Hi folks, I have Raymarine ST40 depth instrument fitted in my boat and it refuses to indicate any depth. I have carefully cleaned the face of the transducer and have always used transducer antifoul paint on it. Because the instrument shows all the digital readouts during the setup procedure I figured that it must be the transducer so I bought a new one and then someone suggested hanging it over the side for a test run before the expensive exercise of slipping the boat to fit the new one, so we carefully did that but it still does not give any reading except the setup which is perfect. Is there a simple way of checking the display unit? Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Hi Trek,
It's been in the boat for ten years but was never really reliable in shallow water. I have added an ST 60 close hauled wind speed indicator and a rudder angle indicator and are all connected together via seatalk, so maybe a gremlin has been introduced to the system in doing that.
Could be a Gremlin. Software to make multiple things talk to each other can be tricky especially when new devices are made to talk to old ones and the engineers dont have the old ones to actually use to test that it all works.
Maybe revert the system back to the way it was when it worked and see if it fixes it.
I do this kind of work often. If everything in a system is working fine then I change something and it doesn't any more statistics say that its more likely that I caused it rather than the probability of a random failure happening exactly when I made the change!!
Some instruments have a reboot procedure such as hold this or that button in whilst aplying power. This was the case with my Navman wind 3100.
Google may have an answer or phone the service section of oceantalk and ask if there is a reboot or test sequence you can try.
You should feel and or hear a ticking sound on the transducer face if it is working.
Thanks Ambler that's exactly the sort of basic information I was hoping for, I checked the new transducer and it was ticking away so I guess it might mean a new panel instrument unless there is some way to test the one I have.
Select to expand quoteWindsong38 said...
Thanks Ambler that's exactly the sort of basic information I was hoping for, I checked the new transducer and it was ticking away so I guess it might mean a new panel instrument unless there is some way to test the one I have.
Good news that the sound signal is getting to the transducer. I gather it still failed the immersion test. The face of the transducer receives the sound signal from the pulse sent to the bottom and reflected back. The smart bits are usually in the head unit which determines the depth of water from a speed of sound calculation.
I haven't found any info online regarding head unit test procedures. It may be worth replacing the whole thing with a fishfinder.
They are usually cheaper due to the volume of sales and actually give you a lot More info.
You will see the bottom profile and depth at a glance. The bottom profile will indicate either deepening, shoaling or steady. Great for negotiating barways!
Most have settable deep and shallow alarms. Great for anchor watch.
Most will give you an indication of the bottom type. Great for anchoring and anchor selection.
They usually all have a setting to turn the fish on or off too. The first time I used my fishfinder many years ago, I was about to anchor but decided to drift fish and pickes up two flathead indicated on the bottom!
The shoaling profile of the bottom has saved me a few times now from running aground!
Cheers,
Wayne
No Trek its not working but I have decided to slip the boat this weekend to refit my Sayers Rig windvane so while its out I'll try to determine if the transducer is working by listening for the telltale clicking noise and replace it if neccessary. I'm confident that dollars will fix it eventually, hopefully.
Hi to all,
Good news with the depth gauge woes, I had to destroy the existing transducer to get it out of the housing and in doing so I found it had water inside, not good, so now the boat is back in the water with a new transducer and all the depth information I need. I have no idea how water found its way into the old one because there was no visible sign of damage. I may have been a little heavy handed when it was first installed and overtightened it. But thats in the past now, on to the next issue! 
