How to get transducer to read at high speed?

[nowornever]

I have never had a god dam sounder that would read the bottom on the plane, what is the trick? Do I have to get a through hull tranceducer I have a fairly expensive furuno sounder id love for it to read on the plane. Any sugestions?

[sik008]

noworneva,

we also got a fairly expensive furuno as well..we had the same problem but we just fixed it by just changing the mode from fishing to cruising.
hoped that helped lol..

cheers alex

[FNQCairns]

I have a fairly inexpensive Furuno LOL ....it is the most frustrating transducer design to get a good reading at speed, it's enough to turn a bloke back toward to a fairly inexpensive Lowrance!!!

cheers fnq

[nowornever]

I have a fairly inexpensive Furuno LOL ....it is the most frustrating transducer design to get a good reading at speed, it's enough to turn a bloke back toward to a fairly inexpensive Lowrance!!!

cheers fnqHa ha you smart asses I am going to get a Lowrance GPS but the furuno stays........... ha ha

[Blackened]

G'day

In all seriousness, It's all about transducer placement.

Does the tranny have a clear flow of uninterrupted water? (no strakes, brackets, damage)

Other than that, it's all about depth and angle, I find the best performance is with my transducer facing a little forward, and quite deep (Airmar P58 Raymarine DS500x).

Dave

[ttone]

Hi Mate, yes I have to agree with Dave, I had the same fustrating problem, only to solve it with a quick adjustment of the transducer. ( I dont know as to why I tried it.) But it worked.
Cheers Rod

[TheRealAndy]

I had heaps of problems with my navman sounder reading on the plane. Just replaced it with a lowrance. It was sitting a bit high, but still reading ok on the plane but with heaps of noise. I lowered it about 1cm last night and its now working real good. Like Dave's, mine is angled ever so slightly foward.

[Dr Squid]

G'day

In all seriousness, It's all about transducer placement.

Does the tranny have a clear flow of uninterrupted water? (no strakes, brackets, damage)


Clean water is essential! Any air bubbles that pass under the transducer face will block the sound. The 620 I had before i upgraded to a 585 could read up to 35 knots.

[Poodroo]

Blackened is on the money. I have a Hummingbird sounder that came with the new boat and it does the same thing. On the plane the transducer is located just a little bit too high and the sounder drops out. Very annoying when you know you are going over shallows like on the way to Mud Island but not getting a reading. Just as well I know my way around there. When I take the boat back for its first service I am going to get them to fix the problem and have a transducer bracket mounted on like I originally requested.

Poodroo

[STUIE63]

With the furuno change it to cruising mode sik008 is on the money if still no reading start adjusting the transducer i have this on my boat no dramas up to 32 knots.
Stuie

[tenzing]

I too have a FURUNO 620. It has a thru hull trannie which was on the old sounder when I bought it . Set it to "auto / cruising " and it reads clear as a bell up to full speed - 35 knots. Im sure it has as much to do with the thru hull getting clean water under it. It still reads the bottom depth on fishing mode but just doesnt filter out the noise .ie the depth reading will still be OK

Brendan

[Allan.H]

This may be the only question that I can help with. My farther worked for Harrolds marine for many years and then for Taylor Marine repairing electronic boat equipment and was well known by the trawlers, maybe even by some Ausfish members. I rember him telling me that to get a clear reading the transducer needs to be facing slightly forward and in a position to minimise air bubbles passing below it. Just to confirm what has already been said.

[whichway]

Hi

I have an JRC FF30 (getting old I know) and a Lowrance. The JRC transducer was hopeless at speed, so I changed to the Lowrance transducer on the JRC sounder - much better. I think the transducer shape and set up has a lot to do with it.

Whichway.

[suzygs1000]

Hi,

I have been in the same position as you on many occasions with many different boats.

My current sounder is a 7" Eagle color combo, and when I originally fitted it according to the template (exactly I might add), it stopped reading at about 30 k's.

In frustration, I dropped the transducer down as low as I could get it on the transom, and didn't particularly worry to much about the angle, as this was something I had played around with on heaps of occasions without success. The transducer does seem to be on about the same plane as the hull.

The next time I used it, the thing worked beautifully!!

It reads perfectly even flat out (70kmh)!

The boat is a 5.8m plate c/c.

Drop it as low as you can get it, then try it, then work your way up until it plays up.

Dave.

[kingtin]

My furuno 1650 was on a sliding bracket on kingtin and I would have to juggle it to get it to read at speed. When it did work at speed, it put outa water spout that made it look like a jet ski;D When I bought the whittley, it was transferred by the boatyard, apparently perfectly, because it would read the bottom, even at 45kn...........it did clutter a bit with noise though.

As has been said, the transducers need to be slightly angled so that the beam strikes the seabed in an eliptical shape...........if you have a strake for'ard of your transducer position, or any dents in the hull, you'll be beating your head against the proverbial.

kev