active imaging HD sidescan questionable?

[Ijustwanttofish]

I purchased an HDS PRO 10 in November from BPS. I have since installed it and been using it, and have had what i believed to be decent results. A friend had pros put on his boat as well, and his sidescan looked different/better than mine, so I started paying attention a little more. I am beginning to think that the transducer may be bad, but its only the side scan that looks weird to me. I took a bunch of screen shots as well as some photos with my phone which I will post here, but I must say that the images look even worse on the screenshots from the unit then they do with the naked eye. A lot worse in fact.

The issue as I would describe it is like there is a bunch of clutter in the water, and admittedly most of these screenshots were from today on a lake that is shallower and typically more dirty, but I feel like there is something wrong with the image. All that being said, I do have a friend that is going to loan me another new transducer to test it and see, but I figured I would get yalls opinion on this as well.

Some of the pictures are of me switching it from 455khz to 1075khz, which the 1075khz setting has been all but useless to me since I installed it.

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[SteezMacQueen]

Something is wrong with it for sure. That’s horrible looking!

try color pallet 6 and the settings on auto(plus2). Set distance to 100, surface clarity off.

also, make sure the side scan transducer has a clear shot to each side. No obstructions.

[Ijustwanttofish]

Something is wrong with it for sure. That’s horrible looking!

try color pallet 6 and the settings on auto(plus2). Set distance to 100, surface clarity off.

also, make sure the side scan transducer has a clear shot to each side. No obstructions.

I have it mounted at the very bottom of transom, in fact a little below as it will read bottom at speed. I do have a jackplate on the boat but its well below that. I dont understand it but the screenshots off the unit are way worse than me using it, but I agree that something isnt right. I have never had to deal with Lowrance in getting something warrantied, I hope it doesnt turn into a real PITA. I will be trying another transducer on loan ASAP to test with.

[Basshopper]

I see 2 things that make your image less than stellar. Set your range to at least 150 to 200 in 20ft of water depth. Then keep the water column the width of your boat not 40 ft that is what makes your bottom all grainey. Then adjust your contract to have the white part in that column to a min. if you are in 20 ft or less than try the higher frequency. It works best in shallow water it gives very clear images and detail in 0 to 15ft. When in that really shallow water you range will be smaller as it won't look out as far. Which lets you use the higher frequency. Post some Pics after this. The other item is angle of your transducer that is critical for SI. If you have a point 1 on your boat Go to device list find Point 1,go to Data and look for Altitude Pitch. On the Stand in the front of your boat and read that Pitch degree and then put is on the trailer. Jack up the boat in the front to that degree. Now put a level on your transducer and snug it down there. You will be suprised how great of images you get just doiing this and every boat is different how it sits in the water.

[Ijustwanttofish]

I was able to acquire another transducer to test it out with, and rigged it on the boat temporarily and took it to the lake the other day. I did not capture any new screenshots, as there wasn't really any changes. I have come to the conclusion that the color palette that I was using(palette #8) just makes things much more washed out in the water column, but for my eyes I can see more detail using this one. I did take a video of it with my phone that I could possibly share if anyone is interested, but I do not think that I am experiencing issues. I am taking the boat to a different lake again today to do some fishing, so I may gather some more stuff from it as well, not sure. The clarity of the water column and the noise in it is greatly reduced on some of the other color palettes, but it seem that the further out from the boat the darker the image is, and if I adjust the contrast to see better further out, the closer stuff is washed out. I believe I may just end up sticking with what I was doing for the most part. I understand that for the most part what is in the water column on side scan isn't the point of using that technology, but I do like to compare what I see to what is on 2d and DS at the same time.

[Ijustwanttofish]

I see 2 things that make your image less than stellar. Set your range to at least 150 to 200 in 20ft of water depth. Then keep the water column the width of your boat not 40 ft that is what makes your bottom all grainey. Then adjust your contract to have the white part in that column to a min. if you are in 20 ft or less than try the higher frequency. It works best in shallow water it gives very clear images and detail in 0 to 15ft. When in that really shallow water you range will be smaller as it won't look out as far. Which lets you use the higher frequency. Post some Pics after this. The other item is angle of your transducer that is critical for SI. If you have a point 1 on your boat Go to device list find Point 1,go to Data and look for Altitude Pitch. On the Stand in the front of your boat and read that Pitch degree and then put is on the trailer. Jack up the boat in the front to that degree. Now put a level on your transducer and snug it down there. You will be suprised how great of images you get just doiing this and every boat is different how it sits in the water.

I kinda knew that the higher frequency was not ideal for the deeper water, and much of the screenshots I took was simply for testing purposes. Even when using it under 20 foot depth, I was thinking the brightness of the image would have been better. Again I am new to this newer tech, and by no means a professional, but I guess if I wanted to utilize the higher frequency, I will just have to adjust my contrast accordingly. I did run it out to 120-140 foot out each side the other day and I did like the images I was getting so I may stick with that as well/ Thank you for your input. I do have a point 1 as well, but to be honest I forgot to check the pitch while idling, so I may try to remember that today.

[NoCAL]

To really get to the bottom of this run one of the blue or brown pallets and play with contrast until it looks good. The pallet you are using is just too hot for my eyes. IMO, your transducer is performing as it should but there are definitely settings, frequencies, distances, and pallets that make a huge difference. Even when going from one lake to another.

[Team Colibri]

Any photos of how your transducer is mounted?
You have clearly visible ghostlines to the left on sidescan, pointing to the install beeing less than stellar.

[BigCranks]

I'm keeping an eye on how this goes.i have tge same thing going on. I switched from a carbon/3n1 to the pro hd/3n1, and my side images are nowhere as detailed.i run a bfe jackplate mount, I just changed the top half to accommodate tge hd 3n1.i've tried different frequencies, palettes, contrast settings and the image is just grainy and lacks detail. I did upgrade the pro, my live at the bow and my s3100 to 25.1 but I haven't been able to try it out yet.

[z520brewer]

Basshopper how do you adjust the water column width? Thanks

[mikeky]

Basshopper how do you adjust the water column width? Thanks

Wondering as well

[justinp61]

Wondering as well

Me three. The water column on mine is always the same width as the depth, it just gets narrower or wider to match the scale of the range it's set on. I'm always willing to learn though.

[Ijustwanttofish]

To really get to the bottom of this run one of the blue or brown pallets and play with contrast until it looks good. The pallet you are using is just too hot for my eyes. IMO, your transducer is performing as it should but there are definitely settings, frequencies, distances, and pallets that make a huge difference. Even when going from one lake to another.

I have been playing with it some more on the lake yesterday and I think I have it where I want it. I agree that the palette I was using is a little more blown out if you will, but it’s the one I can see the best. Palettes are somewhat objective so that’s just my liking. I have a screen shot from yesterday but I haven’t pulled it off the unit yet that I thought was cool and I will share it when I get some free time to do it.

[Ijustwanttofish]

Any photos of how your transducer is mounted?
You have clearly visible ghostlines to the left on sidescan, pointing to the install beeing less than stellar.

i do have a picture but I’m on mobile currently. I can try to share it but I think the image will be too large. I’ll try it in the test and if it works I’ll come back and share it. If not I’ll downsize it on the pc and share asap.

[Ijustwanttofish]

I'm keeping an eye on how this goes.i have tge same thing going on. I switched from a carbon/3n1 to the pro hd/3n1, and my side images are nowhere as detailed.i run a bfe jackplate mount, I just changed the top half to accommodate tge hd 3n1.i've tried different frequencies, palettes, contrast settings and the image is just grainy and lacks detail. I did upgrade the pro, my live at the bow and my s3100 to 25.1 but I haven't been able to try it out yet.

I was having a hard time finding any info or anyone talking about the AIHD images, so I will try to share what I have in order to help you better. I wouldn’t say my images are not detailed, but I was thinking that I was picking up stuff that wasn’t truly there, especially in the water column on my sidescan. I tried palette 3 and a couple others and it clears most of that up. If you like, I will try to upload a video I took to my google drive and share it with you that I took of my phone with another known good transducer the other day to rule out that mine was bad.

[Bassbme]

Yeah, I'm wondering about this changing the width of the water column as well. Like justinp61 said, the width of the water column is dependent on the range setting. I don't see how that can be adjusted?

The only thing I know of that you can do with the water column is eliminate it when using Structure Map in live mode. You can turn the water column off, and you'll see just the bottom. But that's it.

I think it would be awesome if you had the option of turning the water column on and off on the side scan screen, like you can in Structure Map.

[Ijustwanttofish]

So I have two more screenshots but man I don't know what it is with this system but the screenshot looks absolutely terrible. Even the screenshots that I posted in the beginning make it look much worse than it actually is. I have uploaded a video I took with my phone of me running it and changing some settings to get a better idea of how it is working. I am also including an image of the transom showing how I mounted the transducer. It is obviously not fully setup and just hanging there but you can get the idea. As previously stated, I did purposely mount it slightly below the transom so that I could read the bottom at speed and it does work as intended. It is currently dark or I would have taken a current photo of it to share.

Video Link:

transducer mounted.jpg

[Bassbme]

What are you expecting it to look like? I ask because other than it looking really hot in spots, (did you try adjusting your contrast) it looks pretty darned detailed to me. And a lot more detailed, even on 455k, than the detail I got from my LSS2 I was using with my Gen 2 Touch. Screen resolution could be the reason for that, but it looks good.

I know you said that you like that one palette color because you can see it the best. My Gen 2 had the same color available, and when I tried it I had to back off on my contrast so the brightness wouldn't wash out the detail. And when you change to different palettes, you can't really expect the same contrast setting to work with that palette.

Like I questioned at the start, what are you expecting it to look like, because I am seeing some great detail on the rocks and the dead falls laying in the water. I just upgraded to an HDS 9 Pro at my console. I haven't gotten on the water with it yet because of the weather, but if I get that kind of detail out of it, I will be pretty dang happy.

[Ijustwanttofish]

What are you expecting it to look like? I ask because other than it looking really hot in spots, (did you try adjusting your contrast) it looks pretty darned detailed to me. And a lot more detailed, even on 455k, than the detail I got from my LSS2 I was using with my Gen 2 Touch. Screen resolution could be the reason for that, but it looks good.

I know you said that you like that one palette color because you can see it the best. My Gen 2 had the same color available, and when I tried it I had to back off on my contrast so the brightness wouldn't wash out the detail. And when you change to different palettes, you can't really expect the same contrast setting to work with that palette.

Like I questioned at the start, what are you expecting it to look like, because I am seeing some great detail on the rocks and the dead falls laying in the water. I just upgraded to an HDS 9 Pro at my console. I haven't gotten on the water with it yet because of the weather, but if I get that kind of detail out of it, I will be pretty dang happy.

The detail was never in question really. I have been using it with good success but I have been on other boats with varying types of Lowrance sidescan and I believe that I simply had gotten in my own head and thinking that it was either picking up interference or something was wrong with the transducer as the amount of “color” it was showing in the water column area seemed odd to me, as most other systems that I have experienced it was mostly just black unless it marked something in that area. As I had recently stated, I believe that this is just a side effect of some of the color palettes, this one(#8) being the worst one but I can get used to it with the the fact that I feel I can see further out to my max range setting with out having to increase the contrast to a point where the closer sections start to wash out. If that makes sense.

Again, I am somewhat prone to getting inside my own head and suspecting an issue with things, but for what these units cost I just wanted to be sure it was working properly.

[Savage]

I never seen a structure scan capable transducer mounted on such a severe angle. The transducer should be mounted perfectly parallel to the water surface.