Garmin 5xxS Question

[Leapy]

Question for someone with a Garmin 5xxS and whose boat is out of the water...

Could you tell me please what the depth sounder display shows - as in depth of water available in ft/m - when the plotter is powered up?

The depth sounder system isn't able to give a reading out of water...but...is the ft/m display blank, does it flash a "dash" mark or does it flash the last remembered reading, or what?

Still on a quest to find out what's wrong with mine

[BogMonster]

I have a Garmin 556s and I am about to go to the boat so I'll check it and let you know later

[jyasaki]

If you get a return, it's typically about 4x the actual distance (i.e. a ducer one foot from the ground will show 4 feet due to faster sound propogation in water.)

Whether or not you get a return depends on proximity, direction, and substrate. If you don't get a return, the unit (well, Lowrance does; not sure about Garmins) should show either the last reading received with a flashing display, or if it doesn't remember that (i.e. just powered on), a series of flashing dashes.

jky

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by jyasaki

If you get a return, it's typically about 4x the actual distance (i.e. a ducer one foot from the ground will show 4 feet due to faster sound propogation in water.)

Whether or not you get a return depends on proximity, direction, and substrate. If you don't get a return, the unit (well, Lowrance does; not sure about Garmins) should show either the last reading received with a flashing display, or if it doesn't remember that (i.e. just powered on), a series of flashing dashes.

jky

On the plotter I get nothing...when in 'Chart' mode, the ft/m depth reading just shows a dash "-" ...there's no flashing, no last reading, no nothing Garmin say it should flash a nonsense reading but I think even they are out of ideas now. In 'Sonar' mode it's just a blank screen. It's just the same in the garage as it was on the sea at water depth less than 15ft...if the water's more than 15ft, perfect

The transponder makes that cyclic electric pinging noise it's always made.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

I have a Garmin 556s and I am about to go to the boat so I'll check it and let you know later

[BogMonster]

Apologies, I got slightly waylaid by a wheel nearly falling off my trailer and forgot ... then left the country

Anyway I did check and mine shows "-.--" when you switch it on out of the water, and if it loses the signal in the water it flashes the last known depth.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

Apologies, I got slightly waylaid by a wheel nearly falling off my trailer and forgot ... then left the country

Anyway I did check and mine shows "-.--" when you switch it on out of the water, and if it loses the signal in the water it flashes the last known depth.

Thanks for that. I'd been reading about your trailer 'excitement' and globe trotting so guessed things had got in the way.

When out of the water is the "-.--" reading constant or flashing? Mine's constant now after upgrading to v5.3.

[BogMonster]

I'm 99% sure it was constant because I remember thinking that I expected it to flash and it didn't.

How do you upgrade the firmware then - and what issues is it supposed to fix? I'm thinking "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but depends on whether there are any benefits.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

How do you upgrade the firmware then - and what issues is it supposed to fix? I'm thinking "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but depends on whether there are any benefits.

From the Garmin Support website you need marine plotter updates. It's a one-size-fits-all thing. You download the c60Mb file to a Windows OS pc (Mac not supported), unzip the file and save it to an sd card. Put the card in the plotter, go to Software Update in Configure and away it goes...it chooses what it needs depending on which 5xx you have.

I went from v4.3 to the latest 5.x...In the dowload to pc process it tells you what is fixed at each update level. There's depth sounder improvements, bug fixes, interface changes, additional language support, plus, plus...I'd do it for the performance ang bug stuff.

Thanks for your depth sounder comments. Much appreciated