Depthfinder reads and then doesn't

[Herbieville]

Greetings,

I am getting some weird behavior with my depthfinder. When we head out for an outing it works fine the entire trip out. Then we will anchor or dock somewhere for some time. When I fire everything back up to head home, the depthfinder no longer works, just reading as dashes in the starboard SmartCraft display. On one occasion, while heading home, I shutdown the engines and all DC power. When I started everything back up, the depthfinder read fine for a few minutes and then stopped reading.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

-Greg

 

[jimdavi]

Mine sometimes does that as well. generally only momentarily dashes, then comes right back.

 

[rembrandt]

Mine does the same thing. As a result I did some research and was told by more than one person that the reason is probably because the transducer is located to close to one or more of the seacocks in the bilge area. I have not yet moved it so I can't say whether they are right. I have also read that in the installation instructions so I assume it is not heresay. I will let you know if it works. However, my 290 is in dry storage and I can't test it until next spring when I take it out.
Good luck.

 

[Robski97]

Depth finder on my 26, 30 and 34 never worked consistantly. On the 44 i had the same issue and they swapped out my transducer to a different brand. Ill look up what they put in.

On the 34 i had like 4 hockey pucks as they couldnt find a good CLEAN location to get a good read. In any event it works like 80 % of the time now .


Rob

 

[everthing's irie]

I agree with the others. Most likely the location of the transducer. I installed a sep. ducer for my chart plotter fish finder and it works at all times. Not so with the smart craft ducer.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Not saying this is what's happening every time, but a soft bottom (mud/weeds) can cause it to lose it's signal.

 

[Herbieville]

Thanks for all of the responses. I have had the boat for three years and this didn't start happening until about a month ago. Odd that it happens after I run the boat and stop it. Maybe something on the bottom but also wondering if there is a short somewhere.