TOPIC:

Here's a strange one. I was trolling yesterday and looked at the graph on my dash and the water temp was reading 118.6 degrees. I was pretty sure it wasn't right since the other graph said 57.6. When I felt the transducer it was warm to the touch even submerged. The wiring wasn't warm at all and it was still functioning as a depth finder and plotter.It would cool back down when I turned it off.
  I found that the transducer looked like it was dripping tar when I put the boat on the trailer. I did have a spare at home so I changed it out last night but I have never seen anything like it. Other than the black goo the transducer appeared to be undamaged.

That’s weird. Never heard of anything like that. 

Sounds like something is messed up.  

Did you turn your graph on before you set in, or did you have it on while messing with it in the driveway? The reason I ask is transducers should only be pinging when in the water, that's why there is a pause feature in your sonar menu. They can overheat and melt if used out of the water. 
 

That being said, I've accidentally left my sonar on for days with the boat on the trailer and no damage.  When I switched to the Raymarine I have now, the instructions say "don't turn it on out of the water."  However, as part of the set-up I needed to turn it on. So I called the Raymarine Help Desk and checked.  The person on the phone said, "What?  We turn them on when we are servicing them all the time."  

So probably not a good idea, but it's not like a short time is going to blow it out like a hot fuse!  
 

According to the response from Humminbird, they suggested that the unit had become wet internally and frozen. The cable connection to the unit may have deteriorated and leaked . They didn't think that leaving it on out of water would have affected the transducer that I have.
Might be time to update to a new dash mount unit and retire the old black and white Humminbird that was new in '08, but itis full of hotspots!

go4bigfish wrote:

According to the response from Humminbird, they suggested that the unit had become wet internally and frozen. The cable connection to the unit may have deteriorated and leaked . They didn't think that leaving it on out of water would have affected the transducer that I have.
Might be time to update to a new dash mount unit and retire the old black and white Humminbird that was new in '08, but itis full of hotspots!
 

Doesn't it have a way to save the waypoints and transfer?   I would think in 08 they would have already had that ability but not sure.