Depth instrument reporting -.- at all times

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Depth instrument reporting -.- at all times

In order for a depth instrument to report depth, the boat must be located in water and the depth of the water column beneath the transducer must be at least 3'. Raymarine analog instrument depth transducers operate at 200kHz. Should other depth / fishfinder transducers onboard also operate at 200kHz, then the other depth / fishfinder transducers may interfere with the depth instrument. Marine growth on the face of the transducer may interfere with its operation. The transducer should be inspected to ensure that it's face is free of marine growth and that its connections to the instrument, iTC-5, or pod or electrically sound. Should the system feature an in-hull transducer (not recommended for use with i40 and ST40 instruments), then it is recommended that the transducer's reservoir be inspected to ensure that it is full. The vessel's batteries should also be permitted to be fully charged and then the instrument should be tested again while still connected to shore power. Should these conditions be met, then the root cause of failure of the instrument to report depth may be rooted in
- the transducer, depth pod (if any), iTC-5 Analog Instrument Converter (if any), or within the instrument itself. This problem is commonly fault isolated in the field by testing the transducer with a digital transducer test set or more commonly by testing the depth instrument, depth pod (if any), or iTC-5 (if any) with a compatible instrument depth transducer which has been suspended over the side of the boat or resting atop a ZipLock bag which has filled within the water and has been positioned in the bilge (the hull must be constructed of solid fiberglass (i.e. no core material) which is less than 5/8" thick in the testing location. Similarly, the depth instrument, depth pod (if any), or iTC-5 (if any) may be tested with a depth sounder test set. Alternatively, the instrument display, pod, or iTC-5 may be sent to Raymarine’s Product Repair Center to be bench tested/serviced. Should the depth instrument display be able to report depth in conjunction with the test depth transducer, then the problem would be corrected by replacing the currently installed instrument depth transducer.

Should a depth sensing instrument, iTC-5, or Smart Transducer not sense the bottom and therefore be unable to render a depth value (i.e. Depth = -.-), then the Data Sources feature of i70/i70s MFIDs, p70/p70R/p70s/p70RS Autopilot Control Heads, and MFDs running LightHouse II or LightHouse 3 software will not list the corresponding depth sensing instrument, iTC-5, or Smart Transducer. Accordingly, selection of the depth sensing instrument, iTC-5, or Smart Transducer cannot be performed should the vessel be on the hard or in water which is either too shallow or too deep for the depth sensing instrument, iTC-5, or Smart Transducer to render a depth value.


RAYFAQ#