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

dtownfan · 04-03-2010, 05:29 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, 08:02 AM

Try to reset it. Contact Humminbird.

fongman · 04-03-2010, 08:02 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, 12:17 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, 02:54 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, 03:45 PM

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

dtownfan · 04-03-2010, 05:26 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, 05:49 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

04-03-2010, 05:29 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, 08:02 AM	#2
dick fabulous Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 90	Try to reset it. Contact Humminbird.

04-03-2010, 08:02 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, 02:54 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, 03:45 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, 05:26 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, 05:49 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