Problems with Depth sounder

[chodson]

Dear all, For some reason I cannot get my depth sounder to work (its a vso? or vdo? make - the logo on the case is a ships wheel). It was working when I bought the boat last year.
I have re mounted it in cooking oil to no avail. However when I dangle the transducer over the stern it works fine. One thought I had was that the battery might not be sufficently charged up to give enough power to penetrate the hull, I suspect the battery is not too good. Does this sound feasible, are these instruments succeptable to voltage drop. - Thanks in advance to any help. Chris

 

[john_morris_uk]

Are they susceptable to voltage drop? How long is a peice of string? The accurate answer is yes they can be. Measure the voltage at the instrument when its in use. This will check for both possible causes of low voltage - a bad connection or a bad battery.

 

[simonfraser]

air stops it, so if you somehow have air between the tansducer and the oil . . .

 

[savageseadog]

The system may have lost sensitivity, enough to work over the side as you describe, but add any losses and it won't.
Could be the transducer, but could also be stuff like transducer cabling and connectors or power losses to the set. Suggest you check and clean everything. You could have water ingress down the transducer cable. It is possible to cut and join it but you would need to do the job well for it to be reliable.

 

[steve_l]

Be a little careful about cutting the echo sounder transducer cable. In some set-ups the cable is an active part of the circuit and shortening it will result in a loss of accuracy.

-steve-

 

[capt_courageous]

Hi Chris
Did you mean 'cooking oil'? I have only ever had success with castor oil. I don't know why but it seems to work and was recommended by the manufacturer.

 

[Guest]

Cooking Oil .......... ????

Suggest you get to your local Chemist and buy a couple of 250ml Castor Oil bottles .... use one - keep other as spare.

When putting transducer back into the tube .... you will of course remove all Cooking oil with rag / tissue ... no need to wash it out - but enough to stop interaction of two oils ... make sure it goes back in slow and does not create air-bubbles ... AND that transducer does not touch hull in one small spot - it should be as close as possible to hull with a fag paper gap filled with the oil.

You can use water as well .... but I have had better success with the Castor Oil ...

I suspect air-bubbles by too fast pressing into tube ... and maybe transducer touching hull at one edge.