garmin 140 flashing

mike · 21 November 2007, 20:26

hi
I have a garmin 140 echosounder, works fine most of the time but in rough ie very rough conditions it resorts to flashing the last reading, it does not reset and then has to be turned off to reset sometimes without change.

so far apart from regretting the purchase I have assumed that it may be a shallow water alarm malfunction.
read the manual no mention of this any ideas. nb have checked for loose cable item is 6 months old!

DJL · 21 November 2007, 23:39

A flashing depth figure indicates its lost its lock on the bottom.

If you slow down/stop it should return to normal. Carrying on at speed and power cycling the unit will make it harder for the unit to re-aquire the bottom as you wipe its signal history.

Wheres your transducer mounted?

jwalker · 22 November 2007, 00:04

As DJL said but check to see whether the unit is set to auto or a manual range. I've found a Garmin unit to be confused after loosing the bottom if it is set to a range way out from what the actual depth is. eg. set to 1000mts and you are in 5mts of water.

mike · 24 November 2007, 14:10

thanks will look at the times it does it, if it keeps doing it in rough seas it will have to go as Us.
appreciate your inputs

Alex Brown · 24 November 2007, 23:43

My garmin unit does this as well, it wasn't so bad on the original transducer but unfortunately the plastic bracket wasn't strong enough for the trip out to the smalls and consequently snapped in half after hitting a few waves at a sensible speed.

The replacement transducer which is stronger looses track more frequently at this time of year, and the only way I can get it back is to pretty much come to a stop which isn't ideal all the time. It's not a major problem cos I only really use the thing for working in shallow areas when I wouldn't be going at speed anyway.

-Alex