I went out two weeks ago and my 2D transducer that is gel coated into the bottom of the boat quit working. Thankfully I have Lowrance exterior transducer for downscan/sidescan that I was able to switch 2D over to. Any ideas how to test it to see if cable is lose or transducer went dead? Looks like its one color from the surface down to 30 feet or so.

I have a HDS Live 12 that the transducers are plugged into. I’ve had this setup for a couple years and its worked great until a couple weekends ago.

Can you post a pic of what it looks like on the screen? What Transducer?

I believe this is the transducer. 9-Pin Shoot-Thru Hull Pod Med/High CHIRP (No Temp)

I took a picture with the boat under the carport this morning so not very accurate as I know they have to be in water. The center part of the graph is the shoot through transducer. The images on the sides are the Total Scan running in 2D. The way the shoot through transducer looks on this picture is how it looked the other morning when in the water. Solid color all the way through the profile. Depth wouldn’t pickup either.

sounds like the ducer is bad, has happened to me a couple of times with birds.

That’s what I’m afraid of. I did like the shoot through as it helped me know the depth when running on a plane. The Total Scan is great but loses depth at anything over 20 MPH.

The top of the screen says 3-1 so you have not changed the source to the Shoot Thru Hull transducer. The source selection is on the sonar menu

Do you have a total scan transducer or an AI3-1 they are different?

That photo in the center looks normal for on Concrete and not in the water.

I did change the source from 3-1 to Thru Hull and back to 3-1 again all in that one screenshot. The 3-1 is on the edges and the thru hull is in the middle. Scroll was very slow for some reason with either transducer selection. I’ll get some screenshots on the water and post them.

Thanks for the help.

I finally made it back out on the water. Here are a couple different looks from this morning. I was switching back and forth to see what it was doing.





I need to switch the source of my depth on my pages but I don’t know how.

Here is my chart page that has the In Hull as the source for depth even though I changed the source on the menu, how do I get it to use the Total Scan 3-1 instead of the In Hull transducer?



Here is what the sonar setting page looks like



Any help would be appreciated.

When you Test in 5 ft of water the image you get is fairly normal especially when you have the fishing mode set to Freshwater instead of shallow. What do you have the Noise set to and the SCC set to? How about a pic of the Installation Page including Transducer Type

I wasn’t in 5 feet of water, so I’m guessing the transducer is no good. I’ll send a screenshot of the installation screen tomorrow so you can help me get the transducer setting moved to the Total Scan 3-1 if you don’t mind. I’ve had this transducer setup for over 3 years and it changed the last time out when I originally posted so I’m guessing it’s no good.

Either that or its still a setup issue This is very hard to diagnosis without knowing actual process and seeing all the settings. A 3 yr old transducer should not go out, I change mine every 10 yrs on shoot thru hull ones. If your transducer type saws unknown that is most likely your issue or if it has a model number in it that is the correct one for the transducer you are using. We can determine when we see the installation page pic

Larry, here is the info. I included the installation info for both the 3-1 as well as the Thru Hull. From your comment above, it appears I have the wrong 3-1 transducer selected as I’m 99% sure mine is a TotalScan, it came with my HDS unit when I bought it. How do I tell if I have a AI 3-1 or a TotalScan 3-1? I really appreciate the help.

Change Ch 1 to PD-WBL and try that.

Ch 2 Change to TotalScan M H

The AI 3 in 1 does not look right to me in the transducer type switch it to totalscan. There is no way for me to tell you the difference unless you can look at the connector end about 1 ft down from the connector there will be a silver Tag that ID the transducer.

The AI3-1 MH has a self ID you don't have to put in the AI3-1 If you put in the ID then that is another sign that is a totalScan

HDS LIve only come with an AI3-1 Totalscan stopped with Gen 3 HDS units.

Turn on Network Sonar

Larry, not trying to disagree with you but I do have the correct transducer selected from what I know is in the boat.

Please take a look and let me know if it’s correct based on this information.





I’ll verify the 3-1 model today.

You can disagree all you want its not a problem, This is what I was going by from above post

"I believe this is the transducer. 9-Pin Shoot-Thru Hull Pod Med/High CHIRP (No Temp)"

3rd post from top.

The Tag is correct