Untraceable Ultrex Interference Crunch Time

[jhayford13]

My Ultrex is a year and half old. Last fall just before ice came, my local BPS replaced the steering cables. After the steering cables, anytime the spot lock is engaged and the pedal bottoms out(only when attempting to turn boat to left) it kicks the motor off. BPS attempted to fix it by reconnecting and re-calibration. I made a trip to Hartwell the first of March for my sons high school team to compete in the BASS High School open and had a authorized MK repair person look at. He replaced a magnetic sensor and soldered some wire in my foot pedal saying this would fix the issue. It did not fix the issue. In the meantime I have developed some terrible interference on my graphs anytime the TM is engaged. To problem solve I re ran all 10gauge marine wire, installed grounds on all my graphs and Garmin black boxes for UHD and Livescope, placed ferrite insulators on all transducer, network and power cables. I even pulled all wires and placed on the deck and tested with no luck. I have ran just about every concoction with the graphs to try and pinpoint the culprit. For the Ultrex I tested and changed the fuse in the head, added a ground wire to the head, battery output is correct, took fuses out of the onboard chargers to make sure I wasn't getting feed through my cranking or graph batteries. I feel like I have added vibration to the Ultrex that was not there last year along with some "extra play" that I would say is about 1/8-1/4 inch back and forth in the prop. The nut is tight and the washer is in place. The shaft does not appear to be bent. I have spent a lot of extra money in all new wiring, ferrite rings, cable and power protectors etc. I leave in 3 days for stop 2 of the BASS High School open on Guntersville and my front graphs are inoperable when the Ultrex is running. I since connected them to the back transducers so we have something(no issues when connected to rear transducers). I am out of time and solutions other than my gut feeling is telling me something inside that foot pedal or barrel is causing the electrical disruption. Oh, the repair guy at Hartwell said that the screws were to long for the base and that one is broken. He said it appears some did this prior as I have never removed them. Anyone with any advice or thoughts or someone that can get this resolved in a short time frame? Thanks for reading and helping.

You can see in the images when the Ultrex is engaged and how it is when off.



IMG_8479.jpg 0.jpg

[lpugh]

Check the 3 amp fuse in the head of the unit. Info is in the owners manuel to help identification

[jhayford13]

Did that. It is for sure isolated in the trolling motor somewhere.

[Lowerider58]

Have you tried a different transducer up front? Maybe something is wrong with the bow transducer or possibly the bow unit itself

[jhayford13]

Yes, three different transducers. Ran all transducer wires on the deck of the boat to test as well as hung them over the side which shows that the interference is from the Ultrex. Never had it before. Only change is added a new Blue Top AGM 31 battery and a 2nd graph to the front. Boat is a 2017 Z20. Ran all new 10gauge, 30 amp shut off breaker at the battery. Graphs are wired direct, ferrite insulators on all power and transducer cables, inspected fuse in head of TM which is good. Added temp ground wire to TM barrel to block with no change. Somewhere somehow, something has crept in and I feel its isolated to the TM when power is engaged. It does diminish when the speed control is on 10. Like my original post stated, a MK Authorized repair person took off the bottom plate and replaced the magnetic sensor then soldered some wire. He also said a screw is broken and that they are to long from the original repair of the steering cables. Also noticed a little slop in the blades on the TM meaning I can moved the entire shaft back and forth a bit. Don't recall that before.

[pfisher]

Did that. It is for sure isolated in the trolling motor somewhere.

Did you actually put a meter on it? Saw a guy drive two hours to the local service shop and just sight checked the fuse. Meter indicated blown. Put in new fuse and it solved the issue.

Guy could have saved two hours and $75 but he was still a happy camper.

[jhayford13]

I did test it and tested the new one as well that I installed. Wish it would have been that. Thanks though

[huntertn]

You probably already said this but I just wanted to have it clear in my mind.
Are you using the built in transducer or an external transducer or both?
Are the graphs running off the cranking battery, trolling motor battery, or a dedicated graph battery?

[jhayford13]

Garmin transducers, cranking new battery but wired to that battery through a terminal block, 10 gauge new wire with a 30amp breaker at the new battery. Tried multiple transducers, pulled all wires and cables and laid them on the deck to separate. I feel I have traced it well to the Ultrex. Only questioning the fact that my 4 bank charger is connected to all batteries. I also have a pergo switch to allow me to use 3 TM batteries for emergency starts. The TM batteries are interstates and the new crank is a 31 blue top AGM. I did run a ground to the terminal block and then direct to the battery with no change, checked the 3 amp in the TM head as well. Notice some play in the TM prop which seems more than prior. Never had an issue prior and everything worked great for a short time. I feel like something in the foot pedal, speed control knob or in the barrel of the Ultrex has come lose or causing this. Thanks

[huntertn]

I since connected them to the back transducers so we have something(no issues when connected to rear transducers).

So it works fine when connected to the rear transducer. Is that a physical connection or through the network? If it is by physical connection, is there anyway during any of the work someone could have cut the TM transducer cable shielding or accidentally run a screw through it? I have seen that happen before.

[lpugh]

Here how I cleaned mine up:

Run new power wires directly to battery
High quality, high strand count tinned copper wire, its not cheap
14 gauge battery to console, hand laid twist about 10 to 12twist per ft
20 amp fuse at battery
From console to each unit 16 gauge twisted pair with 3 amp fuse including to bow
Wire runs on opposite of boat from trolling motor cables

Ferrite rings added to transducer cable and power cable fromfoot pedal
Used stand off ties on transducer cable on trolling motorshaft
No coils in transducer or power cables
Wind them in a figure eight shape

Check voltage between negative posts between trolling motor batteries and cranking battery. If more than 300 MV, find what’s causing it and correct the problem

A choke on the power supple cable to the graphs is sometimes needed. Humming bird has one listed for their units, probably could be adapted to others as well

Set noise reduction and sensitivity to required levels

[jhayford13]

I ran 10 gauge marine wire for all
30amp fuse on the battery
Ran 10 gauge from the bow to the battery as well.
Ferrite rings are on everything- starting and stopping points of graphs, transducers, power cables and on trolling motor
Wires are all on opposite side of boat and trolling motor
Sensitivity and noise reduction is near 30-40% and lower on graphs

Did not figure 8 the transducer or power cable, just loosely separated them through rod locker and the bow
Please explain more on checking voltage between negative posts between trolling motor batteries and cranking battery. I have 36v set up for the TM. I mentioned in my original post that there is a pergo switch to allow emergency jump if needed off the TM batteries. If you could please explain testing the negatives between the 2 and where to put the testers at? Meaning which battery terminal etc? Also, the on board charger is connected to all 4 but I did remove the fuse going to the cranking battery to check that for interference with no change. Thanks

[jhayford13]

I did all the work and inspected every wire, cord etc. I disconnected all networks cables in the testing. No screw holes etc.

[Nova Kaw 650]

My Ultrex is a year and half old. Last fall just before ice came, my local BPS replaced the steering cables. After the steering cables, anytime the spot lock is engaged and the pedal bottoms out(only when attempting to turn boat to left) it kicks the motor off. BPS attempted to fix it by reconnecting and re-calibration. I made a trip to Hartwell the first of March for my sons high school team to compete in the BASS High School open and had a authorized MK repair person look at. He replaced a magnetic sensor and soldered some wire in my foot pedal saying this would fix the issue. It did not fix the issue. In the meantime I have developed some terrible interference on my graphs anytime the TM is engaged. To problem solve I re ran all 10gauge marine wire, installed grounds on all my graphs and Garmin black boxes for UHD and Livescope, placed ferrite insulators on all transducer, network and power cables. I even pulled all wires and placed on the deck and tested with no luck. I have ran just about every concoction with the graphs to try and pinpoint the culprit. For the Ultrex I tested and changed the fuse in the head, added a ground wire to the head, battery output is correct, took fuses out of the onboard chargers to make sure I wasn't getting feed through my cranking or graph batteries. I feel like I have added vibration to the Ultrex that was not there last year along with some "extra play" that I would say is about 1/8-1/4 inch back and forth in the prop. The nut is tight and the washer is in place. The shaft does not appear to be bent. I have spent a lot of extra money in all new wiring, ferrite rings, cable and power protectors etc. I leave in 3 days for stop 2 of the BASS High School open on Guntersville and my front graphs are inoperable when the Ultrex is running. I since connected them to the back transducers so we have something(no issues when connected to rear transducers). I am out of time and solutions other than my gut feeling is telling me something inside that foot pedal or barrel is causing the electrical disruption. Oh, the repair guy at Hartwell said that the screws were to long for the base and that one is broken. He said it appears some did this prior as I have never removed them. Anyone with any advice or thoughts or someone that can get this resolved in a short time frame? Thanks for reading and helping.

You can see in the images when the Ultrex is engaged and how it is when off.

So this interference started immediately after the tech worked on it? Or before?

[jhayford13]

The tech that soldered the wire in the foot pedal and placed the new magnetic switch in? Issue started previous to it. The thing is that when I first deployed the trolling motor and started everything, it worked great. I adjusted the settings, admired it for a bit then let my son and his teammate have the front since it was our first day of practice. Sometime after that my son informs me that something is wrong with the graph. Of course my heart sank and spent the next two days on the water trying to figure it out.

[lpugh]

I would be checking that brown wire 3 amp circuit for an open I think, might have been disturbed during service

[retieoften]

Mine has less than yours but it is rf signal. I gave up after spending 100 hours on dealing with it at least. I went as far as to set my tm batteries on the deck.... run a helix next to my boat with a battery next to it and still had the rf interference only on side imaging..

If minnkota or humminbird new how to fix it they would tell us you can find hundreds of people living with it if you really ask around. mine is fuzzy you can still see thru it on side.

[mhines]

Unhook your charger from the trolling motor batteries, and try it....Ive seen feedback caused by chargers MANY times!!