Setting SST source does not give expected results

[LowTide]

Two TZT3 units in a network. Each TZT3 has a transducer connected to it. We will call them TZT3 Port & TZT3 Starboard. I want to use the transducer connected to the TZT3 Port device as the source for SST data. Therefore, I select TZT3 Port as the source for SST data for both units. Generally speaking, this works, and both units will show SST as measured by the transducer plugged into the TZT3 Port unit.

However, when viewing the sonar screen on the port unit, if I change the transducer I'm viewing on this screen (not changing anything physical, just selecting the Starboard unit as the sonar source to be displayed on the Port screen), the SST data changes on both screens and now is from the transducer plugged into the Starboard unit, even though the source is set to Port. Is there a way to stop this behavior or is it just a bug? What if I disconnect the temperature wires going to the Starboard unit as a workaround?

 

[Johnny Electron]

Whenever on the fishfinder screen any overlay temp will be of that particular selected fishfinder source but any temp in the NavData box will be that of which you have selected as the "Temp Source" in the data source setup screen. If you wish to see that port unit temp, you would need to bring out the data box. The same would be for any Depth Source numbers. What is shown in the databox will be that source which you have selected in the Data Source, setup screen.

 

[LowTide]

Thanks for the response. That is not the way it is working on my TZT3 network running the latest software. I have SST in a data box on both screens. When I change the sonar source on the Port unit to TZT3 Starboard, the SST data boxes on the Starboard and Port units change transducer sources as well--something I don't want to happen.

It seems to be a bug, where changing the sonar source in the sonar page can also change the source of the SST info. Hopefully you can try to recreate this in the lab. When I change the sonar source on the Port unit back to Port, the SST data box in the data box of the Starboard unit changes back as well (it changes back and forth in the data box of the Starboard unit as well). Rather than setting the SST source to a temperature sensor plugged into a particular unit (what we all want and what you describe), the SST source setting seems to set the SST source to the temperature sensor plugged into whatever sonar source that unit is set to display on the sonar page.

Perhaps not a bug, but I also believe the temperature on the sonar page should report SST of the SST source as selected in the settings. This behavior does, however, make it easy to demonstrate this apparent bug, and adding a data box works around this, although at the expense of cluttering the screen with redundant or conflicting info.

What would happen if I disconnected the temperature wires feeding into the TZT3 Starboard?

 

[Johnny Electron]

I recommend shooting a short video of your concern and then getting it to our tech support department so we can see exactly what you mean. The temp source is global into the data boxes but we can pass any suggestions you have over to product development.

 

[LowTide]

OK, I think your response indicates my description wasn't clear...I agree, too wordy. Let me try again:

You are indicating that when you change your sounder source, the SST info in a data box shouldn't change sources. Mine does.

In order to replicate you'd need networked TZT3's, each with its own transducer connected to it, and each with a temp sensor at a different temperature. I realize that most of the time all of your transducer temperature sensors are going to be at the same temperature, and therefore you're not going to notice this bug.

In my case, one of my transducers is a trusty B260 that I like to keep for bottom description, but the thermistor in this transducer is whacky, has been for a while, pre TZT3, and reads way off, but the transducer itself is fine. Because of that, when the SST source for the data box changes it is immediately apparent. I may try to just disconnect the temp sensor wire of the B260, hopefully that will force the TZT3 system to stick with the only temp info it has (?).

 

[Johnny Electron]

Before you cut anything let me doing some testing based on what you have explained. Thanks for dumbing it down a bit for me. I will get back with you, soon.

 

[LowTide]

I played around with it more. In addition to behaving as I said above, two more things I found interesting:

-The temperature on the overlay is not necessarily the temperature of the transducer being displayed which is contrary to how you described it. Rather, the overlay temperature always matches the data box temperature, which is the temperature reported by the transducer plugged into the unit that the temperature source unit is using as a fishfinder source (not necessarily the transducer plugged into the unit set as the temperature source). I know that sounds convoluted, but that's only because the implementation itself is convoluted.

-When you go to settings/sources and scroll to SST, it reports the preferred and current source, and lists the actual live data from the current source. So if you bring this screen up on 'unit 2' and have the current source set to 'unit 1', and then change fishfinder source on 'unit 1', you will see the temp data changing on the setup screen on 'unit 2', even though the source stays the same.

 

[Johnny Electron]

Hi LowTide, testing I see what you mean about the temp. I agree with you it seems to be a software bug. There times that you get dashes for temp even when both sounders have working temp depending on the setup circumstance. I will report this to the parent company today. It makes me wonder if this is something new with v3.5 or older versions did the same. Either way we will get it reported so they can make a software fix. Thanks for reporting that.

 

[LowTide]

I wasn't going to mention the dashes as I didn't want to lose you again! Did you experiment at all with disconnecting one of the thermistors? Is it wishful thinking to hope that without a temperature input for 'transducer 1' the system will look for 'any' valid temperature source on the network? Seems like that's the way it should work. Another way to think of it is if you had an in-hull (e.g. M260) transducer, which do not have temperature wires, connected to a unit, hopefully the software would be smart enough to look elsewhere.

 

[Johnny Electron]

I think percentage wise most don't have multiple sounders and those that do, have good temp on both units so the software bug was going unnoticed. (Again thanks for reporting it)

I don't think disconnecting will change much except it would remove the bad temp sensor from the mix.