WiFish loses connection w/transducer

[Don G Baldi]

I have a WiFish installed that works great in demo mode. I can turn it on when the boat is in my garage and watch it flow on my phone in the living room. However, when in the water it will flow for about a minute and then warn that it can't find the transducer - or similar wording. So reboot, try again with same result.

The only thing different than an out of the box install was to add an extension to the transducer cord. The cord was way to short to make it from the transom to helm on my 20' boat. The extension is the appropriate RayMarine extension for the WiFish. The locking ring is fully engaged. I hope I won't need to relocate the unit near the transom so the extension isn't needed.

Any ideas are welcomed.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Don,

Live mode differs from Demo mode in that the system is expecting to provide power to and receive signal from the transducer. Failure to receive signal may be indicative of insufficient power, failure of the extension, or failure of the product. It is recommended that you verify that the vessel's batteries have been fully charged and that the system be tested again. The system may be tested for brief periods of time with the vessel out of the water ... don't worry about the quality of the image produced, but instead concentrate on verifying whether the problem is reported again. Should the problem persist, then the Wi-Fish should be uncoupled from the extension cable and instead should be plugged directly into the power/transducer cable and tested. Should the problem abate, then the extension should be replace. However, should the problem persist and the Wi-Fish was purchased within the last 30 days, then it would be recommended that the Wi-Fish be returned to the authorized Raymarine dealer for replacement. should the problem persist and the Wi-Fish was purchased more than 30 days ago, then it would be recommended that the Wi-Fish be returned to Raymarine’s Product Repair Center to be bench checked / serviced.

[Don G Baldi]

Power was fine so before tearing out panels to get at the transducer cable I tried an older Samsung phone to connect and at first it too lost the 'ducer. Tried some configures with that phone and it held. Went back to my LG phone and fiddled with it and got it to also hold. Time will tell when it hits the water next week if the disconnect problem is solved.

The only issue with using the Wifish itself is the brilliance of the smart phones and tablets I've hook up with it. Very hard to see when the sun is out but that's a limitation of the mobile device. In hindsight I wish I'd gone with the dragonfly that has its own display.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

You're welcome.