Eagle 480DF Sea Charter Losing Bottom...

[MoParFish]

Hi All,

I've got an Eagle 480df that worked great for the first year then progressively started losing bottom. Now about 3 years in, the sonar portion is it's almost unusable. Deep, shallow, fresh or saltwater, doesn't matter. Seems OK first starting out but after after a while as day progresses it's useless.

Anyone else had similar problems?

Thought maybe water has penetrated transducer and is shot?? Just don't know.

Eagle says find a buddy with same transducer and try it. Heck my buddy's don't even have boats...They need loaner/tester units. IMO

They said I could send the unit in and if found bad it would be a flat $170.00 but they didn't want transducer to check.

I don't mind buying a transducer if that will fix it. Just don't want to throw money away.

Also thought of using just for GPS since it's got a good aftermarket map card in it. Then get another standalone sonar.

Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Boatist]

Re: Eagle 480DF Sea Charter Losing Bottom...

First welcome to the board.
Tranducer do fail often and the only way to know for sure is try a different one.
Since you have a dual frequency unit does it fail the same way at 200khz and 50 khz.
If it does then may be the unit.
My 1985 depth finder had one 20 degree transducer fail. It would work one day pretty good and the next not work at all.
In my case it was easy to diagnoise as I had two transducer on the boat.
I had the standard 192 khz 20 degree tansducer for shallow water and a 192 khz 8 degree transducer for deep salt water.
The 20 degree transducer was defective. I think the crystal inside was cracked as it would work for a few minutes then not work at all.
You can try cleaning the transducer with a mild non abrasive soap.
Also check the hull ahead of the transducer to make sure nothing creating air bubbles.
If it is a shoot thru hull make sure it still glued down tight and has not come loose.
In the water units check for any growth on the unit.
If it only fail when moving and is ok when stopped then can be something ahead of the transducer or a big scratch on the unit that would create air bubbles.

Also check the voltage to the unit. If it will display a voltage reading then see what voltage is shows.
Shoud be 12 volts with the engine off and up to 14.8 volts with the engine running.

Check the plug to the transducer and make sure pins and socket are clean an bright not green and corroded.

After that you must decide if you want to upgrade to a newer unit or try a new transducer.

Good luck.

 

[MoParFish]

Re: Eagle 480DF Sea Charter Losing Bottom...

Thanks for the welcome and the good tips!

Both the 200khz and 50 have failed at the same time even in still water fishing sturgeon on anchor in San Francisco bay in 25 foot water. Eagle told me how to try a (soft reset) on the unit so I'll try that next trip out.

The last Humminbird sonar I had, even though a cheaper model, worked great for about 4 years 'till I sold that boat. Seemed easier to use as well. Any thoughts on Humminbird vs. Eagle/Lowrance dollar for dollar?

Well I gotta put the new lifters and intake back on the 4.3 today before I go anywhere. The lifter on #1 intake valve mysteriously decided to over pump and hang the valve open. Hopefully have it running tonight.

Thanks Again!!!

 

[dingbat]

Re: Eagle 480DF Sea Charter Losing Bottom...

Since you have a dual frequency unit does it fail the same way at 200khz and 50 khz. If it does then may be the unit.

Unless you get a high end transducer they use a single crystal in the transducer. One would expect a failing transducer to have similar results at both frequencies. If the units fails differently between frequencies then I would suspect the head unit.

The plastic housed transducers they use those units are prone to failure. My money is on a bad transducer. Find a place that will let you exchange the transducer should that not be the problem.