transducer head-ache...... - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

dtownfan · 04-03-2010, 06:29 AM

my hummingbird 570 worked great for the first 6 trips.......then......i get very broken readings of the bottom and everything else. i checked the water in the wet well and it was full. powered the unit down many times and restarted in shallow and deep areas with no luck. then i messed with all the setting, no luck. i even removed the tranny and put it directly in the water in several shallow and deep areas, no luck. anyone every have a tranny go bad? i checked all the wires for damage and the voltage on the battery, everything was in good shape.

i am thinking the tranny has an issue since putting it directly in the water did not help. rrrrrrrrrr......spring break with a NON-working unit stinks!

dick fabulous · 04-03-2010, 09:02 AM

Try to reset it. Contact Humminbird.

fongman · 04-03-2010, 09:02 AM

Double check your voltage. When my Garmin goes under 11.5v, I get sonar failure and it shuts down. I would have thought this was enough voltage, especially since it has a low battery alarm feature which goes down to 8 volts!

steveooo · 04-03-2010, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dtownfan

anyone every have a tranny go bad?

This one didn't go well for Eddie Murphy...

dtownfan · 04-03-2010, 03:54 PM

i checked the voltage of the battery, coming out of the battery box, and the power chord where it plugs into the unit. all gave the same readings of 13.2V. i cleaned out the wet well and the bottom of the tranny......both were very clean as i have only had it out 8 times. i wonder if there is something other than water that might help when i replace/swap it. someone posted on here once that some garmin products actually call for mineral oil. hmmmmmmmmmm.......any ideas?

fabulous......how do you reset them? like reset the defaults that the head unit comes with? tried that many times.

after i checked everything i even added a new spacer to the bottom of the rubber cap the tranny is mounted to keep the tranny as close to the hull as possible. it is all but touching now. brought it out to a little fresh water lake to give it a try and got the same F**K up readings.

hummingbird service center is closed till monday. i pulled everything out and prolly gonna ship it back for a new one.

here is my question to all wet mount users out there. Can the constant pinging of the sonar through the water in the wet well harm the the tranny? i only have a small gap there and wonder as the thing would track a 1/4 jig down to 18ish feet the first time a ran the unit. would have checked deeper but that was all the depth of the lake.

frustrated i am! i hope it was a sh**y unit and they treat the swap well.

GregAndrew · 04-03-2010, 04:45 PM

You don't have any other electronics near the FF that might be causing interference do you?

dtownfan · 04-03-2010, 06:26 PM

none....i even shut my cell phone off when working on the unit today. no difference. but no other electronics on-board.

Willy · 04-03-2010, 06:49 PM

D town...
I have a 535 that has a bad transducer.
The readings of the bottom I get are a lot like a bar graph, and the depth is totally off.

If this is anything like what you've seen, it is likely you've got a bad 'ducer.
I don't know why mine decided to go bad, it functioned for years for another user and for a few trips for me, maybe they just 'go bad'?

I'm told H-bird has a good customer repair policy. I tried, and I'll just say... good luck with that.

Sorry for the downer message, but I know your pain.
Garmin for me next time.

For what it's worth,

Willy

dtownfan · 04-03-2010, 10:55 PM

i am gonna try on monday..........i hope the fact that i am the original owner since only january and have my receipt they will help. if not i to am going in a different direction. lowrance or garmin i guess.

Sloberdog · 04-04-2010, 02:55 PM

99% sure it is the ducer. Had my Eagle Cuda acting the same way, had the ducer replaced under warranty. Did all the voltage trouble shooting and in water tests first, for a waste of time. I'm now doing the wet mount, no more gooping it. I get better performance with the wet mount and will quickly replace it if it goes bad again. Good luck.

dtownfan · 05-03-2010, 07:48 AM

finally got out this weekend. the new tranny that hummingbird sent worked like a charm. fired it up and it worked all day (8 am to 6pm).

one modification i did make was to add a rubber stopper to the rubber mounting cap......lowered the tranny closer to the hull.

Willy · 05-03-2010, 08:08 AM

Congrats!

That's great.

Just from curiosity, did you call in the repair request, and then send it in?
Did they require the proof of purchase?

Well done.

Willy

dtownfan · 05-03-2010, 04:14 PM

called and got a work number and shipped it in. they did ask for a proof of purchase. it was back to me in a little over a week.

dsafety · 05-03-2010, 06:13 PM

I have an H-Bird Matrix 12 that probably uses the same transducer. It is nearly new and works better then my first one... when it works. My problem is that on almost every trip, several times during the day, the unit starts giving strange depth readings ranging from showing no depth at all to showing 20 feet when I know I am in over 100 feet. Rebooting the unit usually fixes the problem.

I am virtually certain that this is a hardware problem but since it is intermittent and I cannot reproduce the problem on demand, I am at a loss about what to to. Sending it to H-Bird would be a waste of time since it is not a solid problem so it will probably not show up when they test it. This thing is really starting to piss me off.

I will give this unit one more day on the water and if it acts up again, I will take it back to West Marine.

Anyone have any suggestions.

Bob

sandydiego · 05-03-2010, 07:40 PM

My unit starts out working fine and the on the paddle out stops reading close to the first buoy. I have had this happen 3 times now. I re-adjusted the max depth reading to 290 ft and it works great now. You may need to set your max reading depth at the 300 ft mark.

dtownfan · 05-03-2010, 08:54 PM

if it is under warrenty send it in. they want your business and will send you a new tranny.

04-03-2010, 06:29 AM	#1
dtownfan Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 50	transducer head-ache...... my hummingbird 570 worked great for the first 6 trips.......then......i get very broken readings of the bottom and everything else. i checked the water in the wet well and it was full. powered the unit down many times and restarted in shallow and deep areas with no luck. then i messed with all the setting, no luck. i even removed the tranny and put it directly in the water in several shallow and deep areas, no luck. anyone every have a tranny go bad? i checked all the wires for damage and the voltage on the battery, everything was in good shape. i am thinking the tranny has an issue since putting it directly in the water did not help. rrrrrrrrrr......spring break with a NON-working unit stinks!

04-03-2010, 09:02 AM	#2
dick fabulous Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 90	Try to reset it. Contact Humminbird.

04-03-2010, 09:02 AM	#3
fongman Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 116	Double check your voltage. When my Garmin goes under 11.5v, I get sonar failure and it shuts down. I would have thought this was enough voltage, especially since it has a low battery alarm feature which goes down to 8 volts!

04-03-2010, 03:54 PM	#5
dtownfan Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 50	i checked the voltage of the battery, coming out of the battery box, and the power chord where it plugs into the unit. all gave the same readings of 13.2V. i cleaned out the wet well and the bottom of the tranny......both were very clean as i have only had it out 8 times. i wonder if there is something other than water that might help when i replace/swap it. someone posted on here once that some garmin products actually call for mineral oil. hmmmmmmmmmm.......any ideas? fabulous......how do you reset them? like reset the defaults that the head unit comes with? tried that many times. after i checked everything i even added a new spacer to the bottom of the rubber cap the tranny is mounted to keep the tranny as close to the hull as possible. it is all but touching now. brought it out to a little fresh water lake to give it a try and got the same FK up readings. hummingbird service center is closed till monday. i pulled everything out and prolly gonna ship it back for a new one. here is my question to all wet mount users out there. Can the constant pinging of the sonar through the water in the wet well harm the the tranny? i only have a small gap there and wonder as the thing would track a 1/4 jig down to 18ish feet the first time a ran the unit. would have checked deeper but that was all the depth of the lake. frustrated i am! i hope it was a shy unit and they treat the swap well.

04-03-2010, 04:45 PM	#6
GregAndrew Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 2,384	You don't have any other electronics near the FF that might be causing interference do you?

04-03-2010, 06:26 PM	#7
dtownfan Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 50	none....i even shut my cell phone off when working on the unit today. no difference. but no other electronics on-board.

04-03-2010, 06:49 PM	#8
Willy Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: La Jolla Posts: 189	D town... I have a 535 that has a bad transducer. The readings of the bottom I get are a lot like a bar graph, and the depth is totally off. If this is anything like what you've seen, it is likely you've got a bad 'ducer. I don't know why mine decided to go bad, it functioned for years for another user and for a few trips for me, maybe they just 'go bad'? I'm told H-bird has a good customer repair policy. I tried, and I'll just say... good luck with that. Sorry for the downer message, but I know your pain. Garmin for me next time. For what it's worth, Willy

04-03-2010, 10:55 PM	#9
dtownfan Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 50	i am gonna try on monday..........i hope the fact that i am the original owner since only january and have my receipt they will help. if not i to am going in a different direction. lowrance or garmin i guess.

04-04-2010, 02:55 PM	#10
Sloberdog Junior Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: San Diego Posts: 15	99% sure it is the ducer. Had my Eagle Cuda acting the same way, had the ducer replaced under warranty. Did all the voltage trouble shooting and in water tests first, for a waste of time. I'm now doing the wet mount, no more gooping it. I get better performance with the wet mount and will quickly replace it if it goes bad again. Good luck.

05-03-2010, 07:48 AM	#11
dtownfan Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 50	finally got out this weekend. the new tranny that hummingbird sent worked like a charm. fired it up and it worked all day (8 am to 6pm). one modification i did make was to add a rubber stopper to the rubber mounting cap......lowered the tranny closer to the hull.

05-03-2010, 08:08 AM	#12
Willy Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: La Jolla Posts: 189	Congrats! That's great. Just from curiosity, did you call in the repair request, and then send it in? Did they require the proof of purchase? Well done. Willy

05-03-2010, 04:14 PM	#13
dtownfan Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 50	called and got a work number and shipped it in. they did ask for a proof of purchase. it was back to me in a little over a week.

05-03-2010, 06:13 PM	#14
dsafety Olivenhain Bob Join Date: May 2008 Location: Olivenhain, CA Posts: 1,121	I have an H-Bird Matrix 12 that probably uses the same transducer. It is nearly new and works better then my first one... when it works. My problem is that on almost every trip, several times during the day, the unit starts giving strange depth readings ranging from showing no depth at all to showing 20 feet when I know I am in over 100 feet. Rebooting the unit usually fixes the problem. I am virtually certain that this is a hardware problem but since it is intermittent and I cannot reproduce the problem on demand, I am at a loss about what to to. Sending it to H-Bird would be a waste of time since it is not a solid problem so it will probably not show up when they test it. This thing is really starting to piss me off. I will give this unit one more day on the water and if it acts up again, I will take it back to West Marine. Anyone have any suggestions. Bob

05-03-2010, 07:40 PM	#15
sandydiego Rum Pirate Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Wilds of Mira Mesa Posts: 388	My unit starts out working fine and the on the paddle out stops reading close to the first buoy. I have had this happen 3 times now. I re-adjusted the max depth reading to 290 ft and it works great now. You may need to set your max reading depth at the 300 ft mark.

05-03-2010, 08:54 PM	#16
dtownfan Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 50	if it is under warrenty send it in. they want your business and will send you a new tranny.