Blinking depth on chart plotter

P

PuffinStuff

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 9, 2014
Messages
76
Fluid Motion Model
C-288 C
Vessel Name
Puffin
Hello Tugnuts!

We have a 2012 R-29 and recently I found a couple of electronic glitches that I could use some help with. The first was the autopilot showing "Searching for Autopilot Controller". I couldn't engage it no matter what, but with a quick tip from Andrew at Ranger, I unplugged it and did a "hard reset" which worked great.

My great luck, now we have another issue. The depth will lock on for a while, but then begin blinking - even in the marina or dead calm water at slow speeds. This hasn't happened before, so tried the same "hard reset" by unplugging power at the Garmin GSD 22. Also unplugged and reconnected the power (and NEMA 2000), but did not get the same quick fix here.

I have heard the software may need to be updated from Garmin. We have a 5215 chart plotter. Could it also be the transducer is mucked up? Do I need to get under the boat? How is this unit fitted to the hull of the boat on these models?

Any help is much appreciated.

Paul
PuffinStuff
 
We had this same problem this summer. We tried an up date unplugged everything talked to a Garmin rep and so on. The way we fixed it was we went to another tug owner who was not having this problem and copied down all of his settings. Then checked all of ours found some that where different and changed them. I do not know which one made the difference but it worked. We have not had any more problems
 
You can try your settings there is a part for depth range that needs to be set to auto if it is set for a depth it can act up if you are deeper then it is set for. The transponder is inside the boat. If you look where your stern thruster is it is in the same spot on the starboard side of the boat. If you have the aux fuel tank it is hard to access. You should be able to get your arm in to feel if it is loose. If it has come loose it will also cause an issue as it needs to be bonded to the hull of the boat .If you need to restick it you need epoxy . Some of them I have read on this site are in a liquid .If that liquid has dried up you need to re fill. I saw this posted for an R27 so maybe their location is different and is mounted differently. The transponders all need to either be bonded to the hull or covered in a liquid to work. I have a 2011 R29 and it is bonded to the hull. If you need to glue it needs to be applied with no air pockets , so you need to mix up a bit and put a solid glob on the hull and squish it into it so no air pockets. Hopefully it is the setting not on auto.
 
Over the past decade, we have had 3 boats with 3 different models of Garmin GPS/depthsounders. They all had one thing in common -- the depth display almost always reverted to blinking whenever the water was shallow enough (less than 5 feet) that you really wanted the depth sounder to work well. We tried the various manual settings, we made sure we had updated the software, but nothing worked reliably. I believe that the problem is inability to measure depth if the bottom is soft mud, especially if the mud has been churned up by the passage of other boats. I suppose that this is understandable, but I'm not sure that Garmin has the best software for this condition. My recollection may be colored by my dissatisfaction with Garmin's depth sounder software, but I think I once had a very inexpensive fishfinder, whose sounder I simply glued to the bottom of the boat, that performed better.

-- John H
 
Paul
The setting I was referring to
On your GPS go to Sonar full screen on the top there is a sliding like thing Make sure it is set to auto
Hope that's it as I like easy .)
 
From the depth chart screen touch menu. Your gain can be manually set. At about 85% gain our blinking went away. It will vary from system to system.

Pat
Ladybug, Too
 
Thanks to all for the replies. I finally made it back down to the boat and loaded in the new software (7.70), but didn't have the whole system on (Auto Pilot not powered up), so need to do it again later this week. I'll set range and gain to auto and see if that fixes the problem and report back.
 
You might also want to check to ensure that you have adequate liquid in your transducer unit. If low, it can impact the transmission of signal.

Steve
 
Updated to latest software (7.70) and adjusted settings to Auto all around and we're good to go.

Thanks to everyone...easy!

Paul
 
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