
So back to the mag. The mag control box has a printer/chart recorder output plug on the back. I do not have the cable. I would like to test the plug's output to see what is what, from what I read online that plug requires a 9 volt power supply.
I am thinking I can wire up a cable and connect the mag control box to my existing network on my boat, then I would see depth, speed, direction, GPS everything would be there but now I will be adding the data from the mag. I could then perhaps run one of several free mag survey software programs on my pc and see this data on a map.
I have already emailed aquascan many times and I get the impression they don't even know what a magnetometer is let alone recall producing the Mc4, they want absolutely nothing to do with the Mc4 whatsoever. They did tell me that the Mc4 has No data out and No gps ports period none on the box. THIS ONE DOES. I took the box apart and all the plugs are wired to the motherboard so someone somewhere made this model with gps in and data out. If you search online the mc5 manual is actually the box I have. Perhaps my unit is the last creation of the Mc4 and is very closely related to the mc5. I just looked at a picture in the mc5 manual and it is exactly my box.
So how do I test and power the data out port? What pin is what? Does it matter? I need to make a cable to connect this to my 0183 to 2000 converter.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

vpnavy · Nov 4, 2025

Commdiver23 said:
...older aquascan wreckfinder Mc4 magnetometer unused...how do I test and power the data out port? What pin is what...

I moved ya from HELP! over to METAL DETECTORS > BRANDS for more exposure.

NOTE: Forum HELP! contains guides tutorials on how to use the new TreasureNet.com software.

Commdiver23 · Nov 4, 2025

Commdiver23 said:
Hello guys,
I am a retired commercial diver. I have a project I am getting into and I am looking for some insight.
I have an older aquascan wreckfinder Mc4 magnetometer unused. I want to connect this unit to my laptop. I know I can just buy a newer mag and do this but this seems like it's going to be fun.
I have tested the mag it works just fine.
I only have the towfish and power cable no data cables.
Here is what I am thinking. I am on my yacht right now and I think this may work. I have a raymarine network on my yacht. I have a 0183 to nmea 2000 converter on board connecting older instruments to my new MFD, I also have one of those yacht devices nmea 2000 to usb converters connecting the network to my pc. Everything works 1000%. I even run AIS decoder to decode and package nmea sentences to output udp packages via starlink to Marine traffics website (i am a mobile ais station).
So back to the mag. The mag control box has a printer/chart recorder output plug on the back. I do not have the cable. I would like to test the plug's output to see what is what, from what I read online that plug requires a 9 volt power supply.
I am thinking I can wire up a cable and connect the mag control box to my existing network on my boat, then I would see depth, speed, direction, GPS everything would be there but now I will be adding the data from the mag. I could then perhaps run one of several free mag survey software programs on my pc and see this data on a map.
I have already emailed aquascan many times and I get the impression they don't even know what a magnetometer is let alone recall producing the Mc4, they want absolutely nothing to do with the Mc4 whatsoever. They did tell me that the Mc4 has No data out and No gps ports period none on the box. THIS ONE DOES. I took the box apart and all the plugs are wired to the motherboard so someone somewhere made this model with gps in and data out. If you search online the mc5 manual is actually the box I have. Perhaps my unit is the last creation of the Mc4 and is very closely related to the mc5. I just looked at a picture in the mc5 manual and it is exactly my box.
So how do I test and power the data out port? What pin is what? Does it matter? I need to make a cable to connect this to my 0183 to 2000 converter.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Update. The output port has 6 pins. I opened the box up again just incase the wire colors mean anything. Facing the port the top pin is grey wire. Going clockwise the upper right pin is purple wire the lower right pin is blue wire the lower pin is green wire the bottom left pin is yellow wire and the top left pin is white wire.
I hooked the towfish up and powered up the unit. The readings I am about to share with you do not mean anything I just had the towfish laying in the cockpit. I just wanted to see which one of the pins were producing voltage when the needle would move.
The top upper pin with the Grey wire would jump from 4-5.27 volts as the unit would pulse. All the other pins would jump from about 0.15v - 0.32volts when the unit would pulse.
That is all I have at this time. I am going to download a few different mag survey programs and check the out maybe they have info about what kind of signal needs to be received.