Garmin transducer question

I have a 93sv UHD unit with the gt54. I don’t use side imaging a ton, haven’t turned it on in a while. This week I was fishing a 40 ft reef surrounded by 100 fow. Lake trout were suspended at 60 over the deeper edges. I wanted to scan the area to get a better sense of which side of the reef held more fish. Anyway, turned on my side imaging and the right side of the screen is just black. Any ideas?

If the ducer is done, is the gt56 the way to go? Costs nearly as much as my entire 93sv/gt54 combo did a couple years back

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_7721-scaled.jpeg
   

I’m not sure on the ducer , but it doesn’t look good.
The gt54s are all over ebay and other sites for sale for cheap. Easily get one for a 100 bucks.

I have considered getting the 56 for mine also, but like you said the cost is a little high. Not sure but I would imagine the ducer is your problem.

Did you try it in shallower water by any chance?

in the screenshot do you have zoom on?

In the screen shot it appears you are in 43 ft of water but your range on side Vu is only at 40ft. that would give the appearance of only black as you are still in the water column and not reaching the bottom substrate?

just a couple ideas

I’d go through your settings and make sure you didn’t disable one side on accident (not sure if it’s possible to do, but an idea)

Also check and clean your pins and make sure nothing is bent and not making a connection. Check the cord ends and the bail bracket to were the graph pops in and out.

Thanks for the ideas guys. I tried later in shallower water with same results. Turned the si component off and on. Don’t have zoom on. If I switch to left only, the left side looks normal, if I switch to right side only it’s black like the photo.

I will definitely go through the settings and check the cable pins and ports to see if I can find anything goofy.

Probably worth watching

I run a HB so don’t know much about Garmin. But, what also looks off to me in your photo is that the bottom is showing up at 0 feet, actually just to the right of 0. Unless you have it set to not show the water column below the boat. Is there an option to reset your settings to factory default? Is there a setting on Garmin that allows you to shift the SI image to one side at a certain ratio?

tswoboda wrote:

Probably worth watching

<div class=”ido-oembed-wrap”><iframe loading=”lazy” title=”Bad gt54 gt56 ?!? What to check before you call Garmin!” width=”850″ height=”478″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/CNbYs_k1ysg?feature=oembed&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen=””></iframe></div>

Thanks for sharing. Seems identical to what I’m seeing. It’s definitely not lower unit interference as the ducer is on right side of my transom as well. I’ll double check some things today and then reach out to Garmin as it sounds like this is a widely reported issue.

Looks to me like the transducer is toast. You might want to check with Garmin support. Depending on how old your unit is I’ve read where they have offered discounts on 56 replacements or if they have any a free 54 replacement. Lots of reported problems with the 54’s.

Garmin customer service is pretty amazing. Started a chat on their site, immediate response with no wait. Got some basic info, sent pics, determined I was 2 years outta warranty. First offered to replace for $150. I balked at that, didn’t throw a fit but let em know I wasn’t happy, and they agreed to a one-time no cost courtesy exchange.

I kind of don’t expect the ducer to last any better than this one, but if I can get a few years out of it maybe the gt56 will be considered outdated and I can find a replacement at a reasonable cost.

dirtywater wrote:

Garmin customer service is pretty amazing. Started a chat on their site, immediate response with no wait. Got some basic info, sent pics, determined I was 2 years outta warranty. First offered to replace for $150. I balked at that, didn’t throw a fit but let em know I wasn’t happy, and they agreed to a one-time no cost courtesy exchange.

I kind of don’t expect the ducer to last any better than this one, but if I can get a few years out of it maybe the gt56 will be considered outdated and I can find a replacement at a reasonable cost.

yeah, they are great, your experience isn’t uncommon…I bet the GT-56 is replaced in a few years…

I guess i have been lucky. Been running one 54 for a few years and just slapped a spare one on a different boat and seems great. Hopefully its a solid replacement!

Youbetcha wrote:

I guess i have been lucky. Been running one 54 for a few years and just slapped a spare one on a different boat and seems great. Hopefully its a solid replacement!

I got mine December 2020 so it’s not like it was a total bust. I just think stuff should last longer than 4 years but that doesn’t seem that common anymore.