I-Pilot transducer problems

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07-18-2011, 07:02 AM
EnonEye

I-Pilot transducer problems

Well I got the new Minn-Kota trolling motor with I-pilot and built in transducer, everything went well on the install, very impressed with the plug and play from the TM transducer to my old fishfinder. On the water for a test and motor worked perfect.. can life get any better now that my TM will fish for me?
The fishfinder was working real good for the first 30 minutes and then the rest of the evening it was alarming and flashing a message:
TRANSDUCER TURNED OFF
MISSING CONNECTION FROM TRANSDUCER TO FISHIFNDER...
or something to that effect...
I messed with the fishfinder all evening at different settings, checked all wiring, and cannot get those messages to stop. At one point I reset the fishfinder to factory settings and then all I could get was the factory animation to show on the screen.
This is an older (15 years old) Garmin 160 fishfinder but as I said earlier it was working at first just great, much clearer picture than before.
Ideas on how to fix this?
07-19-2011, 08:11 AM
beagle man

never heard of the problem, have you contacted garmin or minnkota for a soulition,,, sorry I cant help.
07-19-2011, 10:23 AM
CatFan

Do you have a grounding jumper from your TM batteries to your cranking battery, a charge-on-the-run system, a 36V TM that shares a battery with your outboard, or do you power your Garmin from your TM batteries?

If any of those are true, you may have blown a fuse inside the TM head.
07-19-2011, 01:13 PM
EnonEye

"do you power your Garmin from your TM batteries?
If any of those are true, you may have blown a fuse inside the TM head"

Oh no Cat Fan... ys I run the TM and the Garmin from the same battery. Is it difficult to access the fuse? Can't run the 2 from the same battery in the front? I'm running out of space to put batteries. Gotta love electronics... when they work!:mad:
07-19-2011, 01:20 PM
CatFan

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnonEye

"do you power your Garmin from your TM batteries?
If any of those are true, you may have blown a fuse inside the TM head"

Oh no Cat Fan... ys I run the TM and the Garmin from the same battery. Is it difficult to access the fuse? Can't run the 2 from the same battery in the front? I'm running out of space to put batteries. Gotta love electronics... when they work!:mad:

The fuse is in the head and is pretty easy to access. The US2 can't be used where there is any connection at all between the TM battery and the battery powering the fishfinder. Early ones didn't have fuses and there were problems with transducers overheating.

It's not a good idea to run electronics from the TM batteries anyway. It is much more likely to cause interference.
07-20-2011, 06:53 AM
EnonEye

Thanx CatFan

Appreciate the input, looked over the installation manual again last eve and it's in there (not connecting TM & Fishfinder to same battery) but I had to look for 30 minutes or so to find it. Minn-Kota should make it a little clearer but at least it's just a fuse. Think I'll get a 3rd battery to run that front fishfinder on by itself and that'll also give me a back-up battery in the boat. Don't like the idea of runing the front fishfinder off the starter battery as everything else is already running off it, (engine crank, navigation lights, rear fishfinder, aerator, sump pump, radio, etc). Once I get everything going with it and this heat wave cools off it just won't be fair to the fish.Rofl Thanx again CatFan.Thumbs Up