Depth Finder Question

[Here's Waldo]

Have a 3500 Lowrance Depth Sounder - been working fine but yesterday it just died. Switch it on and nothing happens, at all. I'm going under the assumption that it's an electrical problem.

Could not find much info on the Lowrance site. From what I was able to glean if the problem was with the Transducer, I would at least get some kind of error message on the screen. Can someone verify that for me?

 

[Doernuth]

Re: Depth Finder Question

First use a meter and make sure the unit is getting power. Then check all the wires and connections for corosion.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Depth Finder Question

Agreed -- the unit won't work unless it has +12 volts and ground. Apparently one or the other is missing and it is easy to check. 1) fuse, 2) follow the wires, 3) check the plug. The transducer would not cause the unit to fail to power up.

 

[Hank496]

Re: Depth Finder Question

Check the connections. If there is 12 volts, then its game over for this unit and transducer. We had a Lowrance 3500 on our boat up until two years ago, when the display crystals starting going bad. Here is what I found at that time:
Lowrance no longer supports the 3500,
Lowrance no longer makes sonar heads, or transducers that use the same frequency used by the 3500 - (nobody else does either),
Lowrance does not sell compatible parts,
Lowrance will not repair your unit,
Lowrance is basically not interested in hearing from you unless it is to buy something new.

The 'good' news is that the through hull transducer for the 3500 was the same physical size as used by the other major brands. In our case, I went with a Raymarine set up and added on to the existing C80 display.