Humminbird issues continue.. waste of money thus far

[Hanknbass]

I feel your pain. I have been dealing with the same problems since I switched over to Humminbird 14 months ago,, what a mistake that was for me....... My Lowrance units were working just fine, but I though I need the Ipilot and all the extras,,,,,, hind sight is 20/20,, I'd sure do things different if I only knew...

[sfw1960]

Rickie is available via PM, under his user name I posted so you can ask him.

YES - the ground off the power cables should be run directly unlike the apparent hack N slash method they did, and I always recommend to solder and heat shrink (if it's 99.9% water proof behind the panels you may still be OK though).

There's no DC power connection to transducers, but wadding excessive cabling as pictured is a no-no.

I'm guessing that the big coil of cable in pic #2 is the XDCR cable, right?

If so - remove that cable tie - and figure-eight the cable in a criss-cross pattern making sure every pass is across the other - have 3 cable ties ready and once you have them in a figure eight- attach the 1st in the center, pull snugly and then tie off both ends so that crossing cable is maintained.

Lower your clarity control number and sensitivity and test the unit once you've changed those 2 things - I used have a 2D 859 that I "violated" the cable wadding rules and as soon as I saw the interference I thought..."you dummy - you know better, how long have you been doing this?"


Also if there's an Ethernet cable waded up - do the same thing AND you might have success adding a ring terminal to the round M12 connector to ground as we've had network hash come into the units here too.

Jeff if you want help with your units too post pics and the guys will look at it and make suggestions for help.

[TomP.]

I know that when I switched from Low to Hbird my biggest problem sensitivity used to the Low`s having to crank up the sensitivity where the Birds run way lower on sensitivity just did not seem right to me took me a long time to adjust myself to the difference.

Myself I had to run a wire from my Ultera motor housing to my main engine battery ground took care of all my interference.

[sfw1960]

[cwils71]

I have helix 10 si gen2 mega with a lowrance elite 7 mounted next to it. Last night the helix depth was very erratic with a double bottom. After a while the helix settled down and showed double depth of the lowrance still with the double bottom. This was with the lowrance sonar on. Switched the lowrance sonar off, and the helix seemed to return to a normal operation and had no more issues for the evening. Both transducers are relatively close, 18” or so. And both transducers cables are routed the same run up the the right side wall. Is this normal? Or coincidental that the helix started working when the lowrance was switched off? Or do I have this same sonar issue as the others? Any thoughts appreciated.

I also tried changing the 2d chirp settings and repowering the helix back up. The helix is also connected directly to the main battery.

[sfw1960]

I think that's called CROSS TALK....

Like frequencies interfere.

[cwils71]

Thanks, I am believing that is the cause also, I am going to experiment more with it next time out. Might these helix’s show crosstalk / interference in this way? The lowrance always seem to get all the vertical lines on the 2d screen when I have 2 graphs running. is this how the humminbirds react? I was never intending to keep the elites on the boat, just using them till I get a second helix on the bow and up to speed with the new hummingbirds. I have only had lowrance for last 10 years so I thought it might help to make the switch over.

[Bob B]

If there is a way to turn off the 200 Khz on the Lowrance ... try that. The Helix always uses the 200 Khz for depth reading.

[high 2]

Glad I caught this thread. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on a new HB and came here for input on which units to get. Looks like I've dodged the bullet this time. I'll be watching to see if this gets resolved. Good luck on getting a fix. Larry

[sfw1960]

If there is a way to turn off the 200 Khz on the Lowrance ... try that. The Helix always uses the 200 Khz for depth reading.

Yes, he can use mid-chirp or 83 kHz Bob - I (re-)learned the menu system on a Hook7 over the winter and have a buddy that runs an Elite and Hook 7 together...

I actually gave Tim a Hook7 for Christmas and he started explaining how to change settings for me.

I told him I was quite capable of adjusting the unit, I was seeking permission to change things because he'd chew me out if I fooled with it.

I'm not going into which frequencies should be used for what, but IMO anything over around 150 kHz should be run shallow, under 150kHz mid to deeper waters, and stuff in the double digits should only be used in water over 60 feet as a "shallow" baseline.

When I helped service these things most all of the Lake Michigan Charter Captains wanted to see the down rigger cannon balls and seeing a strike coming was always a bonus for ANY customer!

BITD the #1 Lk. Mi. machine hands down was the Vexilar 155D @ 50 kHz +the Uniden MC250 was also a popular machine too.

Vexilar 510 and 555's (We did a TON of 510 to 555 conversions BITD) ran @ 75kHz as did some Sitex along so more 50 kHz units.

The Sitex HE357B ran @ 107kHz and they did pretty well in under 75-100 fow.


Salmon guys don't bat an eye running to 300+ fow to troll 140 down if they need to to get bit.

I bet a good number of all brands probably won't reach the bottom North of me a nice shoreline ride...#1

The new HB receivers are unlawfully HOT!
You have to tune any machine you are serious about achieving good results with. (You turn these down - A LOT!)

If you really don't want to - why not get the $99 model?
I use high frequency in shallow for 2 reasons; #1 ~ bottom coverage ain't squat even with a "45°" 50 kHz beam (Yes, wider than HB 83 when measured with the same method) so realistically there ain't a thing to see in a spot so small you cant react if it gets shallow "unexpectedly".



#2 WHY would you want to slur any return you get at ANY frequency is beyond me, but the higher I go in freq. the better the detail.