Hi all,
We're having some instrument oddities on our sailboat and it's rendered our
depth finder unreliable. Yikes.
We have a suite of
B&G Network instruments from 1994 (VHF,
wind,
depth, speed all at
helm plus a
Network display at chart table. She used to have
B&G Loran and Pilot too, I think, but those are long since replaced). Lots of B&G
wiring. I removed another Network display at the
helm last season, leaving the cable exposed at the helm.
Starting last season we intermittently see Error 17 on (and lose function of) on all
instruments. At different times the error might begin instrument by instrument after working normally for a few hours, or the error might start immediately at
power up. Watching our depth finder closely a couple
sails ago, I saw a blank
screen alternate with a '---' and the actual depth...all while
wind and speed worked normally... before we
lost all again with the Error 17.
Googling Error 17 suggests it's a water-intrusion issue. I've checked and snugged all B&C junction box connections I can find. Could this be as simple as
water getting into the newly-abandoned network cable even though most of our sailing is dry? The intermittent depth reading could be related, or maybe not(?)..and if it's not does this sound to you like the
transducer going out?
Any suggestions are welcomed and greatly appreciated.