Cannon Troubleshooting

[Eric]

Need a bit of help.

Took the boat our for the first time this year today and one of my Cannon Digi-Troll 5s was acting up. I would turn it on. start dropping the ball with the down arrow and then it would power off after about 25'. Turns right back on, drop it the rest of the way down fine. Go drop the other downrigger, come back to tighten the pole down some more and notice it is off again. Turn it back on no problem. Hit Auto-up and after 10' or so it turns off again. Turns right back on. Use the up arrow to bring the ball up and then it shuts off again.

Definitely electrical me thinks. I readjusted the clutch knob and it still did it. Wasn't blowing fuses. I suppose I should have swapped the downriggers to eliminate the possibility problem with the downrigger itself.

Do you think that perhaps there is corrosion in the power cable? Any other ideas?

[onwhiskeycreek]

We had a similar problem this spring with our down riggers. Spent a very frustrating day trying to figure it out. It turned out to be a crimp that had been made to the inline fuse with an automotive style crimp instead of a calibrated marine crimp. The problem was difficult to find using a digital volt and ohm meter because the readings would check out with continuity and voltage readings until an actual load was applied to the circuit. Good luck tracing it out, it always ends up being in the last place you look.

Gary

[Nelly]

I'm with Gary on this one.
Freaky-deeky downrigger behavior often turns out to be a power issue.
The first thing I would check is the ground wiring but salt water is very, very hard on positive connections that are exposed to air.
In other words, corrosion is always at work on your boat and power issues are often the solution to glitchy electrical behavior.

[Robbo]

I've had that happen with mine a couple times and it's always been corrosion in the plug connection. Clean up the corrosion and off they go again. A power loss anywhere along the power supply line could do it though. I grease the heck out of my plug caps with dielectric grease and that seems to help quite a bit.

[Eric]

Well I cleaned up the connectors and tried it out again today. Same behavior. Tried it on the other side where I haven't had any problems and same dealio. Leads me to believe it is not electrical but something wrong with the downrigger itself.

Started doing something new today in addition to shutting off intermittently...wouldn't come up. It would stop about every 10 to 15 foot and with another 3' to go, it wouldn't come up at all. It would go down...but not up. Ended up hand-cranking it up.

I've put in an email to Walt at Angler's Choice. Hopefully he can fix it.

[Saharit]

I had a similar issue. Even sent my Digitroll 10 TS back to Cannon. They tested it and found no problems with the downrigger itself. They gave me a new plug free of charge, but that did not work either. Finally he had me bend (very gently) the male socket prongs and it worked!

I pull my downrigger off the boat after every outing and you have to wiggle that plug to get it off. Along with the corrosion factor, I think that creates a gap and bad connect between the male prongs and the female socket. Every so often I have to bend those prongs and load up the plug with dielectric grease. Also, make sure you did not trip the circuit breaker on the downrigger.

Definitely call Cannon as they were super helpful in helping me diagnose the issue and your downrigger may be under lifetime warranty if it is another issue.

I have thought about switching out the Cannon plug to a Marnico-type plug (used for my Scotty's), but am concerned about voiding the warranty.

If you are not concerned about the warrant then you could always direct connect the downrigger (by-pass the male and female socket) to see if it is a socket issue...

..obviously taking the necessary precautions.

[Nelly]

Hey Eric,
I just PM'd you.
I think I have a way to get you back up and running.