Experience w/Airmar Ultrasonic Sensor UDST800?

[bbalan]

Hi Chris,
I have to say that reading your email was really depressing! I had so hoped it was a faulty unit and sending it back is all that was needed. Now...


Exact same problem you have. Worked for months with no issues. Now, who knows when it will go out. Sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes all day.


Really appreciate you sharing this with me. It will help me as I deal with the problem.

Such a shame because, except for this problem, it's an awesome piece of equipment.
Thanks,
Bruce

[Coltrek]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I have the UST800 without depth, which replaced an old CS4500 ultrasonic.

The UST800 was less accurate and less consistent than the CS4500 and I was not happy with it. I was racing with it and the STW data was not good enough for the kind of true wind data we needed. So I replaced it with a DX900+ which is installed but not hooked up yet (and wasn't all summer -- I sailed the whole summer and a couple thousand miles with no STW and not even any wind data -- by the windex! Long story.).

The CS4500 was not perfect but was better than any of paddlewheel sensors I've ever had. I wasn't willing to accept less good than that so got rid of the UST800. We'll see how the DX900+ works. I've acquired a B&G H5000 Hercules to calibrate it -- yes, I'm frustrated with inaccurate STW data and am determined to get it to a higher level.

Well, I will be curious to see how you fare with the 900+ I am surprised Airmar still has the balls to sell those. I have one I Installed with a complete B&G system, and the speed has never worked right. Right now, if I disconnect the transducer NMEA connector, and re-connect, the speed (STW) will show, but in a short while it disappears. It has never worked long enough for me to calibrate it properly. I talked with some techs there a few years ago, but never got anywhere. As far as the Leeway aspect, I have never gotten much out of that because of the speed problem.
So, I have to use SOG for everything, not the best situation.

Having Bitched about all this, the Depth works Marvelously. I think it is the best depth sounder I have ever had, it seems to see through weeds and muck better than any ultrasonic. I hope to hear about your escapades.

[PNWSalmon]

Hi everyone, I’m very interested in this topic as it’s time to replace our Paddlewheel log as it’s starting to fall apart and spare parts are no longer available. I need to understand if my old system will be compatible with a new Paddlewheel.

I’m thinking of keeping things simple and staying with a Paddlewheel, based on the feedback from this thread, though the ultrasonic units seem very cool!

And I’m thinking of just sticking with NMEA0183 though we have a 2000 system on the boat and a converter, I think it would just be easier to keep it at 0183.

We currently have a Hall effect type Paddlewheel that plugs into a Simrad databox and up to the Simrad instruments.

QUESTION: Will any NMEA 0183 Paddlewheel work, electrically, with our system? It’s just pulses on a wire right ? The calibration is something we provide after we have it up and running. There’s no operating frequency, like with depth sounders? Or special signals that need to be decoded by some proprietary box? Am I understanding this correctly?

Thank you for any help here! I’d like to order the right thing and get it right the first time!

[Dockhead]

I'm late to this party.

I've been using ultrasonic speed logs since 2013.

The CS4500 was very good. Some quirks but more accurate than even a clean paddlewheel

It died a few years ago, and I replaced it with UST800. This was worse. Less accurate, more erratic

Now I've replaced that with the new DX900i. We'll see if that's any good.

[Coltrek]

The more I follow these DX900's, the more confused I get. You, (Dockhead) call yours a DX900i. I was thinking this was a fat thumb error, as they still call what they are selling as a DX900+. Then, I see one of their pictures showing a sensor with four equally spaced pins, and no mention of depth. Then I think I am crazy. Their latest brochure only talks about speed, leeway, attitude and pitch and temp. NO mention of depth. So I am wondering if I really am loosing it, and maybe my depth has been coming from my forward scan all these years. But, no, mine has 5 pins, my original brochure describes depth, even though the new one shows some with four pins, and some with 5 pins. So, Dockhead, does your transducer have 4 or 5 pins? I wonder if Airmar is quietly taking out the depth, for some untold reason? Like it interferes with speed?

[pjShap]

I have a DX900+ speed/depth/temperature unit which was very difficult to calibrate, but then worked great for a couple of years. The depth portion died last summer, and I replace it temporarily with a paddle wheel unit. That worked ok as long as I sailed most days, but it quickly fouled when I left the boat for longer. The DX900+ was more sensitive at low speeds, like anchoring, and only needed cleaning once or twice a season. I much preferred the DX900+, while it worked.

I spoke with both Airmar's tech support and my vendor, and was told the DX900+ is unavailable while they improve the design. Apparently the depth failure is too common. I'm guessing that they used low power in the original design because it only read to about 250 feet. But low power was still too much stress and the units have been dying. I'm told it will probably be at least a year before a revised unit might become available. When I look at Airmar's website they show a DX900+ but it is now described as speed and temperature, no depth.

[bbalan]

Hi All,
In March, my wife returned to the USA to visit her mother, sent our malfunctioning UDST800 to Airmar (we had already received an RMA) and received a new one within 2 weeks. When she returned, we replaced the DST800 we were using and *so far* the UDST seems to be working fine. We sailed from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus (about 500 miles total) and no problems. Fingers crossed. I'll post if anything goes wrong.
Cheers,
Bruce

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Coltrek

The more I follow these DX900's, the more confused I get. You, (Dockhead) call yours a DX900i. I was thinking this was a fat thumb error, as they still call what they are selling as a DX900+. Then, I see one of their pictures showing a sensor with four equally spaced pins, and no mention of depth. Then I think I am crazy. Their latest brochure only talks about speed, leeway, attitude and pitch and temp. NO mention of depth. So I am wondering if I really am loosing it, and maybe my depth has been coming from my forward scan all these years. But, no, mine has 5 pins, my original brochure describes depth, even though the new one shows some with four pins, and some with 5 pins. So, Dockhead, does your transducer have 4 or 5 pins? I wonder if Airmar is quietly taking out the depth, for some untold reason? Like it interferes with speed?

Correct, fat thumb. It's the DX900+


This transducer is made in several versions, some of which have depth and others which don't. Some are N2K and others 0183.


I have the 0183 version without depth, because I have a separate through hull for depth and want a full sized and better depth transducer.


0183 because I have a B&G H5000 computer for complex calibration of speed and wind data. the H5000 prefers to get 0183 data.

[bbalan]

Hi All,
An update on our UDST800. The replacement has been installed for about 6 months now. It is definitely working better than the last one. However, occasionally it still stops working. No rhyme or reason that we can tell. Probably has happened about once a month on the average. We live aboard and cruise full-time so we are underway quite a bit.
Cheers,
Bruce

[shimari]

Thanks for the update. When it stops working, how long is it down and how does it start working again?

[bbalan]

Hi Shimari,
Hard to say how long it is down because I don't watch it. Sometimes it seems down for a very short period -- we'll up anchor and it won't work and they I'll look a 20 minutes later and it is working. Sometimes it seems to be down for a couple of hours.



I just starts working on its own. We don't do anything and there is no obvious change of conditions.
Cheers,
Bruce

[stgermain45]

That is exactly our experience with all 3 UDST800 units we had. I think we had a span of 5-6 months with our 2nd replacement where it worked great, maybe an occasional drop. But the issue always returned. Totally random whether it drops and walks quickly back up to correct boat speed or whether it stays locked at 0 or near zero knots for hours. We ended up using the UDST800 for our pacific crossing and through French Polynesia, and overall it performed well. But as always, it started acting up again for longer stretches. I've since switched back to our DST810 paddlewheel which has worked flawlessly since mid July and a little shy of 2000NM - albeit with the caveat that it needs cleaning every now and again.


Chris

[bbalan]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for letting us know about your experience... although it doesn't make us happy! As I mentioned in a previous post, I was really disappointed when we went back to the DST800 while awaiting the replacement because of the false alarms on depth. The UDST seems so much better than the DST -- except, of course, it doesn't work all the time...
Cheers,
Bruce

[stgermain45]

Our DST810 is the newer "smart" transducer with Bluetooth and the Airmar Cast app. It works really well and can be fully calibrated with the app. They now sell it with a multisensor "Gen2" paddlewheel.



I love the idea of the ultrasonic transducer - just can't recommend it.



Chris

[SailingHarmonie]

We had an Airmar ultrasonic. It was AWESOME. Stable, accurate speed values, minimum sensitivity to fouling, just a delight. For 18 months. Then it died. At the price, I can't justify replacing every 2 years.

If I was running a win-at-all costs racing team , you bet I'd have one. For my cruising boat? I'll pass thank you.