Never had a depth sounder till this year so don't have much experience with them. It worked fine most of the summer. Then the following sequence of events: I left the instruments "on" when I left the boat. Came back the following weekend and the battery was dead. Charged the batteries for perhaps 1/2 an hour on trickle charger while I washed the boat, and then for 15 minutes or so on alternator while I ran out the channel. Depth sounder (Horizon) worked OK for about an hour, then as battery drained again started giving crazy readings. Worked OK briefly again on the way in with the motor running. BUT ... ever since, when you turn it on it starts out at about 6 and starts counting up (6.1, 6.2, 6.3 etc) until you turn it off. Turn it back on, does the same thing. Ideas? Tom Monroe Carlyle Lake
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D
Denis
12V
Couple of ideas: Based on your description of events, I suspect your battery is not charged up and possibly defective. A weak voltage does drive some depthsounder crazy. I don't know about the Horizon but on the Raymarine there is a calibration procedure. If there is such a procedure for your model, I would perform it to reset things.
Couple of ideas: Based on your description of events, I suspect your battery is not charged up and possibly defective. A weak voltage does drive some depthsounder crazy. I don't know about the Horizon but on the Raymarine there is a calibration procedure. If there is such a procedure for your model, I would perform it to reset things.
J
Jim
sounder
Power is everything. Bring your battery up to snuff and I bet your sounder will be fine. Regards, Jim
Power is everything. Bring your battery up to snuff and I bet your sounder will be fine. Regards, Jim
Most new stuff has a low V max of 9.2 V,below that
and they don't work rite,get back to 12V and reset
and they don't work rite,get back to 12V and reset
T
Tom Monroe
simulation mode
Update ... appears the thing has gone into a "simulation mode", per the manual, but won't toggle back out of it. Tom Monroe Carlyle Lake
Update ... appears the thing has gone into a "simulation mode", per the manual, but won't toggle back out of it. Tom Monroe Carlyle Lake
display setting may have changed
The Standard Horizon depth meter can be setup to display in many different modes, e.g., feet, meters, fathoms etc. When the battery discharged it is very possible that the mode changed to say something like fathoms. Good chance its working properly, but expected changes of 'feet' is being displayed in fathoms or meters, which would show up as the fractional display your seeing. The manual tells you how to set the units.
The Standard Horizon depth meter can be setup to display in many different modes, e.g., feet, meters, fathoms etc. When the battery discharged it is very possible that the mode changed to say something like fathoms. Good chance its working properly, but expected changes of 'feet' is being displayed in fathoms or meters, which would show up as the fractional display your seeing. The manual tells you how to set the units.
J
josh
hoodoo on the horizon.
Well the devil is obviously to blame as he was in my standard horizon depth finder just last week. It took me one virgin voodoo priestess(boy was she hard to find) One catholic priest and 2 goats to exorcise the offending spirit from within my finder. Seriously though i had that problem and had some success resetting the display damping refresh rate. my model ds 50 has three settings for how fast it samples and refreshes i set it to the lowest setting and had some success. but overall the unit is unreliable at best and ive practically given up on it. Good luck with yours.
Well the devil is obviously to blame as he was in my standard horizon depth finder just last week. It took me one virgin voodoo priestess(boy was she hard to find) One catholic priest and 2 goats to exorcise the offending spirit from within my finder. Seriously though i had that problem and had some success resetting the display damping refresh rate. my model ds 50 has three settings for how fast it samples and refreshes i set it to the lowest setting and had some success. but overall the unit is unreliable at best and ive practically given up on it. Good luck with yours.
Connections
I have a Horizon DS35 depth sounder and I have found that when it acts the way you describe the problem is usually the connection between the unit and the transducer. This only needs slight corrosion to cause the unit to act up. Disconnect and clean all the connections to the unit and it will most likely be fine. The only problem I've had was this summer while reaching down a channel, I knew that there were shoals ahead. Glancing at my meter, I had 59 feet. I was in the channel but knew there were shallows ahead so I prepared to tack when my keel bounced off a rock. I looked again and had 47 feet and couldn't figure out why I was bouncing on rocks. Just then the admiral moved over and her shadow fell across the meter which now read 4.7 feet! We draw 5 feet. Fourtunately, we finished the tack, cleared the rocks and suffered no damage. Lesson is to be careful of the placement of your gages and to be sure of what your looking at. Some things so simple are taken for granted.
I have a Horizon DS35 depth sounder and I have found that when it acts the way you describe the problem is usually the connection between the unit and the transducer. This only needs slight corrosion to cause the unit to act up. Disconnect and clean all the connections to the unit and it will most likely be fine. The only problem I've had was this summer while reaching down a channel, I knew that there were shoals ahead. Glancing at my meter, I had 59 feet. I was in the channel but knew there were shallows ahead so I prepared to tack when my keel bounced off a rock. I looked again and had 47 feet and couldn't figure out why I was bouncing on rocks. Just then the admiral moved over and her shadow fell across the meter which now read 4.7 feet! We draw 5 feet. Fourtunately, we finished the tack, cleared the rocks and suffered no damage. Lesson is to be careful of the placement of your gages and to be sure of what your looking at. Some things so simple are taken for granted.
grade "A" customer service
Since good customer service seems to be so rare these days, I thought I would highlight my experience for this forum. What actually happened was that my depth sounder got stuck in "simulation mode" ... a setting that allows the depth sounder to demonstrate that it's working without being in the water (useful during surveys). BUT ... following the directions in the manual would not get it back OUT of simulation mode. I went on Standard's web site, and found a way to email them with "tech" questions. They responded back within 24 hours, asking for the exact model. I sent that in, and within four hours had an answer back. Turns out my unit has a newer software version that wasn't documented correctly in the manual. They apologized and gave me the correct procedure. So ... a real person happily gave me an answer, quickly and professionally. I'm so astounded that I thought I'd let you all know. They'll get my business again. Tom Monroe Carlyle Lake
Since good customer service seems to be so rare these days, I thought I would highlight my experience for this forum. What actually happened was that my depth sounder got stuck in "simulation mode" ... a setting that allows the depth sounder to demonstrate that it's working without being in the water (useful during surveys). BUT ... following the directions in the manual would not get it back OUT of simulation mode. I went on Standard's web site, and found a way to email them with "tech" questions. They responded back within 24 hours, asking for the exact model. I sent that in, and within four hours had an answer back. Turns out my unit has a newer software version that wasn't documented correctly in the manual. They apologized and gave me the correct procedure. So ... a real person happily gave me an answer, quickly and professionally. I'm so astounded that I thought I'd let you all know. They'll get my business again. Tom Monroe Carlyle Lake
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