No Clue!

[Nodak7]

I have a Raymarine St290 Instrument Package on the boat and after recommissioning this spring the depth is reading intermittently and mostly not at all. Can anyone give me a clue how to determine whether it is the Transducer or cabling or what or how to troubleshoot it? It will read for a minute or two then not at all for quite a while. I pulled the transducer out and looked at it to see if there was a problem but that looked fine. Jiggled the wiring and that had no effect. So much for my troublshooting capabilities! I figured that the only way I can tell what is going on is to purchase another transducer and install that. Any other suggestions?

 

[Bill Roosa]

Check the terminals on the back of the control head. The signals are low voltage so any corrosion will cause problems
99.44% of all electrical problems on boats is corroded terminals!!!

 

[Nodak7]

Check the terminals on the back of the control head. The signals are low voltage so any corrosion will cause problems
99.44% of all electrical problems on boats is corroded terminals!!!

Thanks Bill! I will give that a try!

 

[Bill Roosa]

If you have enough extra hose and the female ring part checks out you can try cutting off the very tip of the hose. I'd try a piece of scrap hose on the fitting first to be sure. You can't go around making hoses shorter and expect to not pay for it later

 

[Scott]

Hey Bill
Whaaaat? I think you responded to the other post.

 

[Don12364]

What does it show when it is NOT reading. i.e. do you see a line of dashes, or a message or just a blank screen.
If a blank screen then it seems likely that the power to the instrument has been interrupted. If you see anything on screen then at least the power is still there. Try the panel back light too.

Next question: Is the transducer an in hull or a through hull installation. In hull there is a possibility it has been knocked and not making proper contact with the hull, or if using oil to make contact, then this may have leaked away.
Through hull it could be well covered in antifouling paint. The manual says not to do this though I have never found it was capable of stopping the unit working.
The transducer could be damaged though they are normally very resistant to being bashed by yardies.

Is the instrument out in the weather? If the ST50 type these have a penchant to leak through the 4 screws that connect the front to the back of the case (Later models too).
Open the case and look for a tide mark about 3/8" up from the lower edge of the printed circuit board. If so its dead. If not put unit together again and cover screw head holes at back with pvc tape patches then put another band round the join covering the natty little red rubber gasket because this leaks too.

If none of the above get an old AM transistor radio, put it on long wave at the lowest frequency it will tune to. Make sure it is NOT tuned to a station, turn the volume up and hold it near to the instrument and then to the transducer (inside the hull). You should hear it go 'tick', 'tick', 'tick'.
If not the instrument is not transmitting - its dead.
If it is ticking and you still don't see anything on the display then suspect the transducer.

If you can get a transducer on loan from a pal just connect it to the instrument and dangle it over the side of the boat. It should read OK. They are fully sealed.
Incidentally most other makes of sounder transducers will give some readings in shallow water providing you can connect them to the instrument. It only needs two wires and one can work wonders by unbending paper clips and poking them into plug holes then using bits of stripped off wire insulation as sleeves on the other ends of the paper clips to hold them to plug pins.

Now you know all my secrets!
Good luck.

 

[Nodak7]

What does it show when it is NOT reading. i.e. do you see a line of dashes, or a message or just a blank screen.
If a blank screen then it seems likely that the power to the instrument has been interrupted. If you see anything on screen then at least the power is still there. Try the panel back light too.

Next question: Is the transducer an in hull or a through hull installation. In hull there is a possibility it has been knocked and not making proper contact with the hull, or if using oil to make contact, then this may have leaked away.
Through hull it could be well covered in antifouling paint. The manual says not to do this though I have never found it was capable of stopping the unit working.
The transducer could be damaged though they are normally very resistant to being bashed by yardies.

Is the instrument out in the weather? If the ST50 type these have a penchant to leak through the 4 screws that connect the front to the back of the case (Later models too).
Open the case and look for a tide mark about 3/8" up from the lower edge of the printed circuit board. If so its dead. If not put unit together again and cover screw head holes at back with pvc tape patches then put another band round the join covering the natty little red rubber gasket because this leaks too.

If none of the above get an old AM transistor radio, put it on long wave at the lowest frequency it will tune to. Make sure it is NOT tuned to a station, turn the volume up and hold it near to the instrument and then to the transducer (inside the hull). You should hear it go 'tick', 'tick', 'tick'.
If not the instrument is not transmitting - its dead.
If it is ticking and you still don't see anything on the display then suspect the transducer.

If you can get a transducer on loan from a pal just connect it to the instrument and dangle it over the side of the boat. It should read OK. They are fully sealed.
Incidentally most other makes of sounder transducers will give some readings in shallow water providing you can connect them to the instrument. It only needs two wires and one can work wonders by unbending paper clips and poking them into plug holes then using bits of stripped off wire insulation as sleeves on the other ends of the paper clips to hold them to plug pins.

Now you know all my secrets!
Good luck.

:wow: Thank you so much for sharing this!

1st....It reads numbers.... 2150 for quite some time then it began reading for awhile. It finished the day at 51.4 feet and never moved from there.

2nd it is a thru hull installation.

3rd it just spent 6 months out in the weather. Or at least the transducer part was. Next year I will put it inside.

4th it is a ST60 type

Could it receive and not transmit? I turned on my "backup" depth finder (a cheapie Lowrance Fishfinder)and I thought it was a coincidence that the ST60 started to read for awhile and then quit. Was it coincidence?

Thanks again for this great post!

 

[Nodak7]

What does it show when it is NOT reading. i.e. do you see a line of dashes, or a message or just a blank screen.
If a blank screen then it seems likely that the power to the instrument has been interrupted. If you see anything on screen then at least the power is still there. Try the panel back light too.

Next question: Is the transducer an in hull or a through hull installation. In hull there is a possibility it has been knocked and not making proper contact with the hull, or if using oil to make contact, then this may have leaked away.
Through hull it could be well covered in antifouling paint. The manual says not to do this though I have never found it was capable of stopping the unit working.
The transducer could be damaged though they are normally very resistant to being bashed by yardies.

Is the instrument out in the weather? If the ST50 type these have a penchant to leak through the 4 screws that connect the front to the back of the case (Later models too).
Open the case and look for a tide mark about 3/8" up from the lower edge of the printed circuit board. If so its dead. If not put unit together again and cover screw head holes at back with pvc tape patches then put another band round the join covering the natty little red rubber gasket because this leaks too.

If none of the above get an old AM transistor radio, put it on long wave at the lowest frequency it will tune to. Make sure it is NOT tuned to a station, turn the volume up and hold it near to the instrument and then to the transducer (inside the hull). You should hear it go 'tick', 'tick', 'tick'.
If not the instrument is not transmitting - its dead.
If it is ticking and you still don't see anything on the display then suspect the transducer.

If you can get a transducer on loan from a pal just connect it to the instrument and dangle it over the side of the boat. It should read OK. They are fully sealed.
Incidentally most other makes of sounder transducers will give some readings in shallow water providing you can connect them to the instrument. It only needs two wires and one can work wonders by unbending paper clips and poking them into plug holes then using bits of stripped off wire insulation as sleeves on the other ends of the paper clips to hold them to plug pins.

Now you know all my secrets!
Good luck.

Well, I tried it all. And here was what I found....

The AM radio did receive the transmissions from the transducer but I am not still not seeing any depth on either the Depth Instrument (ST290) or the Multifunction Devices (MFD) (E80 & E120). The Instrument still read Last Depth 0 and the MFD's read 2150'. From the transducer the wires go to a Depth Pod and from there to the Instruments. I therefor deduce that the problem is not the transducer but the Pod.

I did get another transducer and installed it but when I connected it to the Pod I got an error that read "Checksum Error". Not certain what that means but I never did get a reading from it. Again it seems to point to a bad Pod.

My next option is to purchase another Pod and replace the one I have. After that I am afraid I am SOL..... Raymarine has not been terribly helpful.

Any additional help would be appreciated........