fish finder.....

  ... I've done the "Glueing down the ducer) and it didn't last long!.  If you like to do things over and over again, then by all means don't listen to those that have "Been there done that" ...

I think the lack of success with gluing down the transducer puck is due to hull flex against the rigid puck.  All of the flex is borne by the glue so any hard glue may eventually fail.  Using Marine Goop to glue down a puck may be better as the Goop stays soft and flexes with the hull.  I think the foam puck with Goop works so well because the Goop and the foam both yield to the hull flex.

I did the transducer swap with Humminbird and it was very easy and quick.  Contact cservice@johnsonoutdoors.com for details.  I simply put the transducer that came with my FF/GPS in a priority mail box, printed a label from the USPS website, and put it in a mailbox.

Here is the email that got me started.  The transducer listed for my FF/GPS may not be appropriate for your unit so check.

The plastic thru hull transducer made for the scupper hole of the Ocean Kayak is the
XTH 9 20 P and if you purchase the unit with a transom transducer you may exchange it by sending the uninstalled/unassembled transducer to the address below for an even swap.

Humminbird
Transducer Exchange
678 Humminbird Lane
Eufaula AL 36027

Kindest Regards,
Dawn-crc

 
For long term use of your fish finder, there are really only 2 options.

Foam puck with water and?



Ravdakot and myself have both had really good success with plastic repair epoxy installs.

I've had great success with my "glued down" transducers... and I beat the hell out of my kayak.  I only had to redo it once and that was because I upgraded fishfinders.

Take your time and do it right once and it'll last; half-ass it and you will have to redo it.

There seems to be some confusion with kayak anglers about types of transducers, at least from the searching I have done. Apparently there is a difference between thru hull transducers and specific shoot thru hull transducers. They even make a plastic thru hull transducer, which doesn't mean its for plastic kayaks. According to Humminbird's site a thru hull transducer is meant to be installed by drilling a hole through the hull, it might work through a scupper hole of a kayak. They make a specific shoot thru hull transducer shaped like a puck, not to be confused with the "foam puck" used in installation. You OGs probably already know this, I just wanted to try and clarify for us Plankton out there.

So has anyone every used the small puck shaped transducers? I have never seen anyone use them in any of the pictures or videos I have seen.

Not really necessary.  We're shooting through a few mils of plastic.   

In the the kindest way possible, you are overthinking this one too much Killfish.

The transom mount transducers (pic below) are the ones we have mounted inside our yaks, either marine gooped down or tension mounted in a foam puck.


Some have used the Humminbird scupper mount (pic below) that they exchanged their transome mount for.


We're cheap a$$es for the most part, so many of us don't see the need to spend extra money on a different transducer to mount inside our yaks; we get decent performance with the "free" transducer included with our fish finders.  I'd hate to see you needlessly waste your hard earned dime on a transducer that will perform comparably to one you already have. 

I've just picked up the 385ci.  Is there any reason the XP 9 20 H couldn't be used instead of the XTH 9 20 P?  I used one on one of my canoes (for downrigger BigMac fishing) and it worked great.

http://store.humminbird.com/products/313995?product_id=aad5d0add8eca26ab9f72b1f882a5b52

So has anyone every used the small puck shaped transducers? I have never seen anyone use them in any of the pictures or videos I have seen.

This is a picture of the first posted gooped down transducer.  It's a puck and its been shooting through the hull just fine since '97. Pucks work great, skimmers (the stock transducer that comes with the ff) work great. Through hulls are designed  to be mounted through a hole in the bottom of a boat and sealed. They tend to be made of brass and weigh a gigaton. Not so good.



That white stuff is 3m 4200. I used that first, but it had not cured after 24 hours. I had some goop in the glove box and it worked. Like Demonick said: the glue needs to be flexible or the transducer will pop off. Goop is flexible and sticks good.

Lately, I've been using a secret method with no glue at all. It's not really a secret,  but nobody else seems to be able to get it to work but me.

Lately, I've been using a secret method with no glue at all.  It's not really a secret,  but nobody else seems to be able to get it to work but me.

So spill ...

I'm with PP. Gooped down CLOSED CELL foam puck filled with water. Never had an issue in 2 yrs. Keep it simple. Spend more time fishing.

I've been using the gooped foam and water method for a couple of years with zero problems.

My fishfinder's been acting funny for the last several months though and at the ORC, it started cycling randomly between menus and functions so I took it apart this weekend.  Luckily, the Cuda 250's have a really nice modular design that allows quick and easy disassembly. 
Once apart, I found about 1/4 tsp of water clinging to the housing.  There was also some salt corrosion on the lower part of the assembly.  I'm thinking that all the copper oxide was creating intermittent shorts.  Cleaned up the circuit board and button contacts, gave it a 4hr bake and put'er back together. 
Power up test showed I hadn't gotten all the corrosion off my Page button contacts so repeated the process. Can't wait to take it out and see if this addresses the occasional loss of depth readings.

-Spot-
 

I've been using the gooped foam and water method for a couple of years with zero problems.

My fishfinder's been acting funny for the last several months though and at the ORC, it started cycling randomly between menus and functions so I took it apart this weekend.  Luckily, the Cuda 250's have a really nice modular design that allows quick and easy disassembly. 
Once apart, I found about 1/4 tsp of water clinging to the housing.  There was also some salt corrosion on the lower part of the assembly.  I'm thinking that all the copper oxide was creating intermittent shorts.  Cleaned up the circuit board and button contacts, gave it a 4hr bake and put'er back together. 
Power up test showed I hadn't gotten all the corrosion off my Page button contacts so repeated the process. Can't wait to take it out and see if this addresses the occasional loss of depth readings.

-Spot-

Did you find the source of the leak by chance?

I couldn't find any point source of the water.  The weakest link in the assembly appears to be the radial gasket.  It's fairly soft and I can see where a little pressure against it might cause a small gap.  All of the buttons were in great shape with no splits in the folds.

I'd tried baking it out for 24 hrs before disassembling it without any success.

-Spot-

WD-40 is one of the magic liquids that will displace moisture and improve/insulate electrical connections.....as the name implies, "water displacement", WD.....
another material is "dielectric grease"....sold at NAPA for distributors and spark plug boot connectors......it has excellent dielectric properties and will not break down with salt water or water intrusion. These are inexpensive solutions to "wet electrical issues".

Just a bit of help that may or may not be needed here, from a rigging rookie.

The through-the-hull transducer that is pictured above does NOT have temperature capability.  Crazy!!!  Why would you go to a through hull and give up temperature???

So my problem is a different one.  And I will probably start a new thread for it as I am frustrated to #$%^.  I have a 2008 OK Prowler Big Game.  It has a transducer compatible scupper IN THE FRONT foot well.  I bought a Humminbird Piranhamax 170 which comes with the puck type transom mount transducer, which DOES have temperature. 

Here's the problem.  The scupper hole is made for the transducer that does NOT have temperature.  It does not fit my XNT-9-20-T ducer.  All of the through hull scupper adapter kits and foam spacers are made for OTHER models of OK and other brand kayaks.  They do not fit the oblong shape of my scupper bottom.  So no sense spending the big bucks for something that won't work.  The transducer mounting arms formed into the top of the ducer are too wide to fit inside the scupper hole.

Long story short, I wanna know if anyone has had this same dilemma (OK Prowler Big Game with the XNT-9-20-T that want it mounted IN the water THROUGH the scupper hole).  I am not going to mount it off the side of the hull, nor inside the hull.  I have temperature capability, I want to use that accuracy.

Thanks guys!
Robert