Scotty HP Digital Counters...They Keep Dying....

Derby said:
hahahaha.. I let the CNB down to fast ;)
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I had a battery die a few years ago during the Sand Heads craziness, so I put the good display/cover on the side opposite the transducer, and dead battery on the same side as the transducer, and then I could read where the cannonball was on my Garmin. It worked very well. I can also reach my transom mount transducer, and adjust the angle if trolling deeper than the level setting will allow me to see the cannonball.
 
Someone else shared an image of condensation in the manual counter window. I have that problem often...anyone know a solution?
 
I wonder of the problem with counters is with conformal coating at the board level. We had that issue before way back when I worked with solar lights. The seawater caused issue with soldering.

If the board isn't conformal coated or potted if your see condensation at display that isn't good.

A proper goretex vent would fix the condensation. You could drill a small hole back of housing and place a stickable vent on. That would likely solve it. I don't have a counter here but would be surprised if it has no vent.
 
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Sharphooks said:
Is it just my bad luck or has there been ongoing issues with these counters? I put a new one in last summer and almost immediately I noticed fog inside (after a rain) from water intrusion. I took great care when installing not to pinch wires or damage the gasket. I put up with the fog on the lens of that counter then last night at a really inopportune moment the counter just died on me. I opened my gear drawer on the boat to replace it and found 3 other counters—-they had all died, too....first water intrusion, then inaccurate readings, then no readings. I hung on to them thinking maybe they’re fixable?

Were there some batches of these counters that had issues or is the life expectancy really only a couple of months? I wish the HP’s had a mechanical counter like the older style SCotties....those counters seemed way more reliable
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I had the same problem of salt water fogging my original digital counters and they crap the bed when they were new. Scotty sent me two new counters under warranty. Knowing that saltwater is an electrolyte I decided to dissect the defective controller's and see if I could revive them. So I removed the lens from the body of the counter. The lens came off both the defective counters relatively easy, by pushing my knife blade between the lens and the body. It seemed unusually easy, since the counter depends on the seal between the lens and the body to protect the electronics from moisture. In any case after I removed the lens the electronic component's (one simple board) came out easily. I washed down the board, body and lens with an aerosol can of electronic cleaner and let them sun dry for about 20 minutes. Then I popped the board back in the body and silicone the lens on to the body and rapped a couple of elastics around the body and the lens. I used Ultra Black Silicone (because I had it) but if I have to repair any more I would use a high grade Clear Silicone. The black worked perfect but it did uglifyed the counter a bit as the black shows on the perimeter of the lens, where the clear would look OEM. I installed the two repaired counters back on the down riggers and they worked perfectly for a whole season. I've kept the replacement as spares. Hey a lot of people who are used to the old slow Scotties don't like the new high speed units but I love them. One last piece of advise, If your fishing with friend's that are used to the slow mo Scotties, either use Long Sure Stops or a lot of CHEAP down rigger balls. LMAO
 
Keith Brown said:
I had the same problem of salt water fogging my original digital counters and they crap the bed when they were new. Scotty sent me two new counters under warranty. Knowing that saltwater is an electrolyte I decided to dissect the defective controller's and see if I could revive them. So I removed the lens from the body of the counter. The lens came off both the defective counters relatively easy, by pushing my knife blade between the lens and the body. It seemed unusually easy, since the counter depends on the seal between the lens and the body to protect the electronics from moisture. In any case after I removed the lens the electronic component's (one simple board) came out easily. I washed down the board, body and lens with an aerosol can of electronic cleaner and let them sun dry for about 20 minutes. Then I popped the board back in the body and silicone the lens on to the body and rapped a couple of elastics around the body and the lens. I used Ultra Black Silicone (because I had it) but if I have to repair any more I would use a high grade Clear Silicone. The black worked perfect but it did uglifyed the counter a bit as the black shows on the perimeter of the lens, where the clear would look OEM. I installed the two repaired counters back on the down riggers and they worked perfectly for a whole season. I've kept the replacement as spares. Hey a lot of people who are used to the old slow Scotties don't like the new high speed units but I love them. One last piece of advise, If your fishing with friend's that are used to the slow mo Scotties, either use Long Sure Stops or a lot of CHEAP down rigger balls. LMAO
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I have a pair of each, here is one observation. My boat is aluminum, I did the voltage test with a voltmeter on the downrigger cables, the natural voltage with the 1106 was higher and more in the "preferred chinook and coho range" than the 2106 which was lower.
 
Keith Brown said:
I had the same problem of salt water fogging my original digital counters and they crap the bed when they were new. Scotty sent me two new counters under warranty. Knowing that saltwater is an electrolyte I decided to dissect the defective controller's and see if I could revive them. So I removed the lens from the body of the counter. The lens came off both the defective counters relatively easy, by pushing my knife blade between the lens and the body. It seemed unusually easy, since the counter depends on the seal between the lens and the body to protect the electronics from moisture. In any case after I removed the lens the electronic component's (one simple board) came out easily. I washed down the board, body and lens with an aerosol can of electronic cleaner and let them sun dry for about 20 minutes. Then I popped the board back in the body and silicone the lens on to the body and rapped a couple of elastics around the body and the lens. I used Ultra Black Silicone (because I had it) but if I have to repair any more I would use a high grade Clear Silicone. The black worked perfect but it did uglifyed the counter a bit as the black shows on the perimeter of the lens, where the clear would look OEM. I installed the two repaired counters back on the down riggers and they worked perfectly for a whole season. I've kept the replacement as spares. Hey a lot of people who are used to the old slow Scotties don't like the new high speed units but I love them. One last piece of advise, If your fishing with friend's that are used to the slow mo Scotties, either use Long Sure Stops or a lot of CHEAP down rigger balls. LMAO
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Where would we find those CHEAP down rigger balls?
 
pennel said:
I have the same set up and was curious to see which one was most accurate. I dropped the cannonball in 55 ' of water at the dock and compared the readings with the sonar.
In both cases the digital over read by 10-12' whilst the analogue under read by a couple of feet.
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Can you still see the balls while trolling or just at the dock? I can see both of them while trolling so the reading on the counters doesn’t really matter all that much because you know where the ball actually is on the sounder
 
Corey_lax said:
Can you still see the balls while trolling or just at the dock? I can see both of them while trolling so the reading on the counters doesn’t really matter all that much because you know where the ball actually is on the sounder
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Your way is probably the way to go.Unfortunately,I can't see the cannonballs on my screens.
Phoned up Scotty to ask about the discrepancy but didn't really get a clear answer as to why the digitals were out.
Infact the guy couldn't understand why I wanted to check it out in the first place.
I can only remember that the difference between the two increased with depth .
Anyway the conclusion for me was that you are not where you think you are.
Maybe not so much a problem in open water but if you want to hug the bottom over reefs then it could be a different story.
 
If you are running a finder that can switch through the chirp frequencies, running a medium chirp will allow a wider beam to see your balls. I can see my 15s down at 150ft depending on speed of course.
 
Fisher_dude said:
If you are running a finder that can switch through the chirp frequencies, running a medium chirp will allow a wider beam to see your balls. I can see my 15s down at 150ft depending on speed of course.
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Love that idea...and thinking to take it one step further. I have a second handheld/clipon garmin finder...could bolt on another transponder and aim it angled back to specifically target the balls? This could work...

Do multiple transponders interfere with one another?
 
jackfish said:
Love that idea...and thinking to take it one step further. I have a second handheld/clipon garmin finder...could bolt on another transponder and aim it angled back to specifically target the balls? This could work...

Do multiple transponders interfere with one another?
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Run a 20 pound ball on one side and a 10 pound ball on the other. :)
 
Another one bites the dust. This stuff is a pain in the butt. Took it apart for ***** and giggles and there was water in the body and not just under the lens. Does the number mean anything to anyone??? Just wondering if this is their latest revision.
 

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Newf said:
Another one bites the dust. This stuff is a pain in the butt. Took it apart for ***** and giggles and there was water in the body and not just under the lens. Does the number mean anything to anyone??? Just wondering if this is their latest revision.
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The single AAA is supposed to be the “improved” version but it’s simply the same crap. Attach the pic and the SN to an email to Scotty and they’ll ship a new one to you. This is a real shame for a company that has such good product footprint.
 
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