Bumminbird blues (transducer issues)

I agonized over this issue myself during my outfitting of the OK T-13.  I read of other's grand success AND failures, and I decided to go with an outboard arm as shown.  Works great, no complaints.

I know this has been covered before, but have you guys noticed a big difference with the down imaging models?

I know this has been covered before, but have you guys noticed a big difference with the down imaging models?

I have a Humminbird 597 ci HD DI fish finder with the transducer mounted in the pocket in the bottom of my Revolution.  The regular sonar and GPS are great, but I've been real unimpressed by the down imaging sonar, and haven't been using it at all.  This may be because of the kind of fishing I do, which usually involves deeper water.  Down imaging might be more useful if I was fishing shallow water with a lot of vegetation, logs, and whatever.  But I've also been wondering if the down imagining performance has been lousy because the transducer is in the pocket.  I know that a side imaging transducer needs to be mounted behind the keel or below the level of the keel so the hull won't interfere with sonar signals going out to the side.  I don't know if the same is true with a down imaging transducer.  Has anybody compared the performance of a down imaging transducer in a transducer pocket with the performance of the same transducer on a boom which holds the transducer below the level of the keel?

I know this has been covered before, but have you guys noticed a big difference with the down imaging models?

Rory it works best in shallower waters.  A lot of detail on underwater structure shows up pretty clearly.  But once you move off into deeper waters (60+) and depth range is in AUTO you don't get the detail. 

I know this has been covered before, but have you guys noticed a big difference with the down imaging models?

Side scanning is pretty damn cool btw.        I don't really use the down imaging.  I pretty much stick to side imaging and regular sonar.

What does the side imaging do, and is it effective for our kind of fishing? I.e. Does it work in deep water?

What does the side imaging do, and is it effective for our kind of fishing? I.e. Does it work in deep water?

It shows you what's out to the side of you from the surface down to the outside edge of your sonar cone. Humminbirds system gives you 240 ft max range off either side of your boat.  Its efficacy is limited to that of the down imaging, so it won't really do much for really deep water. You would be able to see suspended fish out to either side of you though. Shipwrecks look badass too!

Went to install the humminbird transducer into the lowrance-ready plate and guess what...the transducer doesn't work!!!

This is transducer #2 that has crapped out on me.  Same as the first.  You can hear pings, but no depth showing on the screen.  I have yet a 3rd transducer in the ol' gear pile so I hooked it up and it works (testing in a 5 gal bucket of water). 

So, this has me wondering...could the anker battery be somehow slowly frying the transducer?  Empirical evidence seems to suggest it, but I submit my case to the experts.

Here's what happened both times...

Transducer starts out working fine.  After a while the soundings start to lose definition, and then intermittently the depth drops out.  Eventually (after about 6-8 hours maybe), there is no depth or definition reported to the finder.  Then the transducer fails to work again after that.

With both transducers the anker battery was being used for power. 

At first I thought it was the goop mount, but as I mentioned earlier, I mounted the 2 transducers the same way I always have.  So I am disqualifying that as the issue. 

It's not the finder itself either.  I have two 587ci's.  The main one (with the chart card in it) I use in my boat.  Same type of transducer.  Everything works fine.  Tried the other finder and I am getting the same results (one transducer doesn't work, the other one works).

a) would it be possible that the battery could be doing something that would cause the transducer to either not work, or to fry?

b) if so, why would this not also affect the finder?

my lowrance displays the remaining voltage. i noticed once or twice that when it got low (after 2+days of continuous usage) the unit started acting funny before it eventually shut off.

can you display your voltage and see if the issues correspond with decrease in power being sent to the unit? if so, you may have your answer.

Yeah i can see the voltage. The anker holds steady at 11.9.

i'm sorry if i missed it in earlier postings, but have you since tried the unit/new transducers with a SLA after having them hooked up to the anker?

No but I have tested with a blue brick I have used extensively. But only just today. And in the garage. I think I need to install transducer #3 and roll with that for a while, powering with sla or blue brick. See what happens.

I hate to say it Rory but it could be an electrical issue inside the ff that's frying the transducers.

Possible but unlikely for two reasons. 1. The finder works fine on my boat. Same type of transducer. Does not fry the transducer. 2. There are two finders in play here. The old finder was in use when the first transducer died. The new finder was in use when the second transducer died. Had both finders for years and had no trouble like this.

I will be very interested to see if other users of this anker batt experience this "ghost in the machine" behavior. This shit is getting expensive.