My wife and I are on the boat and we just cut across the main channel. Been in this area hundreds of times. Simrad depth is reading 3+ feet. We are in at least 35/40 feet of water Everything else is accurate. I'm going to check transducer placement when we stop. WTH? Ideas? I've already rebooted.......
Is there dense plant life under the surface that is confusing transducer maybe? I added a Faria depth finder on port side for times like this so I have a second device for verification of depth. Those props are expensive! Mounted above Kicker sound system and powered from Kicker input power so it comes on with accessories switch. It can be shut off from face of Faria if you want to listen to music engine off and don't want depth power draw.
Sometimes transducer issue (mounting angle, turbulence in water around it) sometimes low voltage on the battery (I see 14.4 on the chart but is that the battery the Simrad is powered from? Multiple batteries?) sometimes poor grounding or power or loose connection... maybe just try a hard reset? Interference sources? Has anything changed recently or any service work? Run aground or hit debris? This is obvious and I know you know, too much speed will give a false reading.
Troubleshooting guide should give some other things to check. A simple check to eliminate battery is to hook up to a separate 12v source and see if that addresses it. Sorry just spitballing here.
Thx Jhill and potomacbassin for your replies. I found out what was wrong and I'm almost too embarrassed to say but here goes. For some reason the water temp was reading in Celsius. So I changed it in settings. Then I noticed the depth was reading in meters and speed was in knots. So I had to go back into settings and change those to feet and mph. Simple right? Ha!
Thx Jhill and potomacbassin for your replies. I found out what was wrong and I'm almost too embarrassed to say but here goes. For some reason the water temp was reading in Celsius. So I changed it in settings. Then I noticed the depth was reading in meters and speed was in knots. So I had to go back into settings and change those to feet and mph. Simple right? Ha!
If it's still off, look into the keel offset setting.
Since your transducer is on the bottom of your pontoon, it's sitting a foot deep or so below the surface. So you have to add a foot to get true water depth. If the bottom edge of your prop sits a foot deeper than the transducer, and you want to know the distance below the prop to the bottom of the lake, you have to subtract a foot. These settings are known as keel offset, and you can enter them into the depth finder and it can do the math for you.
Not a big deal if your lake is deep. But if you boat in water that's shallow, a foot makes a difference.
Always good when it’s something super simple or overlooked. Sometimes embarrassing too. It was a good laugh. I could totally see me doing something like that sometime.
If it's still off, look into the keel offset setting.
Since your transducer is on the bottom of your pontoon, it's sitting a foot deep or so below the surface. So you have to add a foot to get true water depth. If the bottom edge of your prop sits a foot deeper than the transducer, and you want to know the distance below the prop to the bottom of the lake, you have to subtract a foot. These settings are known as keel offset, and you can enter them into the depth finder and it can do the math for you.
Not a big deal if your lake is deep. But if you boat in water that's shallow, a foot makes a difference.
Everytime we have our Subaru serviced at dealer, they somehow change the tire pressure readings to millibars......And me being less than youthful, I have to figure out how to switch it back. I should write down the procedure but that makes too much sense. See old guy struggle over and over. I get to entertain myself!
