Dreaded interence issue with my Helix 12 at the bow

[woppercatcher]

I have a Helix 12 Chirp SI unit at the bow along with a Helix 7 G2N unit and 360. I have the Helix 7 using the US2 transducer but always leave the sonar off. I also have an Ultrex trolling motor. All of the cables are running along the Ultrex steering cable all of the graphs are direct wired to the starting battery. I've always had a little constant interference with the Helix 12 sonar but I run it with max mode so I expect that and could live with it. Now all of a sudden when I press the button on the Ultrex I get a lot more interference sometimes almost blacking out the screen at times. So of course if I have the ultrex on spot lock that's not good. I don't seem to get interference on the 360 view. I don't get the issue on my console unit and I turned on the sonar to the Helix 7 and no interference there either. I haven't changed anything physically to any unit. I did recently reset the console unit to factory defaults but I wouldn't think that would cause any issue to the bow unit. I checked the connections to the Helix 12, checked the other cables to make sure they are not loose so not sure what else to check. It's odd that the Helix 7 doesn't get the interference so it seems isolated to the Helix 12. When I can I will try and connect the US2 transducer to the Helix 12 to see if that makes a difference. Other than that anything else I should check?

[Wayne P.]

Remove the transducer cable from the steering/power cable and route it along the mount.

That is poor installation practice even though some get by doing it.

[woppercatcher]

Remove the transducer cable from the steering/power cable and route it along the mount.

That is poor installation practice even though some get by doing it.

Thanks Wayne, I will also try that if I still have issues. The odd thing though is that both the US2 and Helix transducer cables are running along the steering/power cable and only the Helix 12 has the interference issue.

[Wayne P.]

Check the Humminbird transducer cable for damage. That also can allow RFI into the cable.

[woppercatcher]

Can I use the US2 transducer on my Ultrex with my Helix 12 Chirp/SI GPS and get all the functionality? And when I mean functionality only the 2D sonar. I have my 360 for the rest of what I need.

[Wayne P.]

Can I use the US2 transducer on my Ultrex with my Helix 12 Chirp/SI GPS and get all the functionality? And when I mean functionality only the 2D sonar. I have my 360 for the rest of what I need.

Yes, you would need the US2 adapter MKR-US2-8 and change the Connected Transducer setting to Generic 83/200 kHz.

[Phongr82bf150]

Just something to check. I made a 4 hours trip to lake fork and all the sudden got a lot of interference and it ended up being my extra bundle of wire that was under to bow move and made contact with my trolling motor power and ground. It cause interference every time i hit the trolling motor. Something to look at.

[woppercatcher]

Just something to check. I made a 4 hours trip to lake fork and all the sudden got a lot of interference and it ended up being my extra bundle of wire that was under to bow move and made contact with my trolling motor power and ground. It cause interference every time i hit the trolling motor. Something to look at.

Thanks, I'll check that.

[woppercatcher]

Yes, you would need the US2 adapter MKR-US2-8 and change the Connected Transducer setting to Generic 83/200 kHz.

Thanks I have the adapter as that transducer is already connected to my Helix 7 Chirp that doesn't get interference with that transducer cable running down the trolling motor cable as well. It seems to be only the Helix 12. Also, I believe I would rather use the Chirp frequency anyway but at least it might help isolate the issue. Someone also told me it might help to disconnect my on board battery charger from my starting battery to see if that helps. Not sure why though. It seems in my case everything works okay for a while then later on during the day it starts happening as well. Very weird!

[Wayne P.]

Thanks I have the adapter as that transducer is already connected to my Helix 7 Chirp that doesn't get interference with that transducer cable running down the trolling motor cable as well. It seems to be only the Helix 12. Also, I believe I would rather use the Chirp frequency anyway but at least it might help isolate the issue. Someone also told me it might help to disconnect my on board battery charger from my starting battery to see if that helps. Not sure why though. It seems in my case everything works okay for a while then later on during the day it starts happening as well. Very weird!

You can use CHIRP, just have to select the correct transducer. The unit CHIRPS the 83/200 kHz transducer.

CHIRPED 83 kHz is 75-95 kHz. CHIRPED 200 kHz is 175-225 kHz.
No difference in the transducer itself.

[woppercatcher]

You can use CHIRP, just have to select the correct transducer. The unit CHIRPS the 83/200 kHz transducer.

CHIRPED 83 kHz is 75-95 kHz. CHIRPED 200 kHz is 175-225 kHz.
No difference in the transducer itself.

Great, thanks!

[DougL58]

Just a note, I see you said "blacking out the screen at times". RF interference should give you white lines or snow, not blacking out the screen. A black screen usually means no signal from the transducer.

Experts here, do I have that correct?

[Wayne P.]

Just a note, I see you said "blacking out the screen at times". RF interference should give you white lines or snow, not blacking out the screen. A black screen usually means no signal from the transducer.

Experts here, do I have that correct?

No expert, but I agree. All Imaging RFI I have seen is light colored:

[woppercatcher]

Okay, as a test today I did the following. 1) I turned off the sonar to the Helix 12 and turned on the sonar to the Helix 7 (both at the bow) and the Helix 7 is using the US2 transducer. 2) I then switched the Helix 12 to use the Helix 7 transducer and not a bit of interference with or without the trolling motor being run. In fact I've never seen the sonar view that clear, almost like it wasn't working but I could see the bottom. However I started getting interference on my 360 with or without the trolling motor being run, like little white dots at the out edge of the screen and dots in the water column.

[woppercatcher]

I've done the following now and things have improved a little but I also discovered some other weird symptoms. I routed the external transducer on the trolling motor go along the Ultrex bracket instead of along the Ultrex power/steering cable. I also moved the extra transducer cable as far away from the trolling motor power wire as I could although both cables do go through the same hole under the trolling motor peddle. When I turned on the units to make sure they both worked I could hear the external transducer pinging. It would ping very slowly like a tictoc and on the screen I would see a thick line and then it would ping much faster and the line on the screen would be thinner and of course move faster. It did this a number of times until it stayed with the steady fast ping rate. That leads me to believe I might have a transducer issue. Then I went to the lake to test. Once on the lake I thought things were better as I didn't notice the interference as much, still there but improved. I noticed this when I was in about 15ft or less of water. I've I went to deeper water say 20ft or more then I would see the interference again but still not real bad. This only with 2D. Using DI I see interference like in the pic above from Wayne. Note, I'm using the 360 as well. I started playing around with settings and noticed I had the surface clutter set to 6 so I lowered it to 1 and then no interference at all until again I get to deeper water and then I can see the interference but only at the bottom of the screen and even then it's not do bad except the images are not very clear when your over brush or some other structure. I could live with that except at times I fish pretty deep water and have to watch my line and with that setting I can hardly see my line going up and down and if I don't move the line all I see is what looks like my line in the history of the view. If I put the surface clutter back to 6 then the interference returns with or without the trolling motor on but worse with it on. As a side note, on my Helix 10 if I set the surface clutter to 6 the top of the screen is blank, if I set it to 1 then I see a thin line. So to me it also points to a possible unit issue as well. So am I correct to suspect a transducer and or unit issue? My next move is I updated all three units to the latest 1.9 and 2.11 software and go back to the lake and test. If no help I'm going to replace to replace external transducer since I have a spare and test again. I'm also going to call HB again about these new symptoms but I don't expect any help there as the last support person I talked to was no help at all, just read from script and didn't even know how the units operated.

[ezfishn]

Sounds normal for surface clutter setting. When you lower the setting, it increases the attenuation or filtering. Were you only getting interference with TM powered on during your last testing?

[woppercatcher]

Sounds normal for surface clutter setting. When you lower the setting, it increases the attenuation or filtering. Were you only getting interference with TM powered on during your last testing?

Yes, I get more interference with the trolling motor running but I only notice when I get to deeper water. I would think if I was getting RFI it would be there regardless of the depth.

[Wayne P.]

I have seen RFI when deeper than 30' that was not present shallower.

[woppercatcher]

I have seen RFI when deeper than 30' that was not present shallower.

WTH. I’m trying to understand how interference from a trolling motor would only be seen in deep water. All I know is I had 0 issues two weeks ago and nothing changed that I know of and now I’m having all kind of issues. I work in technical support and I hear that all the time so I know something changed but it seems I’m chasing a moving target. Will see what happens tomorrow after updating the software.

[Wayne P.]

WTH. I’m trying to understand how interference from a trolling motor would only be seen in deep water. All I know is I had 0 issues two weeks ago and nothing changed that I know of and now I’m having all kind of issues. I work in technical support and I hear that all the time so I know something changed but it seems I’m chasing a moving target. Will see what happens tomorrow after updating the software.

RFI is a b*@#h to deal with. When you figure it out let everyone else know.

One of my units got RFI after an update. I think it was the first generation Helix 12 SI unit and the first update.