Humminbird 600 issues

garycinn

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 7, 2003
Messages
479
I have a Humminbird HDR 600 installed by the mfgr in a 5 year-old boat. Puck style epoxied to inside of hull.

Symptoms are:

-most of the time it just reads minimum depth or nothing at all (the other screen parameters such as ft or ko are still visible).
-every so often it will read a good depth on its own for a few seconds then go back to min.
-if I push the up or down button or go thru a setup screen or two it will read a good depth and settle back down to min.
-when no depth display, I disconnect/reconnect the cable to the transducer it "wakes it up" and gives me min again.

I call Humminbird and they won't let me talk to a tech -- just customer support. CS says it is probably the unit, the transducer, or the cable. Lots of help. If they fix my dash unit it is $70 plus shipping to them or I can buy a new unit w/ transducer for $100. The replacement is a HDR 610 -- a slightly upgraded model.

I don't mind buying a new one. What I don't want to do is buy one that isn't needed.

Based on my symptoms above, does anyone have a good starting point or a good test to narrow things down?

I'm going out this morning to trace the cable path for kinks, nicks, or overly aggressive tie wraps (I'll replace them w/ velcro one-wraps).

Thx
 

Chris1956

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
28,074
Re: Humminbird 600 issues

Gary, Is the transducer solidly epoxied to the hull? Pour some water on it and see if the reading improves. I tried to silicone a transducer to my hull, and it didn't work at all. I ended up just attaching the transducer to the bulkhead, adjusting it to be flat on the hull and tossing a cup of water on it, if it dried out(which it rarely does).
 

garycinn

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 7, 2003
Messages
479
Re: Humminbird 600 issues

Chris1956 said:
Gary, Is the transducer solidly epoxied to the hull? Pour some water on it and see if the reading improves. I tried to silicone a transducer to my hull, and it didn't work at all. I ended up just attaching the transducer to the bulkhead, adjusting it to be flat on the hull and tossing a cup of water on it, if it dried out(which it rarely does).

Thanks, Chris. Great tip, I'll try it.
 

garycinn

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 7, 2003
Messages
479
Re: Humminbird 600 issues

I traced the tranducer wire and it all checks out fine. I pulled on the tranducer / hull epoxy bond and the puck pulled off. I've duct taped it in with water in the hull to see how it runs. If it is good, I'll rough up with sandpaper, clean well, and epoxy again.
 

rottenray6402

Ensign
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Messages
923
Re: Humminbird 600 issues

If that doesn't work replace it with a Lowrance or an Eagle unit. This isn't a bash on Hummingbird but if you check the forums I think that you'll find many more Hummingbird postings. I have never owned one but have had several friends who had problems. I've owned different Eagles and 2 Lowrance and never had a problem.
 

garycinn

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 7, 2003
Messages
479
Re: Humminbird 600 issues

I ran it w/ the duct tape and water in the hull and it runs great even at speed. I'll try my hand at the epoxy and see if I can get a good bond.
 
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