FL-18 trouble

[Husker Fan]

I have a FL-18 pro pack with a 12 degree Ice Ducer that I just purchased this fall and have only used 3 times. I am not getting very good readings with it. Seems like there is a lot of interference and it will not read my other holes. I have fished in 10' 20' and 30' fow with no luck. I have tried to adjust the gain and interference with no luck. I have also tried adjusting the depth of the transducer and this seems to make no difference. Could it be the transducer or Battery? The first time I charged the battery for 24 hours and my charging light on the charger never came on nor did the battery status indicator. I used the FL-18 for 2 straight days on LOW and my battery status indicator stayed at 100% or fully charged. Last week-end on LOW my Father in Law's Marcum was reading 3 out of the 4 holes in is 8 x 12 fish house. My Fl-18 was only reading the hole I had my transducer in... granted Marcums have different degree transducers. I had no problem with my FL-8 slt reading my other holes. Finally, I have fished in the same fish house with other electronics and I have fished all by myself away from crowds and it does not seem to make a difference. Any ideas on what might be wrong? I know Vexilar has a 2 year warranty. Has anybody else had this problem?

[rangr]

Husker, Marcums transducer has a 20 degree cone and your FL-8 has a 19 degree cone. This could be one of your problems as to why your not reading other holes. Your FL-18 has a 12-degree cone which is much smaller and does not cover as much water. As far as the interference it sounds like you nave the gain set to high, try setting the gain at 1 or 2 and if you still have interference use your IR button to straighten it out. If that does'nt work you might have a problem with your transducer.

[Husker Fan]

The 12 degree transducer should still read all 3 holes in 20' fow if i am fishing out of a portable and my holes are no more than 3 ft. apart total(outside edge to outside edge)I hope!!!! I usually have the gain at 1 or 2 and I am constantly messing with the IR button. How do know if it is the transducer? Fl-18 users how far apart can you have your holes and still read all 3? I am thinking it might be the transducer.

"Go Big Red"

[Knotwood]

It sounds like the electronics inside aren't working right. I don't know how long others use up a battery, but mine starts to dwindle to the next level after about four/six hours of running. You could try switching batteries, but I'd think it's not drawing juice, check the connections first.

[Ed Carlson]

Try the Vexilar "Air Demo Test" and see how it looks.

Set your Pro Pack, or whatever ice kit you have, onto a kitchen countertop or workbench in the garage. There must be a flat solid floor below, no carpet. Place a hard cover book on the carpet if you need to.

Hang the Ice-Ducer over the edge so that the bottom is about 24" from the floor. Make sure that it is hanging by itself in mid-air and not resting against anything. This is to insure that the transducer will hang straight. If you have a Puck transducer mounted on an arm, level it off so it is pointing straight at the floor. Now, turn the flasher on to the first range. With the Gain set to zero, you should see a mark at the 12:00 position indicating the top, or your transducer, and another mark at the 9 foot line indicating the bottom, or floor.

Notice how the depth is completely inaccurate. The reason is that the speed of the burst of sound coming out of your transducer is traveling much slower in the air than it would be in the water. So the unit thinks it's deeper. Also the strength of your system is much weaker in air than water. The top line should be mostly red in color. The bottom line may be green, orange, or red (depending on the strength of your system, how straight your transducer is, and the type of floor). If you cannot see the floor mark without having to turn your gain up, try a harder or smoother type of floor. If there is no change, the system has a sensitivity problem. You must see at least a green mark, on a hard floor, with the gain at minimum to pass the test.

You can judge the overall sensitivity of the system by doing this "Air Demo" test, but you can't tell if a weakness is due to the unit or transducer (which is much more common) without replacing one or the other with a known good component. To solve this, borrow a friend's transducer or bring your setup into your local Vexilar dealer and ask if you can use one they have in stock for your test.

If your transducer doesn't pass the test, it will have to be replaced. Weak transducers cannot be repaired.

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I suspect it is the 12 deg that is causing the narrow readings at that depth. Another deal is "IF" you do not have the puck far enough down in the hole it may also narrow the reading up even further, so you may need to lower the puck more.

[Husker Fan]

Ed,

I ran the "air demo test" here are my results:

On a hard cement floor on normal setting I had the 12:00 and depth at 9' reading and gain was a zero. I swithched to low power and had to move the gain to 2 before I had the same readings. Just for fun I placed a 2" thick telephone book on the cement floor...I had to turn the gain to 9 before it would read the bottom. Any thoughts??? Then for fun I tried the same test on carpet with a hard cover book, same results as cement floor. I then placed the same telephone book on the carpet and the vex. would read the same as the hard cover book. I am going to try a friends transdcuer and see what happens. Thanks for the idea on the test.

"Go Big Red"