in-hull sounder transducer

[argonaut]

I recently installed a digital depth gauge but I wanted a non-permanent mount temporarily to find a good location for the puck.
I placed the transducer in my X under the first aft port compartment, outboard of the ballast tank.
Silicone worked on three tries, but only until it cured. I guess once it dried there were air bubbles under the silicone.
What finally worked well (and still does) was a using a chunk of toilet ring wax from Home Depot to stick the puck to the hull at the right angle. Fast, cheap, non-permament.
The wax remains flexible and seems to conduct the signal well.


argo

[innervations]

Dear all,

Thanks for the excellent advice. We ended up mounting the transducer about 5cm to port of the center line and 10cm forward of the batteries. Works really well when full of water ballast under both sail and power. The only time I run the boat without ballast is trying to get somewhere in a hurry and depth measurement is not really relevant.

Cheers
Rob

[ROAD Soldier]

Good luck sir.[/quote]
Introducing the newest inductee into the Redneck Hall of Fame. For his most stupendous and functional mod in transducer installments category being hailed by common sense judges everywhere even one famous local Secret Identity Redneck stated "It's so simple anyone should of thought of it but didn't, where were you when I installed mine 2 1/2 years ago".[/quote]

To set the record straight, I found the above mod while surfing this site. It was not my idea. I stole it from Mr. Road Soldier it apears. My apologies go out to him.

I did not intend to imply in any way that this mod was my idea. It was not. I just assumed that we were brothers here ... neighbors to say the least, whom which share great ideas.

Mr. Roadsoldier, please PM me and let me know how much I owe you for this obvious copyright infringement. After all ...

To you I am a dumb redneck. [/quote]
Obviously I wasn't explicit enough in the way write my words. I meant to congratulate you on that mod and wish I had thought of it 2 1/2 years ago when I installed mine. I just put 4 more screws into my boat instead of doing something so simple as that. Now since you admit to not thinking of it originally I have to take back your redneck status and please pass the award on to the person who thought of the mod first.

[jschrade]

Old Milwaukee must be half off tonight!



Jim

[baldbaby2000]

I have 2 of them with a switch: one is on the transom similar to what's shown. The other is just forward of the ballast vent under the V-berth. I glued a plastic cylinder to the top of the ballast tank and set the transducer in it with enough water added to cover it. The ballast needs to be full for it to work and to be honest I haven't used it a lot. I mainly wanted something that would tell be I was in shallow water before I hit something rather than after I hit something.

[vizwhiz]

Old Milwaukee must be half off tonight!

Does anyone have trouble with stern mounted unit "catching" stuff (it appears to extend beneath or at the edge of the bottom of the hull) on it while cruising? We have a lot of floating seaweed, grass, and other stuff in the water down here where the water's warm and stuff grows and you have to put your fish on ice to make them cold!

[Love MACs]

I have mine mounted on the stern and never had a problem with "catching" anything. It does get some growth on it from the boat sitting in the slip but hasn't affected its performance.

Allan

[Russ]

I have 2 of them with a switch:

How do you have them on a switch?
I would like to do what you have done also.
--Russ

[baldbaby2000]

Russ,

I use a DPDT (double-pole double-throw) toggle switch. There are 6 electrical connections on the switch: the center pair are normally the common (wiper) and the outer pairs are the switched transducer connections. As I recall the transducers use a shielded pair. Connect the depth display unit to the common connections on the switch and each transducer to the outer connections. Finally tie all the shields together (I didn't switch the shields). I originally intended to mount the switch on the pedestal but I got lazy and just taped it under the pedestal to the cable from the motor control unit where it wouldn't get bumped. The bozo that installed the depth gauge didn't leave any slack in the transducer cables so I had to extend them which was a hassle.

Like I said it seems to work but I'm not done evaluating under different conditions; it does rely on a good accoustic path through the water ballast.

Dan

[jschrade]

Old Milwaukee must be half off tonight!

Does anyone have trouble with stern mounted unit "catching" stuff (it appears to extend beneath or at the edge of the bottom of the hull) on it while cruising? We have a lot of floating seaweed, grass, and other stuff in the water down here where the water's warm and stuff grows and you have to put your fish on ice to make them cold!

Yes, mine does "catch" some stuff mostly grass but it comes off easy. I just put it in a marina and really hadn't thought about the critters attaching to the stern mount sensor and will keep an eye on that.

It's starting to cool down here, I don't know what I am going to do when the water temp goes below 80!!!!!

Jim