Topic: 1198c si Problems

[Chet2142]

Hey all, I have a 1198c SI in the dash of my new 2011 Skeeter WX1900. And its not reading sonar correctly. It will slow way down and act like it freezes. It will also not show a high def bottom anymore.  has anyone experienced anything like this? I've uploaded a couple images to view.

[sonar2000]

Can you post pictures of your mounting location.  It almost looks as if the transducer is coming out of the water..
Is the 1198 connected to anything else.?
What battery does it connect to?
Chuck

[ITGEEK]

Also,
With your boat in the water, and fully loaded, is your transducer
more or less flat against the water.
It may be bent and tipped to one side too much (front, back, left, right).

[Humminbird_Greg]

Need some more information Chet2142: 
Has this unit and transducer combination ever worked correctly that you know of?

What transducer(s) is/are connected to your 1198c Si unit and how are they connected (direct plug in of one transducer, using an AS-Si-DB-Y splitter cable or using a Transducer Switch)?

Does this happen all of the time or only when something else on the boat is also running?

Make sure the cable connectors being held in place in the back of the unit by the snap-in cable collector as shown in the installation guide.

[newkid4si]

In the image above I noticed that the depth is 0.7
Could this be a clue to the problem?

[Humminbird_Greg]

It is newkid4si.  The unit is reading the surface clutter as the bottom of the lake since there is an absence of a normal reading from the lake bottom.  The unit slowed updating the screen way down due to its trying to find the bottom reading (it has to wait for a sonar signal to be transmitted to and be received from its maximum depth capability).  You can still see a faint trace of a bottom reading at about the 26 foot depth so the sonar is trying to work at a very minimal level.  This may be due to a loose connection between the unit and transducer, a broken wire in the transducer cable, something wrong with mounting of the transducer or something within the unit.  Add to this the possible problems if an AS-Si-LR-Y, AS-Si-DB-Y or transducer switch are involved and you can see why I asked about what transducers are being used and how are they connected to the unit.


Chet2142, I just noticed that you have a 998c Si unit listed along with your 1198 unit in your profile.  Is there anyway that you could temporarily switch units around to test the sonar on each unit to see if the problem is in the unit or in the transducer(s)?

[Humminbird_Greg]

That all depends on the failure mode Muddy.  If we are talking about a catastrophic failure where the transducer does not transmit and receive than the unit could still show some sort of readings at or near the zero line due to internal noise from the unit itself or it may not show anything at all.  If the transducer delaminated from the hull or if the element delaminated from inside the housing you could get the same sort of clutter on or near the zero line. 

[Chet2142]

Hey guys, sorry for the delayed response. I have actually sent both my bird's in for repair. As the 998 I had in the bow is a bad unit and well, you can see the issues with the 1198. We tried connecting the extra transducer up to it with the same thing.

yes, the depth is also doing funny things as well. I have a lot of images that I took screen shots of if you'd like me to post more. But to have 2 bad units directly from the manufacturer is extremely rare. And along with that, I took my minnkota in today as well as I think I have a bad transducer on that! What a way to start off my year!!

Thanks for all the responses.

[Humminbird_Greg]

Sorry you got two bad units Chet2142.
I don’t think that there would be any reason to post anymore pictures of what it looked like.
 

[Chet2142]

Greg, thanks for your help! I just had to get them in as I have the NTC/MWC in Mille Lacs in less than a month! And we did everything you could think of. Thanks again!

Chet