Transducer putty mount

As mentioned previously, my foam puck and grease mount worked well for a year, then went bad.  Remounting did not help, and I never figured out what went wrong.  The putty patty mount gave almost the same results as the grease mount gone bad. 

Very weird and not sure what to do.  I may give the putty patty mount another shot with a thin enough patty for the transducer to contact the hull.  After that, I'll try the putty doughnut and water mount.

I recently did the putty donut with water and wasn't happy with the results. I wasn't able to play around with it much (I was trolling) but I'm going to try and get on the water tonight and play around with it.

I am still confused why folks seem unhappy with the foam puck. It is very easy to install and it sure seems like it works great. I have not seen any other solution that seems like it is better. The only "bad" thing is having to add water each time. Does not seem like too big of in inconvenience to me. I just pour some in out of the water bottle that I am bringing anyways.

I am still confused why folks seem unhappy with the foam puck. It is very easy to install and it sure seems like it works great. I have not seen any other solution that seems like it is better. The only "bad" thing is having to add water each time. Does not seem like too big of in inconvenience to me. I just pour some in out of the water bottle that I am bringing anyways.

If you pick one method and stick with it, you don't get to tinker with your boat as much, duh!   

I am still confused why folks seem unhappy with the foam puck. It is very easy to install and it sure seems like it works great. I have not seen any other solution that seems like it is better. The only "bad" thing is having to add water each time. Does not seem like too big of in inconvenience to me. I just pour some in out of the water bottle that I am bringing anyways.

I'm glad the guy that invented the mirage drive didn't think that way. 

Just giving you a hard time, but if people never try new things, we don't find things that work better.

I am still confused why folks seem unhappy with the foam puck. It is very easy to install and it sure seems like it works great. I have not seen any other solution that seems like it is better. The only "bad" thing is having to add water each time. Does not seem like too big of in inconvenience to me. I just pour some in out of the water bottle that I am bringing anyways.

I tried the puck when I first got my Hobie and I had issues with not getting a good signal. I also had some issues in the salt with the water being pounded out of the puck by the chop. Probably both issues were more linked to my install job than anything else, but I really liked never having to worry it with my Tarpon (which had it's transducer gooped down). Plus I messing around with it

I am still confused why folks seem unhappy with the foam puck. It is very easy to install and it sure seems like it works great. I have not seen any other solution that seems like it is better. The only "bad" thing is having to add water each time. Does not seem like too big of in inconvenience to me. I just pour some in out of the water bottle that I am bringing anyways.

I tried the puck when I first got my Hobie and I had issues with not getting a good signal. I also had some issues in the salt with the water being pounded out of the puck by the chop. Probably both issues were more linked to my install job than anything else, but I really liked never having to worry it with my Tarpon (which had it's transducer gooped down). Plus I messing around with it

There will be some loss of signal in going through the hull, however, having the transducer in a non-compressible medium (water) with NO chance of compressible  (air bubble) contamination is hard to beat from a theoretical point of view. Experimentally, I see pretty similar performance when I hold my transducer over the side or in the puck. Thus, there is very little (probably not measurable) room for improvement.  Thus, I consider the job done.

However, if you had issues with it not holding in rough conditions (I have not been there so I can not speak to this) then seeking a new approach makes a lot of sense. Also, I could imagine that there may be some transducer shapes that the foam puck does not hold well and that this could lead to wanting a better solution. However, I would say that it is probably hard to beat the foam puck for performance. I do not see from where the improvement would come.

I have some 3 inch thick close cell foam that I cut a hole in the shape of my puck.  It fits tightly and the puck does not fall out even when transporting the kayak.  I glued the foam down with goop.  Every time I go out, I squirt a little water in it.  It has worked every time I remembered to add water.  For some reason, when I forget the water it doesn't work.   If anyone wants some thicker foam let me know.  I have a large chunk.

Craig I may take you up on that. I'm using the stock foam puck now but it's starting to crack a little.

I used a pretty thick piece of foam as well. It really holds the transducer firmly. The foam I used was also pretty stiff which I think helps as well.

I remounted my transducer using a much thinner pancake of putty.  The results were better.  I was extremely careful to roll the pancake in place to keep as much air from under the putty as possible.  Ditto for transducer placement.  When I first hit the water, the performance was the same as the thicker mounting, but I wiggled and pressed the transducer down into the putty further and it suddenly cleared up.

It is still not as reliable as the original water mount, so my next step is a water ring of putty.

Compare the images below to the images above.  The image at 313' shows a diminishing return.  It looks like it will fade out by about 400'.

I was marking fish, but the Fish ID function couldn't get a good enough return to display fish as it has done in the same place in the past. 

Thanks for running these experiments and posting your results.  I'm about to install a FF and I've been  nervous about the transducer.  More information and reports of real world problems helps.

John

After reviewing all my screen shots from the last test, I think I am going to keep the current putty mount for another test.  I've been slowly pushing the transducer further into the putty and still have a little ways to go until it contacts the hull.  Brought the yak into the house to warm up the putty.  Hoping to get out sometime Wed-Sat as we seem to be expecting a break in the winds.

Got another session out on the water yesterday.  The "sensitivity" of the Humminbird has been turned up to 19 out of 20 to get a strong return.  With the foam and water mount I had it at 10.  Despite inadvertently hitting a bunch of rock fish (C&R) and seeing fish traces on the screen the "Fish ID" feature failed whereas it worked well in the past.  To me this all points to an attenuation of the signal. 

Plan now is to create a putty ring mount and fill with water.  The more things change; the more they stay the same.

I haven't tested my foam cup and water mount yet, but I think it will at least hold water. I used enough goop!
I also cut a 1/2" wide ring from a piece of 2" pvc and then cut a small section out of that to make a plastic spring clip to hold my transducer firmly in place. It clips on at the top end of the cup, and has just the right amount of tension so that it won't tear up the foam. I rigged a cheap syringe with some plastic fuel line for on-the-water refills via the 8" orbix hatch foreward of my seat, in case I roll.
I'm ready for a test run! I'll let you know how it goes.

Hey Conehead, maybe post us a pic if it works for you.  I'm struggling with mine, it needs to be transferable from boat to boat.  No Big Noodles available here so I've tried sever other ideas, and not enough goop so it leaks.