Transducer?

[oscar]

I have a humminbird 788c. The depth readings will only work part of the time. It seems to default to either 0.7 or 1.4 feet. I noticed that sometimes when I steer the boat to the right it will pick up and be accurate, and when going left it will default back to the wrong readings. This occurs when running the outboard at higher speeds, but when going slower once it displays the 1.4 or 0.7 it will not correct itself. Has anyone else had this issue? Could the transducer be bad or could there be another underlying issue?
Any assistance would be appreciated!

[DoorCo]

I had similar symptoms with my Humminbird 1197C. In my case it would read 3.8 or 4.2 feet. The chart would still scroll. I also had a large false blue colored solid band from 0 to 5 foot deep. I have two transducers mounted. One "puck" transducer for normal 2D viewing. This is mounted inside the hull of my fiberglass boat. The second is a "thru hull" side imaging transducer. I replace the 2D puck transducer and it fixed my problem. Not sure why a transducer mounted inside the hull would go bad so soon but it did.

[REW]

All,
When I talked to Hummingbird support, they indicated that it was quite important to have the transducer in water; any time that the sonar function was turned on.

If you want to use your gps for practice or similar, turn off the sonar function.

The support folks indicated that there have been a number of transducers failing as a result of running them out of water.

Be safe
REW

[DoorCo]

Rew, what doesn't make sense is where the transducer is mounted inside a fiberglass hull. The transducer is mounted by epoxy directly to the hull. So technically never "in the water" directly. If your correct then Humminbird has a significant design flaw on their transducers. Plus when I pull my boat out off the water I usually don't turn locator off untill I,m done tieing down etc. I,m sure this few minutes shouldn't be harming the transducer?? Again if your correct Humminbird better find a better solution.

[REW]

Door,
If the transducer is epoxied in the boat, and if the boat is in the water, the transducer is effectively in the water.

With respect to transducer failures, I am only repeating what was told me by Hummingbird support.

REW

[oscar]

I just didn't think that the transducer would fail that quickly. It is only 3 years old. I have had it on out of the water, but only for very short periods of time. The part that puzzles me is that it will function when actually turning the boat. It is mounted in the hull of a Ranger Reata. At first I thought it could be caused by air or bubbles when running, but then it also started occurring at slow speeds.

[TravP]

I highly doubt having a transducer out of the water will make it go bad. Sounds like the same BS Humminbird told me when they said it was "normal" for the gps speeds to jump up to 4mph, while sitting still on a trailer.

[Hawker]

I'm guessing that the transducer is epoxied in place, correct?? Over the years I've seen a couple of transducers that have become partially dislodged or separated from the epoxy, allowing an air gap between the transducer face and the hull which in turn will give erroneous readings like you describe. It does not take much! I would give the transducer mounting a close inspection to see if it is loose or has become separated from the hull just to eliminate that as a cause! Transducer may not be "bad" at all, just it's mounting!