depth sounder

[Matt Olfson]

I have a 1977 Catalina 30. The Autohelm depth sounder worked great until we went aboard a few weeks ago and it read 0.0
I thought maybe growth over the winter covered it from reading correctly. We were getting it hauled out to paint so I didn't worry too much. No w she is out and the first coat of paint is on. Does it only work in the water? I think it is an Autohelm..... model ST30.....can confirm model later today if that is relevant.

 

[DanM]

Matt,

It will only work in the water. There really isn't much that can go wrong with a transducer though, check and clean your connections before getting too in depth on tearing anything apart. If that doesn't work then I'm out of ideas! ;-)

DanM.

 

[Matt Olfson]

Matt,

It will only work in the water. There really isn't much that can go wrong with a transducer though, check and clean your connections before getting too in depth on tearing anything apart. If that doesn't work then I'm out of ideas! ;-)

DanM.[/QUOTE

Thanks!!! One less thing to worry about now....

 

[Brad Woodward]

I would agree with the above. If you are getting 0.0 it sounds like you are getting some signal from the transducer. Either there is growth in the way or you have a corroded wire connection. I was told that solder on a boat is a no no as the flux in the solder reacts with the salt air and causes corrosion. But then EVERYTHING on a boat corrodes. Chances are that just looking at your wires won't tell you much. If they are connected via screw connectors then loosen and retighten them a couple of times. A little corrosion will reduce the voltage across the connection and can drop below a readable voltage. If you have the crimp on type of connectors cut and replace them. If that doesn't fix it you may have to replace the transducer.

 

[Matt Olfson]

Thanks Brad. We dropped her back in last week and still had 0.0. We will head down today and check connections.

 

[Matt Olfson]

Well...... tried to check connections..... when I took out the screws holding the wood inside the cabin (there were only 2 about 3 inches from the companion way.....) it wouldn't come off. Is there some sort of lip that we have to lift it over? I thought we could see the back of the depth sounder by removing the wood from inside the cabin.

 

[Brad Woodward]

Matt! Did you get to the back of the instruments? From the front it looks like you could remove the controller from there. Don't know who set those up but did a good job. I like mine on the steering pedestal as I don't think I could read them where you have them from the helm.

 

[Matt Olfson]

Managed to get to the back of them... unfortunately it was not a simple connection problem. Called in an expert and will hopefully have an answer soon...

 

[jrowan]

After about 10 -15 years of wear & marine corrosion these units just go bad with age.
I had an older sounder in my C 30 when I bought her with a radial type readout-gauge which was very antiquated & hard to see. I went to the trouble to replace the gauge with a newer Corinthian Data Marine type, only to find out that the "new looking" transducer was bad.
Most transducers make a faint clicking noise when they are working, which is the sonar sound transmission. If you don't hear any clicking at the sending transducer at the hull, then it may be a bad transducer. I replaced mine with a Garmin sounder & new transducer built into my GPS chartplotter. Most of the new Garmin's that have the "S" designation on the end (mine is a Garmin 440S) also work as a depth sounder. I find it a lot easier to read the depth from the chartplotter screen mounted to the binnacle. Consider investing in one of these units if your is bad. Also, the Hummingbird small puck type depth sounders can be purchased for only a hundred bucks. They even come with the transducer. Its a lot cheaper then hiring a marine electronic repairman, who charge a lot. As far as speed sensors, they are almost worthless as the speed sensor wheel mounted int the hull always gets fouled with marine growth, usually only a few months after launching. GPS speed tracking is very accurate, and pretty much made those older units obsolete.

ps. Your P.O. did an awesome job of installing that teak panel to cover the wiring. I imagine your boat must be in good shape if somebody went to that kinda trouble over her.

 

[Matt Olfson]

Well....ordered a new ST40 which looks great. We managed 3 great nights out on the boat without any wondering if we had enough water...priceless...

 

[Bad Obsession]

If you are worried about depth you could always heave the lead! If you keep an eye on the charts you usually are okay too.

Having a depth finder is great, but it also causes you to take more risks. Mine has gotten me into trouble before because it makes me go in shallower than I would if I didn't know the depth.

 

[longterm]

I would agree with the above. If you are getting 0.0 it sounds like you are getting some signal from the transducer. Either there is growth in the way or you have a corroded wire connection. I was told that solder on a boat is a no no as the flux in the solder reacts with the salt air and causes corrosion. But then EVERYTHING on a boat corrodes. Chances are that just looking at your wires won't tell you much. If they are connected via screw connectors then loosen and retighten them a couple of times. A little corrosion will reduce the voltage across the connection and can drop below a readable voltage. If you have the crimp on type of connectors cut and replace them. If that doesn't fix it you may have to replace the transducer.

Mine did that one day, and then every day since it's worked fine.