Eagle 242 - Manuals

2 Current drain: ................ 170 ma lights off; 240 ma lights on. Back-up memory: ........... Built-in memory stores sonar settings when unit is turned off. Sonar Frequency: ...................... 200 kHz. Transducers: ................... A Skimmer  transducer comes packed with your unit. Its ...

3 This manual covers the Cuda  242 and Cuda  242 Portable. Both units operate the same way. The only difference between the two is that the portable unit includes a portable transducer and other items that enable portable use. NOTICE! The storage temperature for your unit is from -4 degrees to +16...

4 Transducer Installation Preparations The following shows the recommended sequence for installing the transducer: CAUTION: You should read over this entire installation section before drill-ing any holes in your vehicle or vessel! 1. Determine the approximate location for the sonar unit, so you can...

5 These are all "kick-up" mounting brackets. They help prevent damage if the transducer strikes an object while the boat is moving. If the trans- ducer does "kick-up," the bracket can easily be pushed back into place without tools.Depending on your sonar unit's connectors, your trans...

6 mulated epoxy adhesive available from LEI (see ordering information on the inside back cover). A sandwich hull also requires polyester resin. Selecting a Transducer Location 1. The location must be in the water at all times, at all operating speeds.2. The transducer must be placed in a location th...

7 5. If possible, route the transducer cable away from other wiring on the boat. Electrical noise from engine wiring, bilge pumps and aerators can be displayed on the sonar's screen. Use caution when routing the transducer cable around these wires. Good and poor transducer locations. How low should ...

8 Align transducer centerline with hull bottom. However, there are times when you may need to adjust the transducer slightly higher or lower. (The slots in the mounting brackets allow you to loosen the screws and slide the transducer up or down.) If you fre- quently lose bottom signal lock while run...

9 There is no possibility of damage from floating objects. It can't be knocked off when docking or loading on the trailer.However, the shoot-thru-hull installation does have its drawbacks. First, some loss of sensitivity does occur, even on the best hulls. This varies from hull to hull, even from di...

10 Align plastic ratchets in bracket. 2. Aligning the transducer on the transom. Slide the transducer between the two ratchets. Temporarily slide the bolt though the trans- ducer assembly and hold it against the transom. Looking at the trans- ducer from the side, check to see if it will adjust so th...

11 Insert bolt and check transducer position on transom. 3. Assembling the transducer. Once you determine the correct posi- tion for the ratchets, assemble the transducer as shown in the following figure. Don't tighten the lock nut at this time. Assemble transducer and bracket. 4. Drilling mounting ...

12 the ground. The transducer's centerline should be in line with the bot- tom of the hull. Don't let the bracket extend below the hull!Mark the center of each slot for the mounting screw pilot holes. You will drill one hole in the center of each slot.Drill the holes. Use the #29 bit (for the #10 sc...

13 Route cable over bolt and through bracket. Side view shown (left) and seen from above (right). Attach the transducer to the transom. Slide the transducer up or down until it's aligned properly with the bottom of the hull as shown in the preceding and following figures. Tighten the bracket's mount...

14 Align transducer centerline with hull bottom and attach to transom. 6. Route the transducer cable through or over the transom to the sonar unit. Make sure you leave some slack in the cable at the transducer. If possible, route the transducer cable away from other wiring. Electrical noise from the...

15 7. Make a test run to determine the results. If the bottom is lost at high speed, or if noise appears on the display, try sliding the trans- ducer bracket down. This puts the transducer deeper into the water, hopefully below the turbulence causing the noise. Don't allow the transducer bracket to ...

16 3. Route the transducer cable alongside the trolling motor shaft. Use plastic ties (not included) to attach the transducer cable to the trolling motor shaft. Make sure there is enough slack in the cable for the motor to turn freely. Route the cable to the sonar unit and the transducer is ready fo...

17 Transducer angles and their effects on fish arches. If the arch slopes up – but not back down – then the front of the trans- ducer is too high and needs to be lowered. If only the back half of the arch is printed, then the nose of the transducer is angled too far down and needs to be raised. NOTE...

18 Shoot-Thru-Hull Preparation Hulls with Flotation Materials The transducer installation inside a fiberglass hull must be in an area that does not have air bubbles in the resin or separated fiberglass lay- ers. The sonar signal must pass through solid fiberglass. A successful transducer installatio...

19 sonar signal must pass through solid fiberglass. Any air bubbles in the fiberglass or the epoxy will reduce or eliminate the sonar signals. Testing Determines Best Location Ideally, the shoot-thru transducer should be installed as close to the transom as possible, close to the centerline. This wi...

20 Example of a second bottom signal. Unit is in 30 feet of water, with range set at 80 feet and sensitivity set at 87 percent. 2. Next, take the transducer out of the water and place it in the water in the sump of the boat, face down. (The transducer face is shown in the figure on the following pag...

22 Epoxy transducer to hull. WARNING: Use only the epoxy available from LEI. It has been for- mulated to work with these installation procedures.Other epoxy types may be too thin or may not cure tothe right consistency for optimum transducer perform-ance. 2. The epoxy consists of the epoxy itself an...

24 stalling an inline switch. This will let you shut off power to thepower cable when the unit is not in use. When you are not usingthe unit, you should always shut off power to the power cable, es-pecially when the power cable is disconnected from the unit. Power connections for the Cuda 242 sonar ...

25 This unit has reverse polarity protection. No damage will occur if the power wires are reversed. However, the unit will not work until the wires are attached correctly. Mounting the Sonar Unit: In-Dash, Bracket or Portable You can install the sonar unit on the top of a dash with the supplied brac...

26 Front view (left) and side view (right) showing dimensions of the Cuda 242 when mounted on quick release bracket. After drilling the hole, pass the connectors up through the hole from under the dash. If you wish, you can fill in the hole around the cable with a good marine caulking compound. (Som...

28 Mount the sonar: slide the unit onto the bracket from above. Adjust viewing angle: use one hand to press and release the spring- loaded ratchets while you move the unit with the other hand. Portable Sonar Installation Like many Eagle products, the Cuda 242 sonar is capable of portable operation. ...

29 The power pack and portable transducers expand the uses for your so- nar. You can use your Cuda 242 sonar unit on your boat or take it to the dock, on a float tube, on an ice fishing trip or use it as a second so- nar in a friend's boat.The PPP-12 package includes the power pack, battery adapter ...

30 mount. Close the case bottom, using the slot in the case wall to avoid pinching the cable. Turn the unit over to mount the sonar. CAUTION: When using the sonar in a saltwater environment, we stronglyrecommend that you unplug the power connector from the bat-tery socket when the unit is not in use...

31 To adjust the viewing angle, pinch the quick-release mount's ratchets with one hand, then tilt the unit with your other hand. Release the ratchets and the unit locks into the new position. To remove the unit from the PPP-12, press the ratchets and lift the unit off the bracket.Turn the sonar unit...

33 Portable transducer installed on boat transom. Portable Transducer Storage There is room inside the power pack for the portable transducer. When you're finished fishing, tilt the sonar down to the storage position. Open the case and lay it flat.Unplug the power connector from the battery compartm...

35 Operation Keyboard Basics The unit sounds a tone when you press any key. This tells you the unit has accepted a command. Numbers in the figure correspond to key ex- planations below: Eagle Cuda 242 keyboard. 1. PWR/CLEAR In this manual, the Power/Clear key is referred to as PWR . Press this key t...

37 The Backlight menu with backlight turned on. Display The lights will flash for about 10 seconds when the unit is turned on. The backlight menu will appear on the screen. Use the ARROW keys to turn the backlight on or off. Press PWR to clear the menu from the screen.The unit will show the Full Cha...

38 Opening screen, Full Chart page, or mode. The factory default setting has the Fish I.D. (fish symbols) turned on. Full Chart The unit's default page, Full Chart shows all echoes scrolling across the full screen. The bottom signal scrolls across the screen from right to left. The line at the top o...

39 If the transducer with a built-in temperature sensor is connected, a digital display for water temperature also will be shown. This tempera- ture display can be turned on and off. Depth Range When turned on, the unit automatically adjusts the depth range ac- cording to water conditions. When in a...

40 Zoom The zoom feature enlarges all images on the screen by doubling the size of the echoes (a 2X zoom). For example, if the current auto depth range is 0 to 60 feet, Zoom will show an enlarged view of the water column from 30 feet to 60 feet, always keeping the bottom in view.To zoom the display,...

42 Sensitivity Sensitivity adjusts the way echoes will be displayed on the screen. If you want to see more detail, try increasing the sensitivity, a little at a time. There are situations when too much clutter appears on the screen. Decreasing the sensitivity can reduce the clutter and show the stro...

43 M ANUAL , then press PWR to clear the menu. To adjust the sensitivity, follow the same steps used for adjusting sensitivity in auto mode above. These figures show results of different sensitivity levels on the same location. Fig. 1: Sensitivity at 98 percent, determined by Auto Sensitiv- ity. Typ...

44 ample, a soft, muddy or weedy bottom returns a weaker signal which is shown with a narrow line or no gray line at all. A hard bottom returns a strong signal which will be displayed as a wide gray line. Grayline control bar. If you have two signals of equal size, one with gray and the other with- ...

45 A small amount of Grayline indicates a soft bottom (left), probably sand or mud. More Grayline indicates a harder, rocky bottom (right). Press ↑ to increase the level of Grayline or press ↓ to decrease it. Ech- oes scrolling onto the screen will show the effects of the Grayline change. If you rea...

48 You may see Fish I.D. symbols on the screen when actually, there are no fish. The reverse is also true — Fish I.D. can actually miss fish that are present. Does that mean Fish I.D. is broken? No — the feature is interpreting so- nar returns in a specific way to help take some of the work out of r...

49 Fish ID menu and symbol with FishTrack on. The fish is 44 feet deep. Alarms The sonar unit has four types of alarms: fish, shallow, deep and bat- tery. Fish Alarm menu. Fish Alarm The Fish Alarm sounds a tone when a fish symbol appears on the screen. The Fish I.D. feature must be turned on for fi...

51 depth has been entered in the dialog box. To move the cursor back to any of the previously entered numbers, press UP MENU . Otherwise, press PWR to return to the Shallow Alarm menu. Use ↑ to select O N , which will turn on the alarm, then press PWR to clear the menu. When the bottom depth becomes...

52 press PWR to return to the Deep Alarm menu. Use ↑ to select O N , which will turn on the alarm, then press PWR to clear the menu. When the bottom depth becomes deeper than the alarm’s setting, an alarm will sound and a message will appear on the screen. Battery Alarm To set the shallow alarm dept...

53 Noise Reject and ASP  The ASP  (Advanced Signal Processing) feature is a noise rejection system built into the sonar unit. It constantly evaluates the effects of boat speed, water conditions and electrical interference and automati- cally gives you the best display possible under most condition...

54 There are times when you may want to turn off ASP. This allows you to view all incoming echoes before they are processed by the ASP feature.To change the ASP setting, press MENU DOWN until the N OISE R EJECTION menu appears. Use ↑ ↓ to select the desired setting, then press PWR to clear the menu....

55 Temperature menu set to off (left). Temperature set to be displayed at small size (right). To display Temperature: Repeatedly press MENU until the T EMPERATURE menu appears. Use ↑ ↓ to select the size of the temperature display. Press PWR to clear the menu. Voltage menu with the voltage display t...

56 Voltage The Voltage menu allows you to display battery voltage on the screen in a small or medium size or can be turned off completely. To display battery voltage: Repeatedly press MENU until the V OLTAGE menu appears. Use ↑ ↓ to se- lect the size of the voltage display. Press PWR to clear the me...

57 Backlight The display's backlight allows the unit to be used at night. To turn the backlight on or off, press MENU repeatedly until the B ACKLIGHT menu appears. Press ↑ to turn the light on or ↓ to turn it off. Backlight turned on (left). Contrast control bar (right). Contrast The unit’s display ...

58 Simulator menu. Simulator This unit has a built-in simulator that shows a simulated bottom signal with fish signals. This lets you practice with the unit as if you were on the water; all features and functions of the unit are usable. A message ap- pears occasionally to remind you that the simulat...

59 Language menu with English selected (left) and Italian (right). To select a language: 1. Repeatedly press MENU until the Languages menu appears. 2. Use ↑ ↓ to select the desired language. All menus now appear in the language you selected. Press PWR to exit. Software Information To show the operat...

60 Software information screen. Reset Options This command is used to reset all features, options and settings to their original factory defaults. This is useful when you have changed several settings and want to reset the unit to basic automatic operation.Turn the unit off. Press and hold ↓ and the...

61 Troubleshooting If your unit is not working, or if you need technical help, please use the following troubleshooting section before contacting the factory cus- tomer service department. It may save you the trouble of returning your unit for repair. For contact information, refer to the last page,...

62 Weak bottom echo, digital readings erratic, or no fish signals: 1. Make certain the transducer is pointing straight down. Clean the face of the transducer. Oil, dirt and fuel can cause a film to form on the transducer, reducing its effectiveness. If the transducer is mounted in- side the hull, be...

63 Try using resistor spark plugs or routing the sonar unit's power and transducer cables away from other electrical wiring on the boat. No fish arches when the Fish I.D. feature is off: 1. Make certain the transducer is pointing straight down. This is the most common problem if a partial arch is di...

65 EAGLE ELECTRONICS FULL ONE-YEAR WARRANTY "We," "our," or "us" refers to EAGLE ELECTRONICS, a division of LEI, the manufacturer of this product. "You" or "your" refers to the first person who purchases this product as a consumer item for personal, family, or...

66 How to Obtain Service… …in the USA: We back your investment in quality products with quick, expert service and genuine Eagle replacement parts. If you're in the United States and you have technical, return or repair questions, please contact the Factory Customer Service Department. Before any pro...

Accessory Ordering Information for all countries To order Eagle accessories such as power cables or transducers, please contact: 1) Your local marine dealer or consumer electronics store. Most quality dealers that handle marine electronic equipment or other consumer electronics should be able to ass...

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