he said / she said, airmar vs standard horizon

[gettinthere]

Having issues with my standard horizon ds50 depth sounder. In very shallow water it stops reading & goes to double dashes. Sometimes it starts reading 20, 30 50, 70 feet in known shallow water.

The SH tech said I need a new transducer; the airmar guy said it works, must be the display unit.

What fun! Ideas?

 

[gettinthere]

Looks like replacements for the SH are not available

Will the raymarine st60 drop in? Other options?

 

[Ron20324]

have you cleaned the transducer from the bottom side?

 

[gettinthere]

Not in 2 months. But it has been doing this off & on for several years now and the bottom has been clean. The numbers running up to 20,30, 50 is new. Airmar tech did not bring this up, only that from what I described, it is the head.

 

[Tim R.]

Why not buy a new display. Used ones come up time to time on ebay. If it is not the display, now you have a spare you can install at the NAV station.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Ho..._Accessories_Gear&vxp=mtr&hash=item27c3dda32c

Tim

 

[Chuckbear]

We had an issue like this that drove us crazy for a long time. After some detective work we found it was the alternator that was causing the problem because the voltage was too high for the depth sounder. we found this by connecting the depth sounder to a battery that was not connected to the alternator and it worked fine. This was an older depth sounder and when we replaced it with a newer model it never had a problem again. We replaced only the head since the transducer was compatible with the new head. Just a thought. Chuck

 

[Tim R.]

We had an issue like this that drove us crazy for a long time. After some detective work we found it was the alternator that was causing the problem because the voltage was too high for the depth sounder. we found this by connecting the depth sounder to a battery that was not connected to the alternator and it worked fine. This was an older depth sounder and when we replaced it with a newer model it never had a problem again. We replaced only the head since the transducer was compatible with the new head. Just a thought. Chuck

Did it work properly when sailing or not motoring?

 

[Maine Sail]

In my experience it is more often the display than transducer. Our ST-60 Depth is currently using a 33 year old Radarsonics 200kHz transducer. It has survived multiple displays from Signet, Datamarine and Standard Horizon and is now running perfectly with an ST-60+....

We had a similar issue on our Catalina 36. The old Datamarine would go crazy in shallow water and then read all over the map. I replaced it with an ST-60 and all was fine.

A display is much easier to replace and test than the transducer so to my way of thinking that should be the first thing to try...

 

[Chuckbear]

Did it work properly when sailing or not motoring?

Tim, It did always work when sailing, but it also did work at times when motoring, but the issue always came up in shallow water when we needed it the most. The fact that sometimes it was OK and then would go haywire was the frustrating part and made troubleshooting more difficult. Only running on a separate battery for a longer period of time finally resolved it. Chuck

 

[Donnybrook]

Have you tried to adjust the gain?

 

[gettinthere]

There is a 1,2,3 setting for sensativity. Did that.

Chuck, interesting report. I think it does this after a long run of motoring which would be when the battery bank is at its highest.

Thanks

 

[Witzend]

There is a 1,2,3 setting for sensativity. Did that.

Chuck, interesting report. I think it does this after a long run of motoring which would be when the battery bank is at its highest.

Thanks

Well that is easy to test. Obtain a variable power supply.

 

[gettinthere]

We had an issue like this that drove us crazy for a long time. After some detective work we found it was the alternator that was causing the problem because the voltage was too high for the depth sounder. we found this by connecting the depth sounder to a battery that was not connected to the alternator and it worked fine. This was an older depth sounder and when we replaced it with a newer model it never had a problem again. We replaced only the head since the transducer was compatible with the new head. Just a thought. Chuck

Can I put a 12 volt regulator in the power circuit of the instrument head?
Like this:
http://m.radioshack.com/radioshack/...hack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062600"

 

[gettinthere]

Bump!

 

[gettinthere]

I went ahead with adding the regulator. Tough little bugger to work with. Small pins close together.
So far, so good. But that isn't saying anything. It will be a while before we get underway for a long run/test. Hope this solves it.

Thanks Chuck

 

[gettinthere]

No joy, the depth finder still acts up...very badly

 

[Sailm8]

Had a friend fix his with an old fashion "Noise suppressor" used for old car radios. Have no idea where you would find one today.

 

[gettinthere]

Gave up and bought an ST60+ which is a drop in replacement display. $400.

Big question was whether the old transducer would work. Most people say no, but Airmar said yes. The old stanhor had an RCA connector. I cut off the pigtail from the display and wired 2 new connectors to slip onto the Raymarine connections. 2 wires & 3 terminals; I guessed correctly on the first try.

Works fine...so far!

 

[Maine Sail]

Gave up and bought an ST60+ which is a drop in replacement display. $400.

Big question was whether the old transducer would work. Most people say no, but Airmar said yes. The old stanhor had an RCA connector. I cut off the pigtail from the display and wired 2 new connectors to slip onto the Raymarine connections. 2 wires & 3 terminals; I guessed correctly on the first try.

Works fine...so far!

New Depth Sounder, Old Transducer (LINK)

 

[gettinthere]

Now ya tell me ;-)