Topic: 1198 sonar problem

[markGH2O]

I am having issues with my 1198 sonar. Has worked great since new but half way through the day yesterday it would lose reading and default to 1.6 intermittently I am running a y cable with the thru hull and si transducer. This was occurring on plane and sitting still so shouldn't be a bad transducer.  I have been running the 6.18 software since release in march. Also, I am a humminbird select member but lost the phone number any ideas how I can get it? Thanks for your help

[Roddy]

markGH20, EZ things first, HB CRC number is 1-800-631468.

Update 6.180 was a mess, try to update to the latest  update.

Try cleaning  the bottom of the transducer with mild soap and water.

On a flats boat I have Thur  hull transducer mounted well fwd and sometimes in ruff water it will loose bottom lock and give bad readings.

Good Luck

Roddy

[Humminbird_Greg]

markGH20, because this happens while on plane and while sitting still it only points to a bad transducer as being the cause.  There are also other possible causes though so you need to do some troubleshooting:

Try unplugging the AS-Si-DB-Y cable and connect the thru hull transducer directly to the 1198 unit and test it again to see if you get the 1.6 foot depth readings or not.
 - If you don’t than it could be a bad AS-Si-DB-Y cable which needs to be replaced.

 - If you do, than the problem is either that the transducer has gone bad, the transducer is coming loose from the hull or that the hull is failing.  About the only thing you can do to troubleshoot this is to pour enough water into the hull so that the transducer gets covered at least half-way up and test it again.  If it starts working than we know that the transducer installation is failing and the transducer can be removed, tested and re-installed if it works.  If this does not help than you should remove the transducer and test it by hanging it over the side of the boat.  If it works correctly it should be safe to re-install it but make sure that you test the location before doing so.  If you cannot find a good location to re-install the transducer it may indicate that the boat hull is separating and/or failing in some manner.  If the transducer does not show the correct water depth reading when tested over the side of the boat than it is bad and needs to be replaced.

I will pm you the Humminbird Select member call in number.

[markGH2O]

Thanks for the help. I will give all of your suggestions a try tonight and let you know how it goes. Greg- could you please help me understand how this is a transducer issue? My understand of the Y cable is that if on plane it should be reading from the thru hull transducer and while sitting still it should be utilizing the SI transducer? When it occurs the down imaging and sonar boat read zero while the side imaging is not affected.

[Humminbird_Greg]

The AS-Si-DB-Y cable is just that: a cable.  There is no switching from one transducer to another either within the cable or the unit.

When you use the AS-Si-DB-Y cable you are disconnecting the 2D portion of the Side Imaging transducer and connecting up the DualBeam transducer in its place.  To the unit it all looks like one transducer.  The 2D portion of the Side Imaging transducer no longer has an electrical connection to it and so does not operate.

[markGH2O]

Greg- thanks that was a great explanation of the Y cable and how it functions. In the diagram it says that all side imaging and down imaging info will come from the SI transducer. If my sonar and down imaging are failing at the same time but are reading from seperate transducers does this suggest the cable needs replaced?

[Humminbird_Greg]

It could but the cause may also be the unit itself or possibly even the 2D transducer.
Many think that there is a problem with their Di sonar when there isn’t.  If the Si sonar looks good then the Di sonar should be good as the Di sonar Views are all taken from the Si sonar data.  The range shown for the Di sonar is controlled by the range shown in the 2D sonar, so if your 2D sonar is showing 1.6 feet deep and causing the Di range to jump up to the 0 to 10 foot range, you may not even be seeing the Di sonar data from the lake bottom.

[markGH2O]

OK... update on sonar issue from past weekend. I went on a weekend trip and the first day I went without unhooking any cables everything worked great sonar may have defaulted once or twice while on plane but it was better. Then all of the problems began... Unit started locking up whenever i attempted to change views or get to the menu and all I could no was power the unit off. Went out the second day and unit was still freezing, gps was not working, and the sonar was having the same intermittent issues. Near the end of the day my side imaging also having intermittent issues. I tried unhooking the Y cable and plugging each transducer in seperate but am kind of overwhelmed by the new issues to believe that it was caused by a bad transducer. Humminbird suggested that i exprot all nav data and check for a corrupt waypoint but I really dont think that is the underlying issue as it was one of the last problems I experienced before giving up and heading home early. Should I send the unit to Humminbird now or attempt to troubleshoot myself? I MUST have my graph back for regional tournament Sept. 7-9th and also my last weekend before the off limits period (august 25-27). Any thoughts or suggestions?

[ITGEEK]

Mark,
I don't know if you've even considered this, but have you checked
your power supply (battery and connections).
It doesn't matter if your battery is new or you KNOW it's good.
Intermittant problems are often a power issue.

I would fully charge and load test your battery.
If you have an inline fuse, check it and the connections
for corrosion.

Keep eliminating things and you will eventually find
a solution.

PS. Forget about the tournament(s).
It's more important to have a sonar unit you
can rely on.  There will be more tournaments,
in the future.

[sonar2000]

Another issue with the HB's are hitting the keys too fast in succession.
Make sure you hit a key and wait for it to do its thing before hitting another key..

Chuck

[markGH2O]

Mark,
I don't know if you've even considered this, but have you checked
your power supply (battery and connections).
It doesn't matter if your battery is new or you KNOW it's good.
Intermittant problems are often a power issue.

I would fully charge and load test your battery.
If you have an inline fuse, check it and the connections
for corrosion.

Keep eliminating things and you will eventually find
a solution.

PS. Forget about the tournament(s).
It's more important to have a sonar unit you
can rely on.  There will be more tournaments,
in the future.

The reason I gave an arm and a leg for a 1198 was because I wanted a quality product I can rely on for tournament use. Forget about the tournament? We obviously don't think too much alike. It's worked perfrect up until now and feel that humminbird cs will take care of me after talking with themtoday.

I have gone through the connections and the unit is freezing after pushing one key. I will test the batteries soon but would be suprised to find that the underlying cause. I will not have my boat for a couple days and want to export all waypoints onto an sd card before I send to humminbird, or is this necessary? I just don't want to lose anything and they may need to whipe the unit clean. The sooner I send it the better chance i will get it back in time. I can go through power and connections while it is away

[Roddy]

Download the waypoints to a SDcard before shipping the unit to HB.

 Roddy

[ITGEEK]

Mark,
What I meant was, set your priority to get your unit fixed and
fixed right.  The tournament(s) are going to come and go, and
there will be more next year.

Rushing things usually causes stress and problems.
You could send your unit in to Humminbird and there may
not be anything wrong with it, because you were in too
much of a hurry, and didn't check everything on your
end.

I've learned that every time I rush to go fishing, I end up
forgetting something.