Piranhamax15 won't turn on. Ideas?

Hey all,
I don't want to send my unit in for repairs because the repairs cost more than the fishfinder. I have a unit that will not turn on. I bought a replacement head on ebay (who knows if it works) but it still won't turn on. When I called customer support the first question they asked was is the transducer ok. I have it glued inside and I don't put rods or anything in there so I think it is ok but could it be the problem? Should I buy a replacement transducer?

If the unit won't turn on, it doesn't sound like a transducer problem to me.  Sounds more like the electronics went bad.  Does it make any noise or any other indication that the main electronics want to turn on? 

Hate to say it, but my suggestion would be to buy something other than a Pirhana... they are notorious for crapping out with the type of exposure we put them up against.

You can do a search to find reviews of lots of different fishfinders.  Common models seem to be the Humminbird Matrix series and Eagle Fisheasy series.  IMO... the Eagle Fisheasy 245DS is the best deal going.  I have the Fisheasy 240 and it has held up great.

EK

Thanks for the help,
Nope, doesn't make any noises. I checked current and it comes through to the cable end and the battery has been switched and is fine. I opened the unit up and checked it through and through. Saw no busted resistors or circuits or anything. No water damage. The one thing I did when it crapped out was put on some dielectric grease for the first time. Maybe I made a circuit with it that fried it. Is there somewhere you can get these tested?

I just purchased a Humminbird 565 for my new 'yak so hopefully it will be more durable.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0023393016380a&navCount=1&podId=0023393&parentId=cat21396&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat21276&catalogCode=IG&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat21396&hasJS=true

I feel kinda nervous about putting a nice unit like this on a yak.

But anyways this piranhamax is on my other yak which I either will keep for a while or sell so I really want to get it running with minimal costs. If it comes to having to replace it I would have to just do without.

Well I guess my next question would be if anybody knows if a faulty transducer will keep the whole unit from turning on?

Aaaahhhh... the ol' Piranha fish finder blues  ...  I know it all too well.  Check out this thread I started on the subject.
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=1227.0

My suggestion --- call Humminbird's customer service and tell them you just got the unit but don't have the receipt.  If needed, you can tell them that it was a gift from your wife or girfriend.  They'll look up the age of the unit based on the serial number and more often than not, it'll qualify for warranty repair.

I've already sent two units back for no-charge warranty repair.  It takes about 2 to 3 weeks to get the unit back.

Alright cool! Thanks. I actually talked to them today and they said they'd give me a free cable to try if I fax them a copy of my credit card (monthly readout) purchases to show that I spent money at West Marine (why even bother if there's no itemizing is what I think). I have a hard time believing it's the pwoer cable because a mulitmeter shows full signal in both terminals but it's possible the teeny bit of corrosion combined with the addition of dielectric grease is making a bad connection so I guess I'll try it.

I had the same problem with my Matrix 17.  I too was reading voltage at the other end, but the FF wouldn't start.  Once I stripped off a couple inches off the power cord at the battery end, it worked.  That end had a little corrosion in the wire braid under the insulation.  I'm guessing that reading voltage with a voltmeter caused very little current drain, but when you try to start it up, the current drain cause a voltage drop across the corroded wire.

Good luck!

-Allen

Hmm. That could very possibly be it. I'm gonna give that a shot tomorrow. Thank you.

I forgot to post but you were most correct! While I was reading current through the power wire it was not getting full juice. So I started checking all possibilites. Turned out the fuse had gotten a little corroded and was no longer transfering at full capacity. It's odd to me that you could have some electricity making it but not full voltage. Put in a new fuse and it was good to go. Well at least I have an extra head now if anything goes wrong...

Thanks!

Great!

Ohm's law.  V=I*R or in plain english  Voltage = Current * Resistance.

When current runs though a wire, thers is always a voltage drop.  It may be very small, but it's there.  Normally a wire is low resistance.  When a current is drawn though it, large or small, you get negligible voltage drop across the wire.

When you use a voltage meter, it draws very little current on the wires.  So you would read a "good" voltage as the current component of I*R is small.  But the moment you turn the FF on, the FF draws much more current than your voltage meter.  As current goes up and NOW with the high resitance of the corroded area, the voltage drop across the wire goes UP and you get too much voltage drop resulting in your unit not working.

-Allen

Interesting. Good to know thanks.

When I have FF problems, I start with a Volt meter. 
1.) First test the battery.  Is it reading the correct voltage. For me that would be 12 amps.
2.) Plug the battery in and check the voltage on the FF plug side.  If it is not correct then---Plug negitive side into battery leave positive side open.  Use Voltmeter on pos-battery and negitive on the plug that goes into the FF.    If you get incorrect reading then you know the cable on the negitive is bad.  Check the wiring for broken links.  Check the fuse.
If you get correct readings, do the same only this time switch the positions.

Bla bla bla......bla bla bla
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You know,  we should have a flow chart on how to help kayakers with debugging FF problems. 
Voltmeter has always been the biggest help finding the cause.

Well as I found out its not always what voltage you read, its also just the plain physical condition of the wiring/fuses. A flow chart would be a good idea.

Well as I found out its not always what voltage you read, its also just the plain physical condition of the wiring/fuses.

Thats is one of the points of using a Voltmeter.  Isolating the problem section.