Replacement transducer

[Anonymous]

I recently replaced an old 292 with the FCV295 and am having trouble with the low frequency performance. It will not read the bottom, display a depth reading and the display I do get looks suspicious and runs slowly in deep water on both HF and LF. After much checking, I suspect my transducer is the problem. I have a CA50/200-12M. I mostly do offshore trolling but occassionally bottom fish with the boat. My question is what power (Kw?) transducer should I consider? Any recommended models would be appreciated.

 

[Snips]

Tunachaser,
Did your FCV-292 also have problems with the 50Khz? Since the 295 doesn't use the same connections as the 292 it is worth going over the wiring before you replace the transducer. The 12M is a four wire transducer with red/black pair being used for 50Khz and the blue/green pair being used for 200Khz. Next make sure that each wiring pair is connected to pins 1 & 3 on the two transducer plugs. Check that 50Khz is connected to the LF channel and 200Khz to HF. Lastly are the TAP settings, the default setting is from the Common point to TAP A but sometimes the wrong end of the jumper gets moved and the jumper ends up between TAP A & B which will give you very weak bottom returns. If everything is connected properly then its probably the transducer, if you can tell me what type of fishing, depth of water and what type of vessel I can recommend a couple of transducers for you.

Snips

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Snips for the response. Answering your first question, the LF on the 292 worked fine. I just upgraded when I installed a new 1945 radar so they matched plus I wanted the brighter screen.

The wiring is all correct as you listed except I believe either the LF or HF wires had more than three pins but they are both wired to the outside pins so one is 1&3 and the other may have been like 1&4 or 5. Not certain of that.

I typically tuna fish in 1500 to 6000' but usually only care about the top 600'. Ocassional bottom fishing is usually less than 300'. I do have a deep drop rod but rarely use it. The boat is a 1998 48' Ocean.

 

[Snips]

Tunachaser,
The easiest replacement would be another 12-M which will work for what you are doing. You could try 28Khz but the mounting would be much different and I don't know if the increased cost would offset the performance difference.

Snips