Chartplotter fish finder replacement

[Fasty]

Hi
I’m a cruiser, explorer, sometime fisherman/crabbe/prawner and sitter-there-doing-nothing kind of boater.

ive noticed that my Lowrance doesn’t read depth or sonar at speed and seems to struggle with finding depth and sonar readings in water over 300’. The sonar seems to take a while to find its signal after planing. Is that a transducer issue or just an old Chartplotter issue?

I don’t need the latest greatest gadgets and generally with tech stuff am happy to buy that which is a few years old.I also don’t need the equipment to integrate together. I’m happy to use what I have as stand alone until it fails and perhaps have it work together in the future.

I’ve been reading the forum posts on chartplotters. there’s a ton of knowledge in this group. I’d like to spend as little as possible and would like the sonar and depth to be more consistent and reliable. I would like to be dialed in a little better.

Here what I have:
Chartplotter/sounder: Lowrance LC-X110
Radar: JRC 1500
Depth: Faria (not reading depth)
Auto Pilot: Simrad AP24
VHF: uniden um415 and icomm IC-m302 - neither seem to communicate with the Chartplotter.
transducers: two. One, mid ship is through-hull. ( blue plastic fin). One is aft and I think not a through hull. I don’t know what make/model they are. I couldn’t see any logos.

i would be grateful for your ideas. I stopped by SM and the guy was trying to sell me a bigger solution than I think I need.

thanks for reading this.
Fasty

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[Trophy]

ive noticed that my Lowrance doesn’t read depth or sonar at speed and seems to struggle with finding depth and sonar readings in water over 300’. The sonar seems to take a while to find its signal after planing. Is that a transducer issue or just an old Chartplotter issue?

Sounds like your unit was reading at one time but not anymore so more likely transducer issue than plotter. Symptoms sound like my old cheap lowrance transducer several years ago. Before you spend $$$ on new unit or transducer see if you can borrow a known working transducer from a friend to test on the water. It will help lead you in the right direction. Older transducer do wear out. Back to my issue years ago, replaced original with a P66 made a world of difference eliminating issues described as well as highlighting fish arches rather than tiny dots. Since then have moved onto newer unit/transducer. P66 would be a great transducer for you if thats all you want to replace.

 

[ericl]

According to Lowrance this unit was made 2005 - 2006, so the stuff is old. According to this article transducers last about 10 years:

How To Tell If Your Transducer Is Bad (Quick Checklist)

How to tell if a fish finder transducer is working, and how to troubleshoot it.

sportfishingbuddy.com

In addition to the article fixes, cleaning the male & female connections of the transducer cable/unit plug with a spray can of electrical contact cleaner may help.
If it needs replacement, a new thru hull in the blue housing would be best. As for you currently having 2 transducers, I highly doubt both are plugged into the Lowrance.

 

[ship happens]

Ok here we go. That LCX stuff is complete junk when it comes to doing any chart plotting or multi use. However when it comes to being used as a sounder. It's my personal favorite. When used with a standard airmar bronze thru hull transducer. This will not give you chirp. Or any fancy structure features. However it will never skip a beat. Using 200hz will only ready up to aprox 7 or 8 hundred feet. Have to switch the frequency to 50hz to read deeper than that. Who needs to read that deep anyway in a sport boat.

Another note. You can only run 2 transducers if they are set on different frequencies. The faria transducer is not a great product IMO. What I would do if I were you is either get setup with a modern multi function display. Or ditch the faria, and add a GPS display with radar capabilities. And turn the lcx into a straight sounder.


The blue plastic fin your referring to is most likey an airmar bronze thruhull. Probly the most standard robust transducer. It's simple. Super reliable.

 

[Fasty]

Thanks everyone
Does the bilge side transducer cover come off? I could not see any identification on it. It’s black plastic, mushroom shaped.
I tried to twist it but didn’t want to put too much pressure on anything for fear of breaking something(as I usually do when fixing something)

can the bronze through hull stay and the guts be pulled out from the inside?

If I have to replace the through hull transducer would a new p66 work if I upgrade the gps display unit later on?

 

[ship happens]

Can you snap some pics?

If you have a thruhull dont go to a stern mounted p66.

 

[ericl]

can the bronze through hull stay and the guts be pulled out from the inside?

No. Go online to www.airmar.com & look at a picture of a bronze thru hull - it has a football shaped body with a round shaft.

 

[Fasty]

Here are pics


Mid ship and aft

 

[macro]

Keep an eye out for an older lowrance HDS unit.. (the non touch stuff) it would be a decent upgrade and a drop in replacement for what you have now. compatible with all the lcx gadgets.

 

[23Hourston]

That’s an In hull not through hull. Guessing but it’s probably leaked out the fluid. And won’t work with out it. Second pic looks like a transom mount but can’t tell

 

[ericl]

They both appear to be in hull shoot thru the hull transducers - does the one in the first photo even have a cable coming out of it?

The shoot thru are considered a very inferior install method as much of the signal is lost going thru the hull.
Are you positive that the above photos show the transducer with the blue fin? The one with the blue fin should have a vertical bronze shaft 1-2" in diameter on the inside of the hull secured with a bronze nut.

If the rest of your electronics is like the pictures, I'd start from scratch.

 

[ship happens]

Yeah those are glue on's. Eeek

Yeah never had any liking to those myself.

Honestly I think you need a complete system upgrade. With an actual thru hull transducer.

Ill buy that LCX unit from you if you decide to go with new

 

[Fasty]

I will have to double check. There is definitely a blue fin with a round black or bronze circle in the bottom of the fin. It’s mid ship. I’ll go see if I can find another transducer

thanks again for all the input

 

[Fasty]

I will have to double check. There is definitely a blue fin with a round black or bronze circle in the bottom of the fin. It’s mid ship. I’ll go see if I can find another transducer

thanks again for all the input

Ok. Holy crap.
I finally found the thu-hull...it’s in the bilge between the motors. Nasty area. It looks like hell. I traced the wire out and it’s been cut. The thru-hull is dead. Next.


I got the top off the larger, mid-ship in-hull. It’s an Airmar p79. Very low on fluid.
I can’t tell if it is powered up and communicating with anything. Maybe the Faria if it gets some fluid.

When I pulled the transducer top off of the p79 the Lowrance sounder kept working so I concluded the little aft thru-hull is what powers my sonar. I checked it and it makes a clicking when the Lowrance is on.

so that’s it, I have a weird little turd “on/in-hull” transducer. This is starting to sound expensive.

 

[ship happens]

Why do you need more than one transducer?


None of those transducers are very savvy imo

 

[Fasty]

Ship Happens
i wasn’t clear.
I went to go look for, and found, the thru-hull transducer I saw when the boat was out of the water.. There are three transducers, one thu-hull, a P79 with no fluid and a mystery in hull unit which is hooked up to the Lowrance.
I have to decide now what transducer to install to improve the performance of my Lowrance which can still be used if I decide to sell it to you!

 

[ericl]

Thanks for the update & diligence - great job. I have the pleasure of owning an older boat & the issue of "installing new stuff without removing the old stuff" is a far too common issue. I even found 2 wires with the ends stripped, twisted together & secured with a bandaid.

It looks sounds like your "working transducer" is shooting thru the hull as it is glued inside the hull, but has no means of cooling the transducer. This is required & is usually & best accomplished by immersing the transducer in water (transom mount or thru hull like your blue finned one).
Lack of proper cooling has probably done-in your transducer. The shoot-thru-the-hull appears to be a quick & dirty fix done by a previous owner.

IMO your best option is to put a new bronze thru hull into the "blue finned" fairing block; keep the fairing block any any "angle matching block" installed inside the hull.

This guy Airmar B45 at around $250 US should work well:

AIRMAR

It's 600 watts which should be fine to 700 feet. Check with Lowrance on compatibility; sometimes a S/W update may be required.

To replace the whole lot with a modern CHIRP unit with that screen size & CHIRP transducer would be $2-3K easily.

 

[Fasty]

Thanks for the input.

there are suggestions that range from:
- Install a new thu-hull (Airmar B45 $350) to the existing LCX-10.
- install new thru-hull and upgrade screen to more recent HDS (found used online for $400-1000, with new thru-hull could have upgraded system for -$1200) ( and sell existing LCX TO shiphappens!)
- start over - brand new chirp system is going to be at least $3500. System will still not be integrated with existing radar but maybe with autopilot..

The first step is to pull the boat out and drop in the new Airmar. Everything else can flow from there.

Ps- I added mineral oil to the p79 and now the Faria is reading depth.

 

[ericl]

You can usually save money by buying a generic airmar transducer & a "mix and match" cable to adapt the airmar connector to your Lowrance

 

[ship happens]

I'll buy that lcx screen. Would look reaaal nice mounted to the deck of our newest member. I've already got the thruhull in that machine.

I've got the same setup in the coaster. 12inch version. That sounder never skips a beat. Love it.