Ok...so I bought and installed a new Hummingbird 597 ci HD DI yesterday and was out playing around a bit...the sonar would sometimes glitch out and say I was in 2.2 ft of water when it was actually 100 feet...and even if I powered off and on most times it still said 2.2...the transducer is transom mounted perfectly and I cant figure out whats going on with it...Also does anyone have one of these units? The down imagery is awesome but as far as sonar setup does anyone have any tips on the best beam and frequency setup? I know this tech can be agonizing..and I have never had one this nice or this complicated before....any advice would be great. It would be nice too if they supplied the book for it but alas its a pdf file on a disk and its 166 pages long hahahaha...and thats a lot of printer paper....I guess I could print only the relevant pages but after having read them...im still somewhat
.
[signature]
BTW...it did recover eventually and start showing the right depth again...so Im wondering if the head or the ducer is defective or something...grrrrr
[signature]
Defective ducer would be my guess, but I don't have any experience to draw from. Just a guess. If you just bought, I recommend taking it back and exchanging it for a different one.
[signature]
I get that from time to time but only at Brownlee since it is deep enough to go that deep. I am more inclined to think it is a setting. When mine was doing it I had GOBS of baby crappie under me. I have seen it do it with algae. Ron
[signature]
It sounds like a bad power connection to the unit or battery or a battery that is going bad.
[signature]
[quote MMDon]It sounds like a bad power connection to the unit or battery or a battery that is going bad.[/quote]
Well MM, I suppose that could be a possibility excepting that the FF shows the current voltage and its consistent and well within the perameters of the FF...it was interesting though that when Im trolling w my Merc kicker that the voltage is 12.4 volts always and when the main engine is running its 14.2...I am assuming that its because the troller doesnt charge Battery but the main does? Does anyone know if a 9.9 hp Merc w electric start is supposed to have an alternator to re-charge batts? Or does it just use it to start and thats it? [:/]
[signature]
If you go up to 14v I would have to assume it has a small alternator with that electric starter. It could be a very small trickle, similar to a solar charger, but enough to make sure you recharge anything lost during trolling.
[signature]
[quote Jimbojump][quote MMDon]It sounds like a bad power connection to the unit or battery or a battery that is going bad.[/quote]
Well MM, I suppose that could be a possibility excepting that the FF shows the current voltage and its consistent and well within the perameters of the FF...it was interesting though that when Im trolling w my Merc kicker that the voltage is 12.4 volts always and when the main engine is running its 14.2...I am assuming that its because the troller doesnt charge Battery but the main does? Does anyone know if a 9.9 hp Merc w electric start is supposed to have an alternator to re-charge batts? Or does it just use it to start and thats it? [:/][/quote]
If it has electric start, it will have a charging system on it. It won't be an alternator, though. Probably a stator setup like they use on motorcycles, etc. That being the case, your kicker doesn't seem to be putting out any charge. But that shouldn't have anything to do with the function of your FF unit.
Edit: changed magneto to stator.
[signature]
Could be a bad ground. Some electronics require you to install a certain size metal plate to use as a seconday ground that wont recieve intereferance from other electronics on your boat.
Might be something to look into on your owners manual
[signature]
Never ground your electronics to anything but the negative terminal on the battery. You can use a common block but if you ground to the hull of your boat you will have a hot boat that repels fish and if it's aluminum the current will eat holes in the boat.
[signature]
I believe its for the ground terminal on the unit its self. Mine has a little wing nut. it's seperate from the negative battery ground, I should have clarified.
[signature]
probably a stupid question but is the transducer on the same side as the kicker motor. we had to move the ducer on my uncles boat beacuse of the interfearance that the kicker would sometimes put in the water causing it to show a depth of only 2.something feet
[signature]
Well my update is that Cabelas is ordering me another one and until then they gave me the head from the display model to troubleshoot whether or not its the ducer...so heres to hoping...as far as the grounding issue its all grounded to neg batt terminal only plus its a fiberglass boat as well...this new FF is wayyyy more complicated than any of my previous ones so im studying pretty hard to be able to maximize efficiency with it...on another issue though...the bad head was also varying between 1mph and 2 erradically while trolling and the FF said the gps had an enhanced fix and should be more accurate on the speed I should think...any thoughts on that issue?
Also in answer to previous question the ducer is mounted on the opposite side from the kicker so prop wash shouldnt be an issue....However I did decide to mount the ducer a bit lower than before to try to get better function at higher speeds than I could before...so the ducer head is riding just under the trailing edge of the hull so clean water is always running over it vs being up on the back an ich higher...it seems to be working well but at the same time at cruising speed its kicking up alot of water behind the boat so Im wondering if I should move it back up a bit....
[signature]
Jimbojump,
Are you saying you loose depth readings when on plane or trolling quickly?
There are numerous reports about this issue with both brands of SI and DI. The best fix is to buy a splitter cable with a thru hull transducer. This will give you on plane depth readings.
Correctly mounted, you shouldn't be getting a huge rooster tail from you ducer. Also with it being mounted that low you have to be concerned about rocks, floating debris, etc knocking it off.
Chris
[signature]
Did you go online and up date the software? I bought the same meter and up dated the software and it works great.
[signature]
lets see here...no it doesnt have a ground post on it and the power cables only have a black and a red so no other ground wire is provided or implied as being needed...
secondly, I mounted the ducer a bit lower so as to try and get less clutter or noise at higher speeds...basically losing any read able graph at 5 plus mph...however having it installed that low hasnt helped that anyway...so Im probably gonna move it back up to protect it.
I dont lose depth readings at high speed per say...more I just cant get any sonar readings other than full screen clutter top to bottom, so if I want to search for schools of something I have to go pretty stinkin slow...just hoped to be able to search a bit faster is all.
Thank you for all the responses by the way...they really are interesting and something more to consider... [:p]
[signature]
Updating your software is a great idea if your unit has that capability. Lowering your transducer won't give you the high speed signal you are looking for but you will bust it off.
Running speed screen signals requires an upgrade in transducers, bigger is better. You might do a search for the Airmar P66 for your unit. Most of the guys I fish with are moving away from Hummingbirds and Lowrances to Furuno units. They can run across the lake with the aftermarket Airmar transducer and a Furuno and find fish at 30+ mph. Makes it easy to check out new waters without the normal hours of line time.
Don't get caught up in the new Lowrance HDS hype. They simply are using what was a fish swimming across your screen and changed it into an arch so you would see that so desired fish arch. No real improvement there. Stock units will simply turn the screen black because the speed and strength they receive signals at does not allow for your boat to operate at much more than trolling speed.
As for losing signals or bottom signatures at trolling speeds it's generally an electrical problem. I've seen faulty connectors be the culprit several hundred times on my fishing boards. If your transducer is not cracked and is giving you the image you seek most of the time I'd look to cabling or connecting issues after the battery is checked out.
If this still fails the alternative is to send the unit and transducer to the mfg for a check up.
[signature]
Ok...update...I have gone through three units and two new transducers, wired it to a seperate battery...wiring is totally isolated from any others in the boat and still, the damn thing glitches and says im in 2.2 ft of water many times an hour....ready to return it to Cabelas for the last time and maybe go to a Lowrance unit instead.
So that being said, what do you all suggest I get for around 600 bucks in a Lowrance unit that has color and a gps?
[signature]
I dont want to be negative because Im no expert by any strech, but, I had a similar problem depth being all messed up from time to time with a Hummingbird. I finally gave up and bought a different brand. Mainly because when I called Hummingbird their response was if I didnt have the reciepts (my bad Im one of those that get a new toy and forget all about the details like keeping the paperwork, lesson learned) it was pretty much your on your own. Not even a chance to speak with a tech. By the way the new lawrence has no problems, accurate depth all the time.
[signature]
Color and GPS for $600.00. Not much quality out there for that price in a combo unit.
[signature]