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CONTENTS

General Description

2

Specifications

3

Unit Installation

4

Power Connection

4

Transducer Installation

5 - 8

Operation

9 - 10

Typical Indications

11 - 14

Maintenance

15

Operational Questions & Answers

16 - 20

Transducer Beam Angle Chart

21

Trouble Shooting Chart

22

Accessories and Other Products

23 - 25

Transducers

26 - 27

Service and Support

28

Founded in 1960, Vexilar, Inc. has a long his-

tory of bringing revolutionary technology to the
sport fishing industry.  Just some of the Vexilar
firsts include: the first liquid crystal display, the
first fish alarm, the first three color display, and
the first CRT and straight line paper graphs, for

the sport fisherman. Now, with the FL-8SLT, we bring you the first true
interference Rejection unit.  Again, Vexilar leads, while the others follow.

FL-8SLT Operation Manual

Summary of Contents for FL-8SLT

Page 1: ...25 Transducers 26 27 Service and Support 28 Founded in 1960 Vexilar Inc has a long his tory of bringing revolutionary technology to the sport fishing industry Just some of the Vexilar firsts include the first liquid crystal display the first fish alarm the first three color display and the first CRT and straight line paper graphs for the sport fisherman Now with the FL 8SLT we bring you the first ...

Page 2: ...sducer where the energy is converted back to electrical signals The FL 8SLT then processes these signals and displays them The circular display is accomplished by attaching an LED Light Emitting Diode to a wheel which is then spun at a high speed in the clockwise direction This allows for an extremely high speed update The bottom as well as other targets can be displayed as red orange or green to ...

Page 3: ...nsions 4 4 H x 6 W x 2 5 D Weight 1 1 Lbs Depth Scales 0 20 0 30 0 40 0 60 0 80 and 0 120 Shallow Model Or 0 20 0 30 0 40 0 60 0 80 and 0 240 Deep Model Beam Angle If your transducer is not marked you can determine the beam angle by the dimensions of the transducer face Measure the shortest distance across the face of the transducer 19 transducers measure about 1 1 2 9º and dual beam transducers w...

Page 4: ... the gimbal bracket Securely attach the brack et to the mounting surface POWER CONNECTION Plug the flat 3 pin connector into the back of the unit Find the clos est source of 12 volts and run the cord to it Keep the cord away from sharp metal edges and avoid tight places where the cord may get crushed Connect the red wire to positive and the black wire to negative or ground If the cord provided is ...

Page 5: ...g Attach the mounting bracket to the transducer and hold it up to the boat where you are planning to mount it see figure E Mark the holes on the transom or mounting plate so that when the bot tom of the transducer is flush with the bottom of the boat the holes are located at the bottom of the bracket slots This gives you room to fine tune the position of the transducer and optimize your reading af...

Page 6: ...tly install the transducer to make sure that you can indeed get a reading through your hull and when the boat is on plane Put about a half inch of water in the bilge and hold the transducer in the intended location Move the transducer around until you get the best reading Mark the spot To install the transducer clean the spot of mud and oil Using an epoxy or silicone glue make a puddle about the s...

Page 7: ...boat goes high speed It is a good idea to tie on a safety rope in case the cup does let go There are three suction cup brackets available for the FL 8SLT The BK0023 and BK0027 are made to attach the Puck style transducers to a boat for use at slow speeds The BK0044 suction cup brackets is made to attach the high speed transducers to a boat for high speed uses See page 26 for details An arm can als...

Page 8: ...ducer by again passing the transducer cord through the slit in the side Make sure the countersunk hole is facing up towards the top To use the Ice Ducer adjust the stop to allow the transducer to float at the desired depth A six inch minimum is recommended in order to make sure that the transducer will indeed be pointing straight down The most it should be down is to the bottom of the ice hole If ...

Page 9: ...r scale on the display Notice that the shallow ranges are marked in white and the deep ranges are marked in yellow For a range selection of S1 you would read the white numbers on the display For a range selection of S2 you would read the white numbers times two and times four for S4 The same is the case for the D ranges only you would read the yellow numbers on the display For example figure J sho...

Page 10: ...change INTERFERENCE REJECTION The yellow button in the middle of the panel controls the Interference Rejection feature The red LED to the upper left of the I R button tells you if the rejection circuitry is on The I R feature has eight steps of rejec tion to let you eliminate unwanted interference from another nearby depth finder When you turn on the FL 8SLT on the I R automatically comes on to th...

Page 11: ...he bottom will be almost all red although you will always see some orange and green at the trailing edge as in fig ure J A sharp red leading edge tells you that the bottom is very clean If you were to move from a hard bottom to a softer bottom you would see a change in color to more orange and green Try not to change the Gain setting as you move around WEEDY BOTTOM In weedy conditions the bottom c...

Page 12: ...12 Fig J Fig K ZERO MARK ZERO MARK 2ND ECHO TRAILING EDGE TRAILING EDGE BOTTOM BOTTOM SURFACE CLUTTER SURFACE CLUTTER BAIT FISH OR PLANKTON FISH LEADING EDGE LEADING EDGE POSSIBLE FISH WEEDS ...

Page 13: ...S1 The weeds extend from the bottom up to about eight feet Notice the red target at ten feet is marked possible fish We cannot say that it is a definite fish because the weeds around it are dense enough to give a red signal themselves Again keep the gain as low as you can for reading in the weeds If you can t turn the gain down far enough you may want to get an S Cable to cut down the power of you...

Page 14: ...s way you can see very small baits at low gain set tings and also see fish come in from all sides If you are not using the Ice Ducer system the transducer must be attached to an adjustable arm so that it can be manually pointed directly at the bait Sometimes it helps to attach a bubble level to the transducer so that you know when it s straight After your system is properly set up adjust the gain ...

Page 15: ...loss of operation Connections made to battery posts need extra attention because of the battery acid The transducer should be checked for scratches and cracks which can reduce the unit s sensitivity Cuts or breaks in the cord should be repaired as soon as possible so corrosion doesn t attack the wire Periodically clean the face of the transducer with a mild detergent An oily film can develop which...

Page 16: ...e of the bottom echo will show a solid Red band then bleeding into the orange color then the trail ing edge of the bottom will bleed from orange into the green color Good bottom echoes most of the time will show all three colors starting with Red Orange into Green Why Can t I See My Bait While Ice Fishing or like I can while ice fishing For Ice Fishing In order to see your bait it must be in the c...

Page 17: ...see a red target separated from the bottom you can bet that it s a fish If all you see is green or orange you won t know if it s a fish until it turns red How Long Will My Battery Last On The FL 8SLT Run Time The FL 8SLT draws about 200 mA less than a quarter of an amp of current The unit will run good until the battery voltage drops to about 10 volts Beyond that you will notice lower sensitivity ...

Page 18: ...ce provided the ice is CLEAR ICE and not MILKY ICE Remember the transducer must have GOOD CON TACT with the surface of the clear ice A bottom indication should appear on the sounders dial at an appropriate depth The ice surface must be wet water works well Why Do I Get Interference Electrical interference can be caused by other electrical equipment that put unwanted signals on the power line It us...

Page 19: ... On the display it indicates the zero foot point This sig nal has very little use Sometimes a portable transducer arm can cause ringing which will display as a very wide zero The width of the zero indication should never be more than 5 feet wide Most problems occur when the arm which the transducer is attached to is metal Plastic or wood transducer arms cause little problems To test your portable ...

Page 20: ...om the center point Open water fisherman usually can t see this because the boat moves too much You can however see changes in the bottom type as you move along The more red in the signal the harder the bottom The more green and orange in the softer the bottom Why is the Bottom Indication so Wide While fishing in a depth of 30 feet a normal width of a bottom indi cation is from 5 to 12 feet wide T...

Page 21: ...g on the bottom in the cen ter of the cone will be invisible to you because they are actually within the bottom signal on your depth finder A narrower beam angle will reduce this effect Your depth finder puts out a constant amount of power It does not matter where you have the gain level set Gain simply controls how much you amplify the signal that is bounced off of the bottom Therefore a narrow b...

Page 22: ...high gain to see bottom or targets Transducer is not aimed correctly or needs to be cleaned 19º transducers will have trouble seeing small targets deep Unit works but has too many lines on the dis play Can t tell what is what Improper transducer adjustment Also gain may be set too high or if gain is set to minimum you may need an S Cable see page 27 Unit works well when sit ting still or at when s...

Page 23: ...finder and GPS Made of heavy ABS plastic this case can take abuse at any time of year SEALED LEAD ACID BATTERY WITH CHARGER This V 120 Battery was designed for sportsmen on the go with rugged construction and design fea tures that make it ideal for summer and winter use With a near bullet proof charger this system packs enough power to run your equipment for hours and for years to come BATTERY STA...

Page 24: ...dealer or contact Vexilar The EDGE2 Model LC 507 The Edge LC 507 is an amazing depth sounder It is unique in that it is like having two totally different sonar in one unit It comes with two transducers a 107 kHz 38 degree and a 400 kHz 10 degree The idea is that you mount the transducers right next to each other and compare the two different views directly on the split screen You can also run eith...

Page 25: ... use handheld dig ital depth finder Use it for fishing ice fishing canoeing backpacking and scuba diving runs on one 9 volt battery The Deptherm Model 104 The fishing odds are on your side when you use DEPTHERM It tells you quickly and accurately what temperatures are below your boat and it also tells you the temperature at a specific depth If your DEPTHERM indicates that the water is too cold or ...

Page 26: ...eet of Cable Built In Switch Box must be Mounted within 3 Feet of the Depth Finder BK0044 Optional Suction Cup Mount for all of the above High Speed Transducers Dual suction cups for extra holding power TB0023 19 Puck Transducer For Mounting on a Electric Trolling Motor In Hull Mounting Portable Use or Ice Fishing Comes with 12 Feet of Cable TK123 Complete Mounting Kit Comes with TB0023 Transducer...

Page 27: ... Ducer Self Leveling and Floats in the Ice Hole Comes with Float Stopper and 7 Feet of Specially Designed Cable Built In Switch Box must be Mounted within 3 Feet of the Depth Finder S CABLE The S Cable short for Suppression Cable is used to reduce the output power of the FL 8 or FL 8SLT This can often help clear up readings in shallow or cluttered waters Simple installation between the unit and tr...

Page 28: ...d if possible the serial number of your product Be sure to read the Question and Answer and Trouble Shooting sections first Address Vexilar Inc 200 W 88th St Minneapolis MN 55420 2752 Telephone 952 884 5291 8 am to 5 pm M F Central Time Fax 952 884 5292 Email service vexilar com Web Site www vexilar com ...

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