Raymarine depth sounder malfunction

[jayhearts]

Installed Raymarine ST60+ suite (Depth, Speed, Wind) ~four years ago. Airmark transducer new installation. Worked fine till last winter, Boat hauled, repowered and splashed. Since then, depth reads fine untill shallow water, then reads ---, or 10.4 (LAST), or other random shallow reading. obviously not helpful. Transducer painted w/transducer paint at haulout, subsequently scrubbed w/scrubbie. Display bench tested by Raymarine and could not duplicate problem. Tested second transducer and problem persisted. Any ideas what would cause a problem like this welcome.

[rharmon]

I'm having the same problem with the depth sounder on my Raymarine E-80. Works for awhile then quits to ---. Raymarine's only solution is to purchase an entire new system. Thinking about a cheaper option of a stand-alone depth sounder.

[Ram]

I also have the problem with a e-120, works good for about the first 10 min, then thats it

[jayhearts]

We found a hawkeye over the transom depth finder for under $100 and gorilla taped to a stick we used on the ICW. Everyone tells us of their problems with Raymarine. I won't be patronizing them any more.

[Jubilee39]

Originally Posted by jayhearts

We found a hawkeye over the transom depth finder for under $100 and gorilla taped to a stick we used on the ICW. Everyone tells us of their problems with Raymarine. I won't be patronizing them any more.

Raymarine is notorious for poor customer support and changing products so that what you have is no longer supported. However often times what you describe having is due to a chafed wire or bad connection failing under load. I have chased these issues before and got a transducer working. You can replace transducer from a generic as long as they are the same frequency. No need to use Raymarine

[Lake-Effect]

We have an ST40 depth display with an Airmar transducer firing through the hull. 6 years old, working fine.

If the depth-sounder is working fine EXCEPT for shallow water (... btw - at what depth does it start to malfunction?) it sounds like the transmit level or the receive sensitivity get out of whack and the thing is gettig confused by additional echoes.

Is it possible to borrow a known-good ST60+ head (display) and try it on your transducers? If you can and the problem goes away... it's the head; if the problem persists then you know it's in your wiring or transducer.

[senormechanico]

Mine has started to act up as well.
It's an ST50 which reads 0.0 when started up at anchor, then finally says 32 to 37 feet even when it's less than 10 feet actual.
Sailing out into several hundred feet of water doesn't move it from the above reading until I return to less than 60 feet or so at which time it reads correctly.
Go figure.

When it's time to upgrade my instruments, I'm going Garmin.

[MollyJo]

Ah, and here I was thinking I'm all on my own. My ST30 has the same symptoms. Perhaps in my case it has reached the end of its life because I can't find a thing out of place with the wiring. Time to treat myself a new one I suspect.

[Sunrunner37]

i have the same problem with my ST40 Depth gauge. it reads the depth OK but 20% of the time the reading disappears and it starts to flash.

[Tin Tin]

Something to check is the plug between the Airmar transducer and the cable to the control head. Depending on installation, some times when transducer is removed while boat is in the water some salt water can squirt up and get into the connection. A liberal drenching in WD40 may fix it if not too corroded.

[Turtle Blues]

How clean is the hull?

My inside the hull Airmar doubles as a time to scrub indicator. It shoots through the hull just fine, summer growth will block it completely in less than a month.
I maintain one of the old style depth speed indicators that can be removed and cleaned from inside just for that reason.

[Lake-Effect]

Just updating from my previous comment: Our ST-40 depth instrument finally did crap out, after approx 9 or 10 years of life. Its readings became erratic, or it complained. I did some troubleshooting and measurements, but when it seemed that it wasn't going to be anything easy, like a bad connection or a cold solder joint, I gave up... because to replace either the transducer or the head was going to be > $200.

Instead, I bought a complete Garmin Striker 4 fishfinder for CAN$140, made a little tank for the transducer, and this has worked just fine for 6+ years. The fishfinder display is sometimes harder to read than the big Raymarine digits, but the fishfinder has so much more: the scrolling bottom profile, and the GPS-based time and speed-over-ground.

I would have expected something with the pedigree, construction and price of the Raymarine & Airmar stuff would last a couple of decades... guess not.

[George_SD]

Bad luck.

Our depth is the original from 2005 and working fine. Speed through water wheel ducer is a pain due to need of cleaning, but works fine. Temp sensor on the other hand crapped out long time ago. Instead of adding another piece of electronics, i've simply added a transom mount trandcucer inside the hull in a small blob of wax. No need to build a container, add liquid, etc. Can also be removed or repositioned easily. This gave my Raymarine chart plotter a fishing sonar and a second depth instrument. Reads to 400ft