Transducer connection intermittent

Last year i switched from Hummingbird to a Garmin 93sv UHD with GT54 at the wheel. The install was done at the boat center by Deans guys. It didnt happen everytime but id say at least 50% of the time when i started out boating for the day the garmin unit would not pickup that i had a transducer at all. It would offer me no menu settings associated with the fish finder unit. If i recall there would only be like 2 menu items instead of the typical 6 or so. When i went into the settings to see what transducer was displaying it would give me a message saying something to the affect of “please install transducer”. I apologize thats not gonna be exact im remembering this from last year. I would get so frustrated trying to power the unit down and back up and checking cables and settings that usually i would finally just take off and start fishing cursing at this new fish finder. Well what would invariably happen is that the unit would eventually recognize that i had a transducer and everything would start to work as it is supposed to. There is one common aspect to this i think i noticed. When i launch the boat i always get my fish finder ready to go, most of the time turning it on at the dock. It seemed like this would happen most often at the beginning of my day at the dock or near the dock in shallow water. Then after i would say “F it” and just took off to fish my first spot the unit would recognize my transducer as i started to go fast in the boat. Sometimes it would take a few minutes. A few times i think it took longer.

Any ideas? Obviously a very frustrating experience when the new fish finder doesnt work. Maybe there is a trick i can apply that will eliminate this problem for me

How’s your boat batteries? Do you have the electronics powered on first and then crank your starting motor? I would suspect it’s just a power issue, maybe buy or use a buddies 10AH+ Lithium battery used for Ice units and see if you notice any of the same issues…

Have you updated the firmware since?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

How’s your boat batteries? Do you have the electronics powered on first and then crank your starting motor? I would suspect it’s just a power issue, maybe buy or use a buddies 10AH+ Lithium battery used for Ice units and see if you notice any of the same issues…

Have you updated the firmware since?

Boat batteries are actually new as of last year. I am very vigilant about power the finder up ONLY AFTER I have the boat turned on. Fried a humminbird doing it the other way around about 6 years ago.

Boat is still in storage for the winter. I’ll check on updates when I get her out in about a month

Check the pins on the back of the head unit and the cradle…oh and first things first, reset everything back to factory settings…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Check the pins on the back of the head unit and the cradle…oh and first things first, reset everything back to factory settings…

Thanks Joe I’ll try that

Did you get a solution to this? I have 2 of these and 1 is doing the same thing. New batteries last year.swapped head units and same thing. Ducer wire feels good, no damage I can find

Welder guy wrote:

Did you get a solution to this? I have 2 of these and 1 is doing the same thing. New batteries last year.swapped head units and same thing. Ducer wire feels good, no damage I can find

I’ve only had the boat out twice so far this year and it wasn’t do this either time. I didn’t make any changes

In my experience it comes down to something mechanical 90% of the time. Switches, connectors, relays, plugs, jacks, solenoids, sockets. I have an older Humminbird 788ci on the bow. Every once in a while it tells me I’m in 998 feet of water. It’s a poor connection to the pins on the transducer cable. I carefully reach in there with a tooth pick and buff the connections up and I’m back in business.

SR

Mine does this and I have to tighten the connection on the gimbal bracket. Has happened multiple times. I tighten it and restart it.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Mine does this and I have to tighten the connection on the gimbal bracket. Has happened multiple times. I tighten it and restart it.

Just started happening to me also. I think its time to email Garmin I guess.

I have the EXACT same issue with my Helix 7.

Figured I would update this thread. I kept having the issue felt like every other time I went out. When out this last time it said it would not reading the ducer and asked me to assign the correct ducer model. So I scrolled though and found the one I have and set it to that one and it instantly started working fine and did not hiccup the rest of the weekend. Not sure if I’m done with the issue but so far so good. Just thought it could help someone else.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Figured I would update this thread. I kept having the issue felt like every other time I went out. When out this last time it said it would not reading the ducer and asked me to assign the correct ducer model. So I scrolled though and found the one I have and set it to that one and it instantly started working fine and did not hiccup the rest of the weekend. Not sure if I’m done with the issue but so far so good. Just thought it could help someone else.

Thanks for updating John. When ive had this problem and scroll through the menu options it doesnt list the GT54 transducer available as an option for me.

Last time i had this problem i tried doing what Bearcat said to do and it fixed it. Havent had the problem in a while but i also havent been using my ducer much as im just trolling shallow cranks in areas i know well

It should have the option mine did and to my knowledge all of these 93uhd models are the same. Had to scroll down a ways to find it.