Lowrance

I have been meaning to get back to everyone with an update. Lowrance gave me the incorrect P/N for the transducer. Once I went down to the boat, it was obvious that the one I bought wouldn't fit. I returned to West Marine and they had the correct one in stock. Installed it in the boat and the HDS7 is finally working fine. Boat is in the water and sitting at it's mooring in Jamestown RI.


Glad you got it working.
 
I really appreciate everyone's help with this. I didn't think of the transducer until you suggested it. When I removed the old one and compared it to the new one it was obviously cracked along the seam. I did have one little problem the second or third time out when the sonar didn't work. I said a few things about Lowrance under my breath and then I realized that I failed to tighten the transducer connector on the back of the unit and it fell out. I had to take it all back.
George
 
I epoxy mine inside the hull in the battery compartment. Works great, no screws in transom.

This works fine if you have a down looking sonar only. Anything more than a 20 degree cone, and the epoxy method won't work that well. Side looking sonar will not work at all if you epoxy the transducer inside the hull.
 
This works fine if you have a down looking sonar only. Anything more than a 20 degree cone, and the epoxy method won't work that well. Side looking sonar will not work at all if you epoxy the transducer inside the hull.

Question? What about ducers that are in a bath of mineral oil inside the boat? I think I recall someone (Spare maybe) used a piece of 4" PVC pipe, epoxied that to the inside of the hull, mounted the ducer inside the pipe, then filled the whole thing with mineral oil and capped it off. Will that method work with side scan sonar or is it still the same as just epoxying it?
 
Won't work with side scan, only down view. The problem with any inside the hull mounting is anything other than down view will shoot out the side of the transducer, epoxy, or oil canister. When you epoxy inside the hull, you lose some resolution as the sonar has to know also ping through the fiberglass, and if theres an air locket or imperfection in the hull between the transducer and the water, you just wasted alot of time for nothing as sonar stops working in air. As to oil, it's similiar. You lose some clarity as the sonar now double pings essentially. The transducer sends out the ping which hits the oil and the oil now retransmits the ping back out through the hull. The oil method works great for strictly depth sounders, but not so great when you need high resolution imo. A transducer mounted to the stern is still a better option and only 2nd to true through hulls where it mounts through the hull bottom leaving the transducer in clean water and cannot be kicked up or move around.
 
Back
Top