White Dots, Poor Detail

Apologies for the phone pic, not sure why I didn't use the screenshot function.

I noticed the white dots/lines on down imaging, and there are some on the side imaging as well. Any thoughts on the cause?

Second, I'm just not thrilled with the level of detail I'm seeing, I'm using Mega for both side and down in the screenshot. This particular image is a muddy bottom in a sporadic weed bed.

Other images I've seen on this forum have excellent detail, is there something obvious I'm missing? Possible problem with my transducer?

Thanks.

The image could be tweaked a little but the whiter clumps your seeing on the SI are the heavy grass areas and the darker spaces between the grass is where it’s mostly soft bottom. The thicker the grass and softer the bottom it’s harder to see heavy details but in my opinion the grass edges and clumps look pretty obvious on SI.
DI you could play with color palette or sensitivity a little bit to get better bottom returns through the grass. Depends on the weeds but sometimes I can see the individual leaves on the image and sometimes it’s just too clumped together.
Have you spent much time graphing yet in the spring before the grass is really thick to get the hang of things?

When I zoom in on the pic I see the white dots, that looks like something from interference or possibly not working properly. Hopefully someone comes along that has seen it, I have never seen the white dots like that before.
What unit and how old? Full model is helpful

I got the unit in February and did graphing before things got so overgrown, unfortunately, I didn't take any screenshots. I just don't see the level of detail that others have posted, even on clear lakes with mostly rocks/boulders I don't see much detail and definitely haven't been able to see schools of fish on down or side. I do see them on 2D very easily.

I fished with a friend who has a Lowrance without Mega, I thought the side imaging revealed a ton of detail despite being lower frequency. I realize much of this depends on a variety of factors, but I've been to 4 different lakes and none of the images are all that detailed.

If it's my transducer, I don't know how to troubleshoot the issue.

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Originally Posted by XingEyeballs

When I zoom in on the pic I see the white dots, that looks like something from interference or possibly not working properly. Hopefully someone comes along that has seen it, I have never seen the white dots like that before.
What unit and how old? Full model is helpful

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Sorry forgot to include. It's a Solix 10 G3 running version 3.97.

Your askin alot from 3 ft of water. It seems like your gain is a little hot.
But with that shallow, warm water? You should try the other frequency on SI & DI
see what you get as far a clarity.

I find 455 works better in shallow water but something does not look right. My unit of the box gave some nice images. Factory settings.

Definitely try all 3 frequencies. Sometimes it is surprising the difference it can make based on the density of what you are scanning. In fairness to the unit, grass like that is a mess, just like on the screen.

Don't be afraid to freesze the screen and play with the settings to see if the image gets any better, if it does, go with the new settings. And it could change next time out due to changes in the water column.

I also do sonar recordings in problem areas so that I can play it back later (when I'm not fishing) and change the settings to see what I could have done to make it better... For next time.

It looks like you are using the Sharpness setting not knowing what its effect is.
It does the opposite of creating sharp images, it backlights fish so they are easier to see and makes "stuff" blurry.

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Originally Posted by OK_BassBum

Your askin alot from 3 ft of water. It seems like your gain is a little hot.
But with that shallow, warm water? You should try the other frequency on SI & DI
see what you get as far a clarity.

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Agreed on the 3 ft depth, but the clarity isn't all that great in deeper water. I'll include a pic when I go out next. I just see some of the stunning pics others post and I haven't had that experience yet on my unit and am concerned how I'd go about seeing if my hardware is the issue.

DogWalker, also make sure you have updated your solix G3 to the new software 3.980
That might help, some had a software glitch.

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Originally Posted by OK_BassBum

DogWalker, also make sure you have updated your solix G3 to the new software 3.980
That might help, some had a software glitch.

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Thanks for the info. I just updated my unit, hope to get out this week and see if things improve.

Ok, new pic with 3.980 running. Way better detail, thanks again for the recommendation! Still seeing those white dots, couldn't get them to go away while messing with the settings.
Probably just a curiosity at this point as they're not affecting anything really.



.Attachment 462247

Your latest image is a lot better. Are the white dots you are talking about the lighter areas all along the bottom transition from the water column? If so, you will tend to get more of that type of return on harder bottoms. Sometimes the contrast setting will tune those out or reduce them.

Also, make sure your transducer is parallel with the water surface. That will have a big impact on the quality of the returns. There are some good videos on YouTube for this topic. Search for "transducer level coin".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SLYDoggie

Your latest image is a lot better. Are the white dots you are talking about the lighter areas all along the bottom transition from the water column? If so, you will tend to get more of that type of return on harder bottoms. Sometimes the contrast setting will tune those out or reduce them.

Also, make sure your transducer is parallel with the water surface. That will have a big impact on the quality of the returns. There are some good videos on YouTube for this topic. Search for "transducer level coin".

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I leveled my transducer using the coin method, worked great, but I'll check the level again. Yes, those are the the dots I was referring to, I posted another picture this time using down scan which is a better example. This particular lake has a sandy bottom, not sure how hard it was in this screenshot. I adjusted the contrast, those lines didn't go away. This was occurring before the upgrade to 3.98, nothing else changed with my setup.

Again it doesn't appear to be affecting things, just didn't know if there was a problem with my setup.

Attachment 462331

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DogWalker

I leveled my transducer using the coin method, worked great, but I'll check the level again. Yes, those are the the dots I was referring to, I posted another picture this time using down scan which is a better example. This particular lake has a sandy bottom, not sure how hard it was in this screenshot. I adjusted the contrast, those lines didn't go away. This was occurring before the upgrade to 3.98, nothing else changed with my setup.

Again it doesn't appear to be affecting things, just didn't know if there was a problem with my setup.

Attachment 462331

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Looks like weeds with the sensitivity set too high after the first 1/3 of the recorded image.

https://i.postimg.cc/nztX96Y4/S00196.png

Ok, I'll try adjusting the sensitivity down. Thanks.

Typically, the 4 things that would affect this most are Sensitivity, Contrast, Sharpness and Dynamic Contrast. On the Solix, Dynamic Contrast is an on/off switch at the top of the color pallet selection menu. Try playing with all 4 when you are seeing this to see what impact they have.

This morning I had a similar occurrence but one side of the SI was sloping up significantly and the other was sloping down significantly. I had the SI Sensitivity Offset at 0 so one side was brighter and the other was darker. The darker side has the same bright segments your image has.

I did some testing while out trolling today and have some additional information and insight on your "white dots". I have posted 4 images...

1) Normal SI view with a gradually sloping gravel bottom without the "white spots".

2) SI view with steep sloping rock bluff from the shoreline on far left to 120' on far right. You can clearly see the "white dots" on the right (deeper) side. It is also on the left (shallower) side as well but that is so bright that it is hard to see.

3) Mega 360 image which corresponds to #2... Taken at the same time. This also shows the "white dots" on the right side.

4) Bridge image with similar "white dot" phenomenon which magically disappeared about half way through the image without any imaging adjustments on the Solix. This was taken with Solix SW of a few versions ago.

Observations:

1) Since the SI view is coming from the Solix SI+ transducer and the Mega 360 image is coming from the Mega 360 transclducer, I can rule out the transducer as being the cause for the "white dots".

2) I tried all of the normal imaging adjustments (sensitivity, contrast, sharpness, and Dynamic Contrast but no combination of these adjustments removed the "white dots".

3) The "white dots" appear to occur on steep sloping hard surfaces.

Conclusion:

This appears to me to be some sort of Humminbird Solix Imaging anomaly/error. I don't see any real reason why these "white dots" should be in the images but they are.

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Originally Posted by SLYDoggie

I did some testing while out trolling today and have some additional information and insight on your "white dots". I have posted 4 images...

1) Normal SI view with a gradually sloping gravel bottom without the "white spots".

2) SI view with steep sloping rock bluff from the shoreline on far left to 120' on far right. You can clearly see the "white dots" on the right (deeper) side. It is also on the left (shallower) side as well but that is so bright that it is hard to see.

3) Mega 360 image which corresponds to #2... Taken at the same time. This also shows the "white dots" on the right side.

4) Bridge image with similar "white dot" phenomenon which magically disappeared about half way through the image without any imaging adjustments on the Solix. This was taken with Solix SW of a few versions ago.

Observations:

1) Since the SI view is coming from the Solix SI+ transducer and the Mega 360 image is coming from the Mega 360 transclducer, I can rule out the transducer as being the cause for the "white dots".

2) I tried all of the normal imaging adjustments (sensitivity, contrast, sharpness, and Dynamic Contrast but no combination of these adjustments removed the "white dots".

3) The "white dots" appear to occur on steep sloping hard surfaces.

Conclusion:

This appears to me to be some sort of Humminbird Solix Imaging anomaly/error. I don't see any real reason why these "white dots" should be in the images but they are.

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Wow, great detail, thanks! The hard surface observation does make sense as I first noticed it at a dammed river with tons of rock. We also noticed it at a reservoir that is a mostly sand bottom, but also has rocky areas that probably are hard to differentiate as sediment flows in and covers the bottom. Either way, glad to hear that it's not an issue with my setup, I know those are notoriously hard to troubleshoot.

Thanks for the hard work!

I did some additional testing and found the problem causing the White Dots... Water Column Sensitivity! Since I troll for Stripers and am only interested in fish in the water column, I always have the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 on all my imaging screens, DI, SI, and Mega 360. I had the thought that this might be contributing to the problem but, when I tested the theory, the reality is that it is 100% what is causing the problem.

I did a test yesterday while traversing along a couple of steep rocky drop-offs from the shoreline to 120' in depth over the width of my SI view. I have attached a screen capture with my test from each of the two shorelines and the results were pretty conclusive.

In the attached SI screen captures, I first had the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 and had the "dots" on both sides (the bottom portion of the SI views). I then changed Water Column Sensitivity to zero and the image was totally normal (the middle part of the SI view. I then changed the Water Column Sensitivity to -3 and got an even more bizarre image issue with very jagged lines all along the bottom (the top part of the SI view). I'm guessing that you had your Water Column Sensitivity set to +1, +2, or +3 and that is what caused the issue.

I'm going to create a new thread with this issue because I have seen people post about the jagged bottom but I don't know that the issue was ever determined.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SLYDoggie

I did some additional testing and found the problem causing the White Dots... Water Column Sensitivity! Since I troll for Stripers and am only interested in fish in the water column, I always have the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 on all my imaging screens, DI, SI, and Mega 360. I had the thought that this might be contributing to the problem but, when I tested the theory, the reality is that it is 100% what is causing the problem.

I did a test yesterday while traversing along a couple of steep rocky drop-offs from the shoreline to 120' in depth over the width of my SI view. I have attached a screen capture with my test from each of the two shorelines and the results were pretty conclusive.

In the attached SI screen captures, I first had the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 and had the "dots" on both sides (the bottom portion of the SI views). I then changed Water Column Sensitivity to zero and the image was totally normal (the middle part of the SI view. I then changed the Water Column Sensitivity to -3 and got an even more bizarre image issue with very jagged lines all along the bottom (the top part of the SI view). I'm guessing that you had your Water Column Sensitivity set to +1, +2, or +3 and that is what caused the issue.

I'm going to create a new thread with this issue because I have seen people post about the jagged bottom but I don't know that the issue was ever determined.

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Hmmm, interesting, that would definitely explain things. Water Column Sensitivity was set to +2 on my last trip, I don't know what it was when I first noticed the issue. I'm heading out this weekend, I'll play around with the setting to see what my results are.

Well, I'm sad to report that the new 4.020 Solix software update does not fix this issue. I installed the update on both my Solix 15 G2 and Solix 12 G2 and the Water Column Sensitivity setting still causes the same issue... Jagged bottom transition on negative settings and excessively bright bottom transition on plus settings.

Guess Humminbird hasn't come up with a fix for this yet.

Different bodies of water and temp/time of year give different clearness.

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Originally Posted by MonteSS

Different bodies of water and temp/time of year give different clearness.

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This has nothing to do with water clarity or temp. There is a definite sonar interpretation issue with Water Column Sensitivity setting that Humminbird is aware of.