Helix 10 losing bottom – thought is was the transducer, but it's a software issue

[dove]

Maybe this post will help anyone else with similar issues. My Helix 10 Gen 1 SI and sonar units (guessing this will also apply to Mega units) will track bottom perfectly to 40 mph in smooth water with my transom mounted TD. As might be expected, when I run over substantial chop, I start to get momentary dropouts in the 2D signal which show as vertical white streaks on the screen. None of that’s a problem.


With enough of these dropouts however, the Helix will completely lose track of where the bottom is and show a blank screen with 1.6 feet of depth. Worse yet, it won’t recover the bottom for several seconds to several minutes, often after I slow down or even stop the boat and wait. I used to think that I had picked up some weeds on the TD or that the chop had caused an air bubble to form on the TD. With some experimentation, I discovered it’s really a software problem with a workaround.


The workaround is to set the Lower Range (not Max Depth) to a depth somewhat greater than the actual depth. By doing this, you are telling the software to simply paint the screen with all returns received between time 0 and time t, where t = the round trip time of sound from the set depth. The software does not have to “think” about where the bottom is; it just paints what it sees. You can therefore see and watch the bottom even if the software doesn't know where it is.


If you don’t set the Lower Range, the software cannot paint the screen until it first determines the depth, which could be anywhere from 0 and the set Max Depth (mine being 180 feet). To find the bottom, the software has to store up and analyze returns to determine where the bottom is. When the 2D signal is weak or intermittent, the poorly written software gets into a prolonged state of confusion that lasts for a few seconds to several minutes even after receiving a clean signal. I should also note that this only happens in deeper water, say 50 feet or more where the bottom signal will naturally be weaker than in shallower depths. Another interesting point is that while the 2D screen is blank and showing 1.6, the SI screen is perfect because it doesn't need to know where the bottom is and simply paints whatever returns are received within the time corresponding to the set SI Range.

I haven’t upgraded to the 1.83 software, being afraid it might get worse, not better, from comments I’ve heard about taking time to recover bottom after slowing down. This issue may be related to, but not the same as the Mega shallow depth issue. If anyone has a different take on this, I'd be interested to hear it.