How do you keep the water from freezing?

wrote:
Mine has water in it (and that's what was specified).

On Mon, 02 May 2005 20:58:35 GMT, "PeterKeating"
wrote:


Anyone Know what liquid goes in the receptacle of a thro' hull transducer, I
have been told Glycerine but not sure. Thank's. Peter

"Red Cloud®" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 03 May 2005 15:01:45 -0400, Paul Schilter
""paulschilter\"@comcast dot
net" wrote:

How do you keep the water from freezing?


...or evaporating?

It's a sealed setup so no evaporation, but freezing is an issue. That's why
water is not used.

rusty redcloud

wrote:
Mine has water in it (and that's what was specified).

On Mon, 02 May 2005 20:58:35 GMT, "PeterKeating"

wrote:


Anyone Know what liquid goes in the receptacle of a thro' hull
transducer, I
have been told Glycerine but not sure. Thank's. Peter

Interesting. I used a piece of PVC pipe slightly larger than the sensor. I
cut the PVC at a slight angle, so it would sit flush against the side of the
bilge, then epoxied it in place so it would hold fluid. I put the sensor on
another piece of PVC with a small groove on it and the pipe so it would stay
in the right orientation, put in the oil, then put the sensor/piece combo
in, and put a cap on (unglued). The cap keeps the mineral oil from sloshing
out.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

wrote in message
...
I have a very old DataMarine unit. The transducer is a hemi-sphere the size
of a bowling
ball (1/2 full of water), glued to the hull (of a Ranger 33 sailboat).
The display had
Numitron display tubes, but they failed and I had to replace them with
LEDs. It works
fine.

On Mon, 2 May 2005 17:06:45 -0700, "JG" wrote:

Which one do you have? I had a low-end fishfinder. Just sold the boat, and
I
can't remember the brand.

In article ,
"JG" wrote:

Interesting. I used a piece of PVC pipe slightly larger than the sensor. I
cut the PVC at a slight angle, so it would sit flush against the side of the
bilge, then epoxied it in place so it would hold fluid. I put the sensor on
another piece of PVC with a small groove on it and the pipe so it would stay
in the right orientation, put in the oil, then put the sensor/piece combo
in, and put a cap on (unglued). The cap keeps the mineral oil from sloshing
out.

A number of people on the Tanzer list simply caulked glued the
transducer to the hull. Doesn't have to be straight up and down, just a
good, solid connection.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

I've heard of that, but if there's a gap or significant air bubble, then it
mis-reads. At least that's what I read. I don't think mine was absolutely
straight up and down either, but I tried to get close.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"JG" wrote:

Interesting. I used a piece of PVC pipe slightly larger than the sensor.
I
cut the PVC at a slight angle, so it would sit flush against the side of
the
bilge, then epoxied it in place so it would hold fluid. I put the sensor
on
another piece of PVC with a small groove on it and the pipe so it would
stay
in the right orientation, put in the oil, then put the sensor/piece combo
in, and put a cap on (unglued). The cap keeps the mineral oil from
sloshing
out.

A number of people on the Tanzer list simply caulked glued the
transducer to the hull. Doesn't have to be straight up and down, just a
good, solid connection.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Jere Lull wrote:
In article ,
"JG" wrote:


Interesting. I used a piece of PVC pipe slightly larger than the sensor. I
cut the PVC at a slight angle, so it would sit flush against the side of the
bilge, then epoxied it in place so it would hold fluid. I put the sensor on
another piece of PVC with a small groove on it and the pipe so it would stay
in the right orientation, put in the oil, then put the sensor/piece combo
in, and put a cap on (unglued). The cap keeps the mineral oil from sloshing
out.


A number of people on the Tanzer list simply caulked glued the
transducer to the hull. Doesn't have to be straight up and down, just a
good, solid connection.

I did that with my last boat and would not hesitate to do it again.
Since the newer fishfinders are pretty sensitive, the minor loss of
power doesn't affect them much. In fact, the old Apelco 260 glued
inside the hull was a bit more reliable than the newer 262 mounted
though the hull - the new one needs the sensitivity backed off at
times or it focuses on powerboat wakes more than the bottom. Still, a
FF is much better than a simple digital sounder.

Even if you plan to mount one of those fluid chambers, or drill a
hole, its worth trying it simply glued on to make sure you have a good
spot. Sometimes a sounder will unexpectedly see the keel or rudder, etc.

Some people get confused about the tilted transducer, thinking it will
give false reading due to the off-axis geometry. However, the sounder
will respond to the first returned echo, which will be the shortest
path and the true depth - not counting weird effects or fish, of
course. The problem with being tilted is that the strength is reduced
off-axis. This is not a problem at 5 degrees, but a narrow hull may
only have a mounting spot at a steep angle. Since such a hull
probably heels more, its conceivable that the sensor could be almost
horizontal on one tack - not a good thing. One should consider the
beam width of a candidate unit - they are different, and some have
multiple frequencies which have different beam widths.

I was just reading all the warnings I got and taking them literally. I'm
sure it wouldn't have made much difference. My biggest concern was not
putting it directly over the cast iron keel. :-)

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Red Cloud©" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 4 May 2005 00:36:51 -0700, "JG" wrote:

I've heard of that, but if there's a gap or significant air bubble, then
it
mis-reads. At least that's what I read. I don't think mine was absolutely
straight up and down either, but I tried to get close.

The instructions for my $80 fishfinder, which I use as a backup for my
"real" depth sounder, says emphatically not to use a glob of silicone
glue to mount the transducer inside the hull. They suggest epoxy. It
may be a problem if you are using it to spot individual fish, but I
can tell you from my experience, and that of quite a few others, it
still works just fine as a depth sounder if you make a glob of clear
silicone and press the transducer into it. It's really not that hard
to avoid air bubbles. I think the loss in sensitivity is slight at
best.

rusty redcloud

Thanks for the great info... next time. I didn't actually set it "in stone"
until I tried it. I tried to get it as center line as possible, but tried to
avoid right over the keel.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
Jere Lull wrote:
In article ,
"JG" wrote:


Interesting. I used a piece of PVC pipe slightly larger than the sensor.
I cut the PVC at a slight angle, so it would sit flush against the side
of the bilge, then epoxied it in place so it would hold fluid. I put the
sensor on another piece of PVC with a small groove on it and the pipe so
it would stay in the right orientation, put in the oil, then put the
sensor/piece combo in, and put a cap on (unglued). The cap keeps the
mineral oil from sloshing out.


A number of people on the Tanzer list simply caulked glued the transducer
to the hull. Doesn't have to be straight up and down, just a good, solid
connection.

I did that with my last boat and would not hesitate to do it again. Since
the newer fishfinders are pretty sensitive, the minor loss of power
doesn't affect them much. In fact, the old Apelco 260 glued inside the
hull was a bit more reliable than the newer 262 mounted though the hull -
the new one needs the sensitivity backed off at times or it focuses on
powerboat wakes more than the bottom. Still, a FF is much better than a
simple digital sounder.

Even if you plan to mount one of those fluid chambers, or drill a hole,
its worth trying it simply glued on to make sure you have a good spot.
Sometimes a sounder will unexpectedly see the keel or rudder, etc.

Some people get confused about the tilted transducer, thinking it will
give false reading due to the off-axis geometry. However, the sounder
will respond to the first returned echo, which will be the shortest path
and the true depth - not counting weird effects or fish, of course. The
problem with being tilted is that the strength is reduced off-axis. This
is not a problem at 5 degrees, but a narrow hull may only have a mounting
spot at a steep angle. Since such a hull probably heels more, its
conceivable that the sensor could be almost horizontal on one tack - not a
good thing. One should consider the beam width of a candidate unit - they
are different, and some have multiple frequencies which have different
beam widths.

Doug,
That was sort of my point, it couldn't be water.
Paul


Doug Dotson wrote:


It's a sealed setup so no evaporation, but freezing is an issue. That's why
water is not used.

Red Cloud© wrote in
:

The instructions for my $80 fishfinder, which I use as a backup for my
"real" depth sounder, says emphatically not to use a glob of silicone
glue to mount the transducer inside the hull.

Any soft glue, like your bathtub caulk, will ABSORB the ping from the
transducer. So, we use epoxy, which is very hard and very conductive to
the ping into the hull for maximum transmission of the sound.