Hi Folks. Got out today to fish & map a private 10-11 acre lake, with depth of 18.5’ at dam. I have a 8616xsv with the PS30 & Livescope Panoptix LVS32. I got home this evening & see that my recorded map is showing depths in the 100’+ ranges. I’ve searched everywhere on the unit & internet with no success. Trying to figure out what I have wrong in my settings or how to change it to correct depth settings so I can view the actual real depths of the lake. Any help will be greatly appreciated!!
Do you have current software loaded in the PS30 (6.40)?
Garmin Pro Team
Yes Sir. Just updated all my devices via Active Captain last week and this was my first trip out since the updates. While cruising the lake both transducers were showing the same depths on my screen, and accurate depths.
Very perplexing. The only setting I know of that would affect this is the "Recording offset" under the Quickdraw Contours settings. That's very unlikely as for it to be changed you would have had to went there and change it. You probably need to call Garmin on this.
My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.
Thank you both Todd & LWinchester for taking the time to respond. I’m heading back out to the same lake here in a bit before the rain hits and see if I can figure out what’s going on. Now that I returned home last night and seen the issue of depth, I’ll focus on the depth while mapping again this afternoon and take my iPad with me too, so I can do some onsite research & hopefully adjustment. If I don’t figure it out, I’ll follow your advice & contact support. If I do figure it out, I’ll be sure to post the resolution of the issue.
So, while you were out, it was displaying correct depth, but mapping the wrong depth?
Yes Sir, I’m on the lake right now and both transducers are showing correct depths on them & same depths. The mapping on the unit is showing deeper depths while mapping. I’ve been trying changes to different settings and the best I’ve gotten on the mapping right now is in the 50’+ ranges, which the lake doesn’t have anything over 18’. I’m really confused of what I’ve done or doing wrong at this point.
Did you check your recording offsets?
SamMule, I thought you just had to turn on recording in charts to have the unit/transducer start mapping while continuing fishing..? I tried googling help while on the lake this afternoon, didn't find a whole lot about idea settings for mapping. I started trying making changes to settings in "charts" - "fishing chart" - "menu" - "quickdraw contours" - "settings" and tried entering different "feet"/"numbers" under the (3) tabs "Recording Offset" - "User Display Offset" & "Comm.Display Offset", and never really found a number formula that matched up exactly with the depth both transducers were showing on the screen. I even put down my PPM anchor to hold me in one spot and did some measuring to make sure the transducers were both showing correct depth & confirmed that. After 3-4 hours of not getting on the exact depth, but closest I ever got was putting -04.0 ft. in those (3) tabs... Then I came across a huge school of crappies and spent my last two hours watching large crappies take my jig on the LiveScope. If you have any suggestions on correct settings for the mapping feature, I'm all ears. I don't even remember what they were set at when I opened them & after making multiple tweaks.. I'm pretty sure it's the loose nut behind the wheel at this point.Thanks again Guys!
There's something very weird going on here to be in 18 FOW and Quickdraw record the depth as 100 ft. Quickdraw is software. To get the depth to record it has to read it from the transducer. The PS30 is Garmin's best transducer for Quickdraw recording. The software should select the best source to read from and the PS30 would be it. That reading would be the same as what is displayed on screen. There is an adjustment within the PS30 menu under installation for an adjustment for the install depth relating to the transducer mounting.
The Recording Offset under the Quickdraw menu is used for lakes like mine that have widely varing full pool elevations. My lake varies within the year by as much as 60 ft So a spot that is 50 ft deep at full pool will be a shallow running river in winter. The Recording Offset allows for the depth reported by the transducer to be adjusted and recorded for what it would be at full pool. Then, say the lake or a specific area was already mapped with Quickdraw and on another day, a month later, and a different lake level I was fishing. The Display offset allows for the mapping that was recorded at full pool elevations to be adjusted to the lake level that day for display purposes so that the depths displayed on the chart would be correct for that day.
You would have to have entered a recording offset of 82 ft for the actual 18 ft depth to be recorded as 100 ft. I doubt if you did that, even accidentally. I have an 8616, PS30 and LVS32 and all with the latest software. I'll see what it does. I've not done much Quickdraw recording since Garmin mapped my lake, but I'll see what happens on mine.
My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.
Thank you! After doing a ton of research that included several of your (LWinchester) post, videos & pictures is why I ultimately decided on the 8616 & PS30 as I have several private lakes including closed gravel pits that I fish and wanted to build my own in depth maps. My entire setup is built on a Twin Troller that is only 10' in length, I have the LVS32 mounted on the bow 6" in the water and the PS30 mounted on the stern 6" in the water. I have both transducers offset by 6" and both are reading same and accurate on depth, as I checked the measurements yesterday while on the water. I have to agree on your comments regarding 82 ft offset, I don't recall seeing that number and I never changed any of those settings until yesterday after seeing the mapping results the evening of the first trip out & efforts of mapping. Anxious to figure out what I'm doing wrong so I can start my process of building maps of several lakes & really appreciate all the help here on BBC!
My best shot. Perhaps it is recording Livescope range for some reason.
Well....I tried it this morning from very shallow to over 100 ft deep. The Quickdraw mapping was dead on. No problems or erroneous depths. My setup is a bit more complex as I also have a PS22, GT50,GT54 and GT8 availble through other networked MFDs. I'm confident it selected the PS30 to use for mapping as I left the TM with the LVS32, PS22 and GT54 out of the water. It's possible it was using the GT50 or GT8 but its supposed to choose the best available source. I don't know if there is a way to look and see what xd is selected to be used for Quickdraw.
mosin may have something. Next time you try mapping try turning transmit to OFF on the LVS and see what happens.
My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.
I'll get back out as soon as I can and try what you gentlemen are suggesting regarding LVS, turning transmit off. I'm also curious at this point of what number should be entered into the (3) tabs I mentioned above, "Recording Offset" - User Display Offset" & Comm.Display Offset", should these all be cleared to 00.0? I'll circle back as quick as I can.
All cleared to 0.0. Those settings become important if you map on different days and the water level has changed between mapping days. For static water level situations I wouldn't try to compensate. After it is mapped you can still change the display offset if the water level is different then.
Do you have any other transducers connected? If you do, turn transmit on them to OFF too, leaving just the PS30 operating. Then if Quickdraw stops working you'll know the software is trying to use a different transducer than the PS30.
My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.
No other transducers hooked up or installed. Will set those (3) tabs back to 00.0. Can't wait to get back out and try this suggestion and see if this corrects the mapping efforts. I'll report back with whatever the results are.
Hey Guys, I’m back. I’m actually on the lake right now (the 11-12acre lake) that I’ve been trying to map & figure all these settings out. I know most of you probably are out fishing this evening, but thought I’d take a shot. I set the 3 previous settings mentioned above to 00.0, I’ve turned off the only other transducer I have (the LVS32). I’ve made 5 passes up the center of the lake long ways back & forth. I’ve noticed the green circle around the boat icon is turning to red circle quite often while moving around. I’m sitting still in 5.2’ of water right now and the map inside the green circle is showing 10’ just off port side & 13’ just off starboard side(with solid green circle with no fluctuating). None of the depths on the map are matching up with the transducer depth showing. The PS30 is showing correct depths, I’ve double checked with string, weight & tape measure again this evening. I have the depth reading set in the right hand side bar and it also shows in the bottom left hand corner while I’m on full screen of mapping. It’s Saturday evening 6:15pm here in Loveland OH as I’m writing this. I’ll keep checking to see if anyone has any ideas. It’s a beautiful evening, so I’ll turn the LiveScope back on and go find those huge crappies I was playing with the other day. It’s starting to look to me like I may have a software issue within my 8616xsv and most likely needing to call Garmin next. I sure do appreciate all the help & BBC!!!
The only other thing I can think of is the transducer mounting. Quiet often this is a big surprise to people how unlevel their transducers are mounted
My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.
Wanted to circle back & update everyone on progress. Another great suggestion to check and I did confirm the PS30 is level when in the water. That suggestion also got me thinking if my Scotty Transducer Mount was stable or stiff enough to keep the PS30 from bouncing or swaying around too much, so I upgraded the mount to a much more stiffer model. Wish I could figure out how to upload photos from my Mac AirBook to this thread to provide a visual of the setup, but I'll save that task/learning for another day. This afternoon, I launched the boat in the cove right behind my home on our 4-1/2 acre pond and immediately seeing the same issues. And now that I'm totally focused on watching the mapping screen, I've learned that the red & green circle around the boat icon is constantly fluctuating back & forth from green to red, my contours lines are all over the place while this is going on and none of my depth shading settings that I programmed are showing while on the water attempting to utilize QuickDraw mapping. Called Garmin & was able to connect with a really nice gentlemen, David, within 15 minus of calling in. After sharing the issues & updating him on all the steps I've taken to date, David has requested multiple photos to be forwarded to them via email, that has been done as requested. I will update once more with hopefully the resolution to my mapping issues once the folks over at Garmin have a chance to process what's going on. I really do appreciate all the suggestions & recommendations!
Sounds to me like you're getting a new transducer. If it was something systemic to the 8616 and PS30, I should have seen it too. My bet is the transducer is bad. The fluctuating red and green is not good. Red means the mapping is not working. It's possible that it's mounted where there is a lot of blocking but with all the other stuff you've talked about that doesn't sound like a mistake you would make. That's why they wanted the pictures.
My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.
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