Transducer/depth a no show

[powsmias]

hi all
i have a b&g vulcan 7 with a
simrad b60 transcucer
Boat is on the hard now and when i turn on vulcan there is no signal of any kind from the transducer. looking at screen when i unplug it and plug it back in there is no change of any kind on chartplotter. what would be best way to troubleshoot. if i splash i pay to get lifted out again and trying to avoid expense. is it absolutely necessary to be in water for this to light up? shouldn't i get some response from connecting and reconnecting? unit is hardly used. has worked before haulout. any help appreciated. thnx in advance.
was painted with transducer paint .

[smac999]

first of all do not unplug or plug in a transducer with the screen powered on. you will damage things.

2nd it's hard to get a signal on the hard. sometimes you do. it'll just be wrong. (speed through air is different then speed through water)

I assume you are looking at the sonar page? you should get some lines of some sort. but you may not get a depth reading.

[powsmias]

Originally Posted by smac999

first of all do not unplug or plug in a transducer with the screen powered on. you will damage things.

2nd it's hard to get a signal on the hard. sometimes you do. it'll just be wrong. (speed through air is different then speed through water)

I assume you are looking at the sonar page? you should get some lines of some sort. but you may not get a depth reading.

actually just looking at chart but always seen depth before somewhere on screen. thanx for headsup bout hooking up with power on.
if wrong on the hard though wouldn't i at least see something?

[Jim Cate]

Can't speak to your specific installation, but in all the years I've had boats on the hard, I've never had any reading on depth sounders. I suspect that there is no coupling of the acoustic pulse to air or any coupling of any return pulse (should there actually be one) from air to transducer, and thus no reading.

Jim

[RaymondR]

Jim's right, there's no coupling. Air is good for transmitting sound but once you get above a certain frequency it quits coupling and transmits poorly.

[Paul L]

Are you getting a water temperature reading off the transducer? If so you at least know the unit is being recognized and powered.

[powsmias]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Are you getting a water temperature reading off the transducer? If so you at least know the unit is being recognized and powered.

i'm getting no sign of a transducer even connected in any way

[Paul L]

Then I'd say you have a problem with the transducer or wiring.

[Cadence]

You want it to read on the hard, Boost it up to radar frequencies. Air and water are entirely two different densities. I'd guess you won't have a problem once in the water.

[Chuck Hawley]

On my B&G/Simrad electronics network, the B&G Zeus was able to tell me everything that was on the network, including stuff like the serial number. Very handy for diagnosing the issues.

I had two issues that I could figure out by using this information. One was a bad NMEA 2000 T connector, which had been stressed enough to have an intermittent internal connection. Very hard to "see" this without using the chartplotter's page on the network items.

Second, I had a bad masthead sensor, which sort of shorted-out the network. This required more trial and error of disconnecting N2K items until I isolated the masthead as being the problem.

I have found that if you hook up a transducer and simply hold it to your ear, you can hear a tick-tick-tick sound, indicating that it is transmitting. I've also found that you can put a hard surface parallel to the transducer, and perhaps a foot away, and get a reading (an inaccurate reading, but it "hears" the echo nonetheless.

So, start with the diagnostic page on the Vulcan, then see if you have a bad connector or T in your N2K network.

Cheers,

Chuck

[powsmias]

thanx for all the replies..all the best

[smac999]

Originally Posted by powsmias

actually just looking at chart but always seen depth before somewhere on screen. thanx for headsup bout hooking up with power on.
if wrong on the hard though wouldn't i at least see something?

on the sonar page. look at the actual picture. getting a depth value is less likely.

assuming the vulcan has a sonar port? I thought the bnG screens did not.