Depth finder & GPS issue

ssmiddy82

Good day all,
So, I noticed my stock Fauria depth finder & Lowrance 520C act up at some point during the Michigan boating season.  The GPS will not locate the boat, but will turn on, and the depth finder will turn on, but have a hard time finding the depth(flash various depths, not accurate).  We just put the boat in on Friday, the 14th after a winter of sitting in a climate control warehouse, and of course, I turn them both on, and they are working fine.  This issue seems like it could be connected, although I could be wrong.  I am going to give the grounds and ground block a good look, as well as check the connections behind the gage panel.  I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

Willhound

The issues should not be connected. The Faria depth guage is notorious for acting up especially later in the year if you get build up on the hull as I believe the pickup is embedded in the hull. The GPS location issue is puzzling as the GPS is picking up signals from either an internal GPS antenna, or maybe a remote antenna but that is a totally different signal than the depth guage. If your GPS has a sonar built in it should be on a separate sonar sending unit than the Faria, but can also be affected by weeds and build up from sitting in the slip.

Gregg

I have replaced both. 1 Faria transducers can go anytime, mine was working one day then all a sudden was giving me funny readings. 2 if you have a GPS puck It does not take much to knock it out. Learned that one fast.

MarkB

The fario transducer is crap ... sorry, but they are unreliable.  Your lowrance on the other hand should be more reliable ... although they say the transducer should be replaced every 5 years (they do eventually die). 

In terms of the GPS ... one thing I found is to ensure you power down the unit before turning the main power off.  It's not good to cut the power off the unit without a proper shut down.  I had a standard horizon, and it would give me all kinds of problems until I powered it down properly, and after that NOT A SINGLE ISSUE.

The other thing I'm thinking is that I heard recently the GPS system had a glitch and it effected some devices ... not sure if it is chronic or a once off issue.

Lake_Bum

What is happening is, the two different transducers are crossing beam patterns beneath the boat.  I had a Lowrance that did this years ago, and never figured it out. When I had switched boats, and went to a Humminbird that did the same thing, I called the help line, and told him in depth about the issue. He asked me to text him a pic of the transom, and right away he spotted the issue.  The two transducers were too close to each other, and were crossing beams, and causing interference.  On that boat, I just unhooked the factory depth finder.  On newer boats I've had since, I mount on the opposite side of the transom, never had the problem again! 

MarkB

Lake_Bum said:

What is happening is, the two different transducers are crossing beam patterns beneath the boat.  I had a Lowrance that did this years ago, and never figured it out. When I had switched boats, and went to a Humminbird that did the same thing, I called the help line, and told him in depth about the issue. He asked me to text him a pic of the transom, and right away he spotted the issue.  The two transducers were too close to each other, and were crossing beams, and causing interference.  On that boat, I just unhooked the factory depth finder.  On newer boats I've had since, I mount on the opposite side of the transom, never had the problem again! 

Well, I guess it depends on where the lowrance transducer is ... but I doubt he's got a through hull transducer for this unit located near the faria one. My recollection is the faria transducer is about mid-ship, close to where the through hulls are for the air con water pick up and head water pick up.  Lowrance ... likely he has the ducer mounted to the transom somewhere.

aero3113

Are both transducers running on the same frequency or different frequencies? That can make a difference also.

MarkB

aero3113 said:

Are both transducers running on the same frequency or different frequencies? That can make a difference also.

That's true, and actually you gave me an idea.  The lowrance can run at 2 different frequencies ... one for shallow water (Wider cone) and one for deeper water.  So if the frequency is toggled, he will be able to see if it is interference.