Mega Live (Out of Water) Message

[Mtp]

Hey guys,

Installed ML w/TargetLock this winter, first time out on the water and I get the Out of Water message. Called support and they said it was a ground loop issue. When troubleshooting with them they said to test the wet switch out of the water, that worked, but put it back in the water and still got the message, so that was their reasoning. Took it home, looked at all the wiring, it is wired to a Blue Sea Systems Bus Bar from a 10 gauge wire from the battery switch, everything was good. Put it in the bucket of water, (they said if it worked in the bucket of water it should be good to go) and it worked great. Took it out the next morning, on the lake, and got the same message.

Called them again, ended up restoring defaults, calibrated everything again, worked great in the bucket, however no bueno on the lake again.

It's networked to the HB Ethernet Port, shows up on all three units with the LIVE symbol in the toolbar, the "bucket" version has the connected in the water things, however the "lake" version only shows the connected message. All software updates are current. HB360 works as advertised.

Trying to figure this out hopefully avoiding sending it in. Thanks guys!

[Wayne P.]

Did you connect the power cord drain wire to the power cord negative wire?

[Mtp]

They are on the same negative side of the bus, however not connected to the same post.

[Mtp]

I guess the other mystery is why does it work in a bucket of water but not in a lake??

[Mtp]

Thanks Wayne. I’ll give it a try. Have a couple of travel days and then I’ll dunk it back in and give you the results.

[Mtp]

Tried the connection as Wayne advised, however still did not work. Same message. Sent the unit back to HB for them to take a look.

[SLYDoggie]

Water itself doesn't conduct electricity. It's the minerals in the water which conducts electricity. If the lake you are on doesn't have adequate minerals to activate the wet switch (the two metal dots on the transducer), you may need to tape something conductive to the wet switch. Duct taping a small piece of steel wool, metal dish scouring pads, or something like that to the wet switch should do the trick. If that doesn't work, then you have another issue.

You will need to remove the tape when the Mega Live is out of water so that it doesn't continue to ping or overheat.

[Sodakrep]

I am having the same issue, was there any resolution to this problem? I have a hard time thinking it is a wiring issue with the buss bar as the M360 has the same wet contacts and works perfectly everytime. I feel it is something to do with the unit itself. Anyone else figure this mystery out yet?

[bobcoy]

https://johnsonoutdoors.widen.net/co...tion-Guide.pdf

This is a link to the ML installation manual. Page 38 details some wiring situations that can cause that issue. Has to do with wiring to batteries and some possible grounding issues that will also. Bob

[Mtp]

Alright guys, we finally got it figured out. Sent the unit back to HB again, told them to test it on a boat in the water, not a bucket of water, and what do you know, it worked fine for them. I had it wired to a bus up front, so I rewired it to the crank battery +, ground and drain wire to the -, with an inline fuse of course. Wired exactly to the specifications they displayed on the website and the pamphlet they sent along with the unit.
Took it out on the water, expecting nothing new, and it still did not work. Giving up almost all hope, stopped by the dealer who works on my sleds, not a Ranger dealer, he took one look at my trolling motor, saw some corrosion, and said I have a positive to a negative somewhere. He took a look in the battery compartment, saw that my main ground from the TM switch was running to the middle battery, switched it to the first battery in sequence, moved the other TM wires around, and said “that should do it.”
Guess what, it worked. My dealer in GA had the TM batteries wired wrong since I had bought it, but that was the issue. I had replaced them with Ionic Lithium, but wired them exactly how they had them. The thing that stumped me was the M360 worked fine, but the ML must be much more susceptible to grounding issues.

MTP

[bobcoy]

Glad you got it straightened out! That sensor is set a bit on the picky side. Hopefully that will be made less sensitive in the future. Thanks for the follow up. Bob

[SLYDoggie]

Thanks for closing the loop and letting us know what the issue ended up being.