Tennessee River Ledge Scanning Lowrance/Humminbird Comparison

[sfw1960]

I agree, Sensitivity is the main adjustment so the bottom is not so bright that it washes out the lighter returns from stuff.

While this is very true, a few of the bodies of water I fish vary wildly in bottom composition - some is small gravel with siltation, some is solid rock and some is sand, and yes the fun ones - marl and mud, which like John stated need some serious sensitivity increases.

[Schins]

I think the whole issues of settings is a little too overstated. Basically I just use defaults although I do increase chart speed significantly. I suggest the brightness of the day dictates the palettes. Blue is generally considered the best for resolution but the orange/yellow is best for very bright days, but some screens are brighter than others. The Onix is less bright Solix and Helix are excellent in the sun. When others talk about settings for different water, I consider that the water itself makes very little difference. Water itself does not change things too much but the hardness of the bottom does. With very muddy bottom you have to turn the sensitivity right up and I then change to lower frequencies.

Defaults are great when starting out, but SethRstein needs fine tuning in his scenario.

[StrikeBack]

All good, tweak away. As someone get more skilled with imaging sonar it makes sense to tweak the settings, but to anyone new to these machines, don't be intimidated by all the possible settings, these machines will provide fantastic images out of the box.

[Nate4023]

Because all of my information on my set up is already present in this thread I figured it would be easier for you all. Is there a trolling motor transducer mount available for the Mega DI transducer (XM 9 MDI T). Made the mistake of ordering the trolling motor mount that was for the Mega SI transducer which obviously won't work.

Thanks,
Nathan

[Wayne P.]

Because all of my information on my set up is already present in this thread I figured it would be easier for you all. Is there a trolling motor transducer mount available for the Mega DI transducer (XM 9 MDI T). Made the mistake of ordering the trolling motor mount that was for the Mega SI transducer which obviously won't work.

Thanks,
Nathan

https://www.humminbird.com/Products/AD-XTM-9/

OR you could use the proper transducer for the application:

https://www.humminbird.com/Products/XTM-9-MDI-T/

[Nate4023]

Awesome thanks for the quick reply! I'll be honest, I am fairly skeptical of not breaking off the skimmer style transducer with that first bracket you sent. I found a mount on transducersaver that seems quite a bit more solid then having it hanging but the proper transducer you sent seems like the best option. Does Humminbird do transducer swaps? I could definitely be making it up but I thought I remember reading that somewhere on here. Could just be wishful thinking though :P

[sfw1960]

Yes, they do exchanges on unopened unused XDCR/hardware.

[bamacat]

This may be an insane question, but based upon comments above it sounds as if you can turn the CHIRP signal off and on and the MEGA signal still works? I only ask this because I have Gen 1 Helix units and am considering the change.

[ntslam]

This may be an insane question, but based upon comments above it sounds as if you can turn the CHIRP signal off and on and the MEGA signal still works? I only ask this because I have Gen 1 Helix units and am considering the change.

Correct. The chirp feature only allows the unit to sweep a frequency range. You can still be able to use just fixed frequency with the mega

[Wayne P.]

This may be an insane question, but based upon comments above it sounds as if you can turn the CHIRP signal off and on and the MEGA signal still works? I only ask this because I have Gen 1 Helix units and am considering the change.

The first generation Helix 12 models have CHIRP sonar which can be also single frequency 83/200 kHz. Their CHIRP ranges are 75-95 kHz and 175-225 kHz.

The MEGA SIs unit have the same frequencies plus they CHIRP Imaging also at 455 kHz (420-520 kHz), 800 kHz (790-850 kHz) and 1200 kHz (1250-1300 kHz). You can chose the non-CHIRP single frequency or CHIRP those frequencies, or chose parts of those CHIRP frequencies.

[sfw1960]

The lower end of MSI Chirp is 1125 kHz Wayne...

[Wayne P.]

The lower end of MSI Chirp is 1125 kHz Wayne...

Yep, got too many frequencies scrambled in my brain.