Fish Finder Help
 

I took off my transducer because i was not happy with my ff readings. There were a ton of bubbles in the old goop. I was taking the goop off and accidentally shaved a small section in the rear of the transducer. Is this thing destroyed?

Hard to see in the photo:


http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...transducer.jpg

Thanks!

Probably not. I think there is actually an inner metal core that is coated by the rubber lining. Go ahead and give it a try, and then you will know for sure.

As an aside, I quit using goop because I thought it was too prone to bubbles. I switched to epoxy, and after that switched to mounting it outside the kayak. Now I get a crystal clear signal.

David

Cool I figured it was just a rubber coating but with how sensitive to bubbles they are who knows. Now I'm debating dsafteys way of wet mount or just putting the damn thing in the water.

As I understand the way sonar devices work, they are tuned to transmit and receive sound through a medium that is a particular density. The rubber coating on the unit as well as the Goop, epoxy or the kayak shell are all about the same density as water so the equipment works as designed.

Air is much less dense so the signals passing through air get degraded. Other materials such as dirt, rocks, kelp and yes, even fish are more dense than water so the sound bounces off these objects and is returned to the sonar unit where the echos are decoded and shown on the screen.

Assuming that this explanation is correct, it just makes sense that the best fish finder images will come when your transducer signal is not degraded by air bubbles or other materials with densities that do not approximate water. Some fish finder units even let you tune the signal a bit. Mine has a setting for both fresh and salt water for example.

Bob

I have a couple of scraps on my transducer that are much worse than that

(Trident thru the scupper hole)

she works just as good as new

if you can find a way, put it in the water. it's a world of difference. I have the thru-hull t-ducer for the humminbird that goes through the scupper. it's amazing what you'll see.

I originally had a matrix 12 with the puck mounted inside with goop. it worked ok. once I got the scupper t-ducer, it was amazing. had to turn the sensitivity way down. suddenly everything popped up on the screen.

now I have a 363 but it's the same t-ducer. really so much better to get it outside. guess the second best option is the wet mount.

Dsafety, you're right about density being important to signal quality. It seems to me that I read somewhere that what the FF really detects is not the fish, but rather the air bladder in the fish. When you are dealing with equipment that is that sensitive, you can see where some air bubbles would mess up its ability to interpret the sonar signal.

The transducer is designed to work in a medium that is as dense as water. Less dense means less range. More dense is better (more sensitive) but may change the depth readings. If the dense medium is less than a couple of inches, it should not matter.

That said, it does not look like that your transducers is broke. Just make sure you don't install it again with air bubbles. I advise a wet mount.

/bing

read this...
very informative....
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/T...onar-Tutorial/