Damaged transducer

[Tin-Can]

New name but haven’t been on for many years.
Nice to be back on.
Installed my new fish finder to the new/old boat and the dogs decided I bought them a nice chew toy. Anyways I’m wondering if the transducer is garbage now or if the area they chewed is not in the area of importance. It’s a Helix 8 DI G3. Thanks for any information!

  If the internal seal potting hasn't been damaged, it may still be OK.   Let the stern of your boat set down in the water while still on the trailer and turn on the sonar. Give it awhile to get all warmed up  and all  the internal system checks done.  Your stern hull should only be in about 2 to 3 feet of water from transducer to bottom. After sitting a few minutes if it seems to read close within a few inches + or -, you should be good. Launch the boat and tie up to a dock if available, give it some more time to get a steady reading.  Would be a good chance to see if the temp reading is working also. 
Last time I had a transducer problem it would read way off scale high, I was tied to the dock at Willard south and depth couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 feet, but was reading 650 ft.        Course I knew  that was way wrong. I think like many types of transducers, when they are damaged or fail they default to a reading that should be obviously wrong, won't read at all, or maybe even flash an error msg. Err..........Err..........   

Hope yours isn't damaged.