Humminbird issues

I will try my best to make this make sense. For a couple weeks I have noticed that when I'm on the front deck of my aluminum boat, I hear a slight..tick...tick...tick...tick. I could not find any cause to this, noise, and thought maybe I had a pin hole leak somewhere, but could find nothing. Every now and again my screen will stop reading the depth, and stop returning bottom contour, and have a messy screen with 100' depth or so, temp still works. I noticed today just playing around, that the ticking sound comes from what sounds like the transducer and only happens when the display starts to screw up. If I turn the unit off, the ticking sound will stop. If I turn the unit back on (and if it works like it should) no sound, the second it starts messing up, ticking sound comes back. Any suggestions? Do I need a new transducer?

Should be the opposite of what your saying. The ticking is the sound the transducer is sending out. If the ticking stops your graph is freezing up.
I would contact Humminbird and look for a software update first. Then if that don`t fix it, look at the transducer.
I had this same problem with a old Lowrance I had it was a software issue. Mine was the shallow water issue with the 510c. My old X75 kept on ticking and was flawless.
I now run a Vexilar Edge II that works good like the old Lowrance I had.
Ticking is good.
Lowrance didn`t have a fix at the time for my 510c, I was fed up. I cut my losses and bought a graph that worked.

I have this same issue with my HB. It's a 568 Combo. The ticking isn't the problem, but the bottom disappears and depths show ridiculous numbers. Actually today the depth was right, but showed no bottom. No structure, no fish. The unit is 4 months old. No reason for all this. They want me to send it back for repair, but this is the time of year I use it most. It's an inconvenience I was trying to avoid by buying what I thought was an upgrade from my old FF. Fished two tournaments now with no console FF in the last couple weeks. GPS works fine, but worthless if I can't see what I'm marking. Now I have a couple weeks between tourneys so I guess it's going in for service. Still not happy about having a 4 month old unit fixed. Replacement or refund would seem more fair to me, but whatever I guess. Really makes my plans for a HB SI later in the year a little less certain. Might have to look at the Lowrance now I guess.

I had to send in my 4 yr old 787 a couple of months ago. Dropped it off @ UPS on friday and it was back on my door the following Wednesday.

Yours messing up when sitting still or riding?

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Originally Posted by ykkapslabhunter

I had to send in my 4 yr old 787 a couple of months ago. Dropped it off @ UPS on friday and it was back on my door the following Wednesday.

Yours messing up when sitting still or riding?

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Not 100% sure but I think it mostly does it while moving, i have also noticed that in deeper water it seems ok, but if I get in around 8' or less, it starts acting up.

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Originally Posted by whofan

Should be the opposite of what your saying. The ticking is the sound the transducer is sending out. If the ticking stops your graph is freezing up.
I would contact Humminbird and look for a software update first. Then if that don`t fix it, look at the transducer.
I had this same problem with a old Lowrance I had it was a software issue. Mine was the shallow water issue with the 510c. My old X75 kept on ticking and was flawless.
I now run a Vexilar Edge II that works good like the old Lowrance I had.
Ticking is good.
Lowrance didn`t have a fix at the time for my 510c, I was fed up. I cut my losses and bought a graph that worked.

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I'm not sure what your saying, I have never had a transducer make any noise. The graph doesn't freeze, it still moves, just doesn't read the correct depth, and gets a messy screen. It only happens if I hear the tick, no tick, graph is fine.

When your unit stops hearing the returns, it may increase the output power to find the bottom. That's why the ticking is more noticable when the display is messed up.

It can lose the signal because of excess signal bouncing off the bottom of the boat and then the bottom again, because of interference from other sonars, or due to transuder or transducer installation problems. The transducer will always make the sound when in operation, but it is more noticable in situations that cause the unit to increase power.

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Originally Posted by CatFan

When your unit stops hearing the returns, it may increase the output power to find the bottom. That's why the ticking is more noticable when the display is messed up.

It can lose the signal because of excess signal bouncing off the bottom of the boat and then the bottom again, because of interference from other sonars, or due to transuder or transducer installation problems. The transducer will always make the sound when in operation, but it is more noticable in situations that cause the unit to increase power.

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AH HA, so at least it sounds like its narrowed down to a transducer issue

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Originally Posted by Locator79

AH HA, so at least it sounds like its narrowed down to a transducer issue

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That would be my guess. How is it installed? Have you checked that it is square with the water surface?

Its on the TM, everything looks like it should, transducer itself has a few scratches on it, but nothing major. I have another transducer, I think I'll mount on there and go from there. Thanks for the help guys.