Depth meter

[PaulinVictoria]

Now I've solved my reefing conundrum, it's onto the next one

Depth meter, there is one fitted and it gives me complete jibberish readings (I'm pretty sure there isn't 80 feet of water under my keel at my slip). I took the back off the display, checked the connections and they seem OK. Can't really check anything at the transducer end as it's just a wire going into the epoxy.
Any ideas that don't involve hauling the boat and replacing it all?

[sailingdog]

It would help if you said what make and model depthsounder you had, since this could be a known issue with it. Also, have you tried using a different display of the same make and model, since the displays are usually far more likely to go bad than the transducers, and doing that might tell you which component is bad. If a known good display works on the transducer, then your display is shot... if it doesn't then the transducer is shot and the display is an unknown.

Of course, if you test your display on the boat you got the working display off of and it works, then the display is fine...but you won't be able to tell that without testing it with a good known transducer.

[oceanscapt]

As sailingdog suggested, the make and model would be helpful.

You might start by removing the transducer and giving the face a good look and clean. I've had slime and critters give me weird readings in the past. If you're in a soft bottom, you can occasionally get conflicting readings but being off 80' is a lot.

What's the offset? Has it been changed or is it something weird? Can you change the offset and get the display to agree with the change?

Then check the cable as far as you can to make sure it's in good shape. Check the wires and connections to the display unit as well.

Sometimes the control head gets voltage sensitive. Are your batteries OK?

[PaulinVictoria]

I'll have to go and take a look during the week sometime and find out what model it is. I think the transducer is a through-hull(i.e. fitted through the hull, rather than on the inside) type so pulling it out to have a look isn't really an option, unless i like pumping water out of the boat.
Cables look OK, connections look too, battery is fine as far as I can tell. If I have to go out and buy a new head unit to test it, then I might as well just buy a complete new system but that isn't going to happen this year.

[sailingdog]

Paul—

Most of the transducers are actually made by a single company—Airmar. This means that the transducer may be usable with other instrument heads as well. For instance, when I upgraded to the TackTick gear in the middle of the season a few years back, I used the Raymarine supplied depth and speed transducers, as they were compatible with the TackTick gear, and I didn't have to haul the boat mid-season.

[PaulinVictoria]

OK, it has an SR Mariner digital depth meter:


I think the non-functioning analogue knotmeter is from the same company.