Fish Finder Repair

[Little_Minnow]

Don't know if this goes here or under another catagory, but here goes.  I just bought a used boat and it has a brand new Garmin 240 on the trolling motor.  The guy I bought the boat from said he did not have a chance to take the boat out again after having it installed.  The installation looks fine and it powers up, but I have no depth reading.  It says 59 feet deep all the time.  According to the manual it should automatically pick up the bottom and start displaying.  Is there something really easy that I do not know about before I take it into the shop to be looked at?

Josh

[Terry_]

This may be a silly question, does the Garmin 240 have a demo mode?

[Long Mike]

I'm sure you have already thought of this, but the transducer needs to be immersed in water before the unit will work properly.

[Little_Minnow]

It was on the water that this happened.  I tried it in the driveway and did not think anything of it not getting a reading because I was not on the water, but when I got on the water it still did not pci up the bottom.  As I said, it powers up and looks like it is fine, but it says that the water is 59 feet deep and does not show the bottom.  

[TopDog]

Hi josh,

Check for demo mode as stated, then maybe try cleaning the bottom of the transducer.

[Little_Minnow]

I am putting the boat in the water tuesday and will check the mode.  I looked at the trasducer and it looks clean.  Thanks for the input.

[cart7t]

Might want to check the X-ducer cable as well for kinks or cuts in the line.  

[Long Mike]

One other thought.  Most depth finders have a RESET function in the Menu. Try that as soon as you get into water over 6' deep.  I've had one experience with a depth finder that executed a "go blind an internally hemorage" routine every time it was in less than three feet of water.  The only way I could get it working again was to take it back into deeper water and Reset it.

[Garnet]

Turn the unit on and touch the xduser it should be binging.

Garnet