[Robchabot]

Great community. It’s my first writing because english is not my first language.

I used a deep sounder, an inside puk Garmin Airmar P 79 connected by a NMEA 2000 network to my Simrad monitor NSE. Last summer, the system worked perfectly for the first two sailing months and the deep reading was precise. However, after that, sometimes the deep sounder worked, sometimes not. Occasionally, the sounder begin to worked just haft an hour or more after the monitor and cruise goes on. Not very pratical.

The dealer said to me that the NMEA connection are not stable. Is that true? He suggests to deconnect and reconnect the sounder fitting. But this is not a nice solution when you need a vital information like the water deep under the hull.

So my question is : what could be the problem for this erratic functioning?

If my actual system is not reliable, will it be better to have an external transducer, like the combo B260 1KW Thru-Hull Transducer & BSM-1 broadband sounder. I don’t need fishing location commmodity. But I need a solid and trustworthy sounder.

Thank you in advance.

Rob Chabot

 

[Faster]

How is the puck attached to the inside of the hull? If there are air gaps or a broken layer in the adhesive (and any relative movement when sailing) this might produce the symptoms you describe.

These are usually potted in epoxy so there are no air bubbles or gaps between the puck and the hull surface.. Alternatively they are mounted in a liquid-filled cavity glassed into the hull.

An external (true through-hull) transducer will always be more reliable and have greater range than an in-hull. Unless, of course, you really do have a network connection problem.. in which case I'm sure there's lots of advice on-line about dealing with that. I'd start by opening, cleaning and remaking all the links in the system.

 

[MarkSF]

You should be able to go into the monitor's menu and see what devices are present on the NMEA 2000 network. I'm not familiar with the Simrad, but I can do this on my Garmin GMI 10 display. Mine will also show network error rate.

Wait until the depth sounder is malfunctioning, and see if it is still present on the network. This will eliminate network issues as the cause.

Did you follow the rules when installing the NMEA 2000 network? Is it correctly configured with terminators? Are the P79 and Simrad both drops?

 

[kellysails]

Great community. It's my first writing because english is not my first language.

I used a deep sounder, an inside puk Garmin Airmar P 79 connected by a NMEA 2000 network to my Simrad monitor NSE. Last summer, the system worked perfectly for the first two sailing months and the deep reading was precise. However, after that, sometimes the deep sounder worked, sometimes not. Occasionally, the sounder begin to worked just haft an hour or more after the monitor and cruise goes on. Not very pratical.

The dealer said to me that the NMEA connection are not stable. Is that true? He suggests to deconnect and reconnect the sounder fitting. But this is not a nice solution when you need a vital information like the water deep under the hull.

So my question is : what could be the problem for this erratic functioning?

If my actual system is not reliable, will it be better to have an external transducer, like the combo B260 1KW Thru-Hull Transducer & BSM-1 broadband sounder. I don't need fishing location commmodity. But I need a solid and trustworthy sounder.

Thank you in advance.

Rob Chabot

I had a similar problem with mine, I have a Simrad NSS12 with an airmar through hull DST200. It just stopped working at one point. I solved it by going into the device setup on the NSS and recalibrate. A month latter, the same issue, solved again by telling it to recalibrate. It has been working great for six months now. But give this a try. I think there is some funkyness with Simrad's NMEA 2000 implementation. I think the issue is with Simrad and not the transducers.

 

[Robchabot]

Thank you for your help.
I will try all your interesting suggestions this next spring.