Wayne,,Mega 360 issues again.

[Rouse4]

I have only done water bucket test to make sure it works...will have it on the water tomorrow for a real test.

[blkfalc4]

Is the ducer in about the same amount of water on boat/lake as when submerged in bucket?

[cevans]

QUESTION for everybody that has. Mega 360. Can you submerge the Mega 360 too deep to cause it to not turn on? Try that to see if it happens to you as when I was viewing SI I picked up a dash of interference showing the trolling motor thin line in the water column as I have my Mega 360 mounted on a Da Ducer by Rickie of Podunkideas.com and NOT mounted on the trolling motor. I had absolutely no shown interference by anything when viewing 360, but did pick up the trolling motor on the left side of the water column and raised the trolling motor 6 inches, dropped the depth of the Da Ducer with the Mega 360 a foot deeper than normal when viewing SI and it’s maybe no more than couple ft. Deep in the lake, but in the bucket of water about 8” deep. I am wondering if that might have an effect of it not turning on at the lake? Raining like hell here and have grandkids coming over today and can’t get to a lake before next weekend as too busy thru the week. I’ve been on 2 different lakes with this testing it out now.

[Wayne P.]

QUESTION for everybody that has. Mega 360. Can you submerge the Mega 360 too deep to cause it to not turn on? Try that to see if it happens to you as when I was viewing SI I picked up a dash of interference showing the trolling motor thin line in the water column as I have my Mega 360 mounted on a Da Ducer by Rickie of Podunkideas.com and NOT mounted on the trolling motor. I had absolutely no shown interference by anything when viewing 360, but did pick up the trolling motor on the left side of the water column and raised the trolling motor 6 inches, dropped the depth of the Da Ducer with the Mega 360 a foot deeper than normal and it’s maybe no more than couple ft. Deep in the lake, but in the bucket of water about 8” deep. I am wondering if that might have an effect of it not turning on at the lake? Raining like hell here and have grandkids coming over today and can’t get to a lake before next weekend as too busy thru the week. I’ve been on 2 different lakes with this testing it out now.

The two probes are just contacts that water completes the electrical circuit to turn the 360 on. Depth is irrelevant.

I used to have a bilge pump switch that was the same type.

[Kenfuel]

Just a thought.....I wouldn't think its possible in a natural body of water....maybe not enough ions in the water to complete the circuit?

[D Johnson]

Anther thought. Could there be less voltage to those water sensors when you are on the lake? Maybe something else running that causes a little voltage drop. It takes a amount of voltage to jump the gap between those two sensors due to the dielectric constant of the material between those sensors. As it takes 30,000 volts to jump a 1" gap it air. Kenfuel could be on to something in his post. It you have hard well water, lot of minerals not in frozen, the dielectric constant would be less then softer water. I would hope their design would have taken that into account. Don

[MikeF]

QUESTION for everybody that has. Mega 360. Can you submerge the Mega 360 too deep to cause it to not turn on? Try that to see if it happens to you as when I was viewing SI I picked up a dash of interference showing the trolling motor thin line in the water column as I have my Mega 360 mounted on a Da Ducer by Rickie of Podunkideas.com and NOT mounted on the trolling motor. I had absolutely no shown interference by anything when viewing 360, but did pick up the trolling motor on the left side of the water column and raised the trolling motor 6 inches, dropped the depth of the Da Ducer with the Mega 360 a foot deeper than normal when viewing SI and it’s maybe no more than couple ft. Deep in the lake, but in the bucket of water about 8” deep. I am wondering if that might have an effect of it not turning on at the lake? Raining like hell here and have grandkids coming over today and can’t get to a lake before next weekend as too busy thru the week. I’ve been on 2 different lakes with this testing it out now.

I don't have a 360 unit so not familiar with it's construction..
Is it possible on the new units that there is a second internal position sensor in the unit, that confirms the shaft is in the vertical position and the sensor is in series with the water contacts.

Don't have a schematic, but I would think there would be a redundant deployed orientation verification system.

Maybe next time the unit is deployed and not responding, try tapping/thumping ( gently) on the shaft and see if the unit sudden jumps to life.

Just a SWAG on my end.


The ion thought is a possibility as there has been documentation of ionic switch failures in pump applications in various industry uses.

Curious to see what the eventual solution is.

[bobcoy]

cevans, I doubt there is anything external that could cause your problem. Get HB on the phone. Bob

[cevans]

Even tho it’s been raining, I wanted to try 2 more experiments. When out to garage turned everything on. Deployed the Mega 360 in the bucket of water which was now almost 55 degrees warm as it’s 61 air temp outside. Everything worked to perfection, deploying and retracting, turning ping off and on, switching between views of 360 and SI. Turned it all off including ping, turned power off, loaded the boat and went to a lake that is pretty crystal clear near the house, launched, and while floating from trailer, turned power on, turn Helix 10 on, deployed the 360 and went to 360 view and before I can even turn ping on, the screen is saying again, Mega 360 not in water,,,turned ping on, changed screens between SI and 360, deployed and retracted couple of times, power on and off,,nada again. Go back home, unload boat in garage, fill the bucket full of ice and well water, stirr till it’s 38 degrees power everything on, Tuen the helix on. Go to 360 screen and deploy and everything works perfect switching views between SI and 360, turning ping on and off retracting a few times and deploying, just like it should. Been getting emails from Troy who works at Humminbird and he thinks it might be conductivity issue of the wet switches causing cold temp of water creating the issue and Humminbird should be able to do a software update. I have been messaging him all the testing Imhave been doing also. It’s definitely not a power or electronic wiring issue as I did get Mega 360 to work perfectly first day for 1.5 hrs before it brought up the idiot screen message Mega 360 Out of Water . I can’t think of anything else to test or try so will call Humminbird and rely on Troy for more info also who frequents the forum. Anybody got any ideas, let me know and will try them as it’s crazy it works perfect in a bucket of well water no matter the temp of it. It will get worked out in the end.

[D Johnson]

Have you tried it in a bucket of lake water while at the lake? Don

[cevans]

Have you tried it in a bucket of lake water while at the lake? Don

No,

[cevans]

I just thought of something, Imhave black wire to ground of battery at fuse box, I have red power wire to power of fuse box, I did not connect the black shield wire to the boat chassey as re reading the installation instructions. I have this installed in a plain jane 1648 aluminum jon boat. Should this black shield wire be grounded to the aluminum of the jon boat? Would this be the issue?

[Wayne P.]

I just thought of something, Imhave black wire to ground of battery at fuse box, I have red power wire to power of fuse box, I did not connect the black shield wire to the boat chassey as re reading the installation instructions. I have this installed in a plain jane 1648 aluminum jon boat. Should this black shield wire be grounded to the aluminum of the jon boat? Would this be the issue?

You don't use the DRAIN wire for anything. Paragraph 6, page 27 of the manual.

[cevans]

Thanks Wayne. Mind is tweaking with thoughts.

[AlabamaDale]

Put a wire in your bucket to your aluminum boat and see if it gives “not in water” message

[bobcoy]

Great thought AlabamaDale. Possibility of a stray current perhaps. Although it would have to be intermittent to fit the quandary. I find two contacts in the water is kind of a crude way to accomplish not allowing it to operate dry anyway. If there was stray current messing it up the would be looking for a ground to signal "WET". But indeed a possibility. Bob

[cevans]

I have all the confidence in the world, that Humminbird will take care of this glitch as they have been in contact with me all weekend. Their tech support and reps are the best! It’s a super small glitch that will be easy to fix. The Mega 360 rocks as all you have to do is check Wayne’s screen shots and comparisons. What I really like is no delay in powering up when turning it on to use, switching from 360 view to SI view, and your going to find out when using the Mega settings, no cross talk, or interference On the screen if you have it all set up and wired properly.

[cevans]

It’s time I bring this posting back up again as tomorrow will call HB and if they don’t have a fix, I am sending my mega 360 back to them. Update to this story,,,I received this mega 360 on December 18th and it evidently was one of the first Mega 360’s issued. The first set of issues was it worked first time out in 40 degree water in late Dec then quit. But it would work in a bucket of water but not in lake water. I was contacted in late Dec after numerous testing and posting on this forum by a Humminbird Rep in a Sunday nite who gave me version 1.06 to install in the Mega 360. Kudos to him and HB. It worked like a charm. Didn’t get to use it much as was too busy with trade shows in Jan and Swamped in Feb. Finally got the Y cable sometime during those 2 months and rewired everything with it. Didn’t get to try it tho. Then HB cam out with version 1.07 software to update the Mega 360 so I installed it. Worked in a bucket of water, but not in the lake. Short story if this, the entire month of March and all last week, when I had a chance to get out, I tested the Mega 360 without the Y cable, without the network plugged in, I have run and rewired everything back and forth with no success. So last nite I reinstalled software version 1.06 back in the mega 360. Worked like a charm in the bucket of water, but today,,not in the lake. Came home, Checked the mega 360 in the bucket of water ,,,works,,,,reinstalled version 1.07 in the Mega 360 and And in the bucket of water it works,,,,in the morning,,,will call HB and send it back. I have a few nice screen shots of it working off and on when it did work. The one thing I haven’t tried and just might for giggles is go down to the local bait shop and get a few gold fish and stick in that bucket and see if I can set the view to a couple of feet out for it to sweep and see if it will pick them up.. When it has worked,,,it’s totally kick ass so will see what HB can do to remedy these issues and keep everybody posted. Kudos to Wayne!!!! As for the past 3-4 weeks we have been messaging each other and he as the patience of god to put up with all my questions on this and that. This seems to be a issue of the wet switches my thinking. For those that have the Mega 360,,,enjoy and use it as it’s as good as it gets for mega imagining in my book.

[D Johnson]

You have not said if you tried it in a bucket of lake water at home. Water in the lake could have a different dielectric value, How well it conducts electric. Don

[cevans]

You have not said if you tried it in a bucket of lake water at home. Water in the lake could have a different dielectric value, How well it conducts electric. Don

Your going to make me go out and buy a bucket with a lid, then drive 20-30 miles one way and get a bucket of lake water...ok...after I chat with HB. Don’t mention gold fish! I have had that Mega 360 in buckets of ice water, warm and cold water in the bucket, lake water pure mud, partial mud, heavy stained, and gin clear Lake water. Hey! I did get 3 days usage out of the last 3.5 months and now that I have time to fish, guess I will use SI, DI, and 2d as that is what I get for selling the gen1 360. I will still catch a ton of fish!