Thread: What should I realistically expect

Justfishin2, fish arches are not that common. They only happen when the fish goes perfectly though the center of the beam or the boat travels over a fish that is dead center in the beam. I have a .pdf article on fish arches, it's a little wordy but would help you understand what happens. I don't know of any way to attach it, but if you want to PM me with your e-mail I will be happy to send it to you. Your are correct about your limited coverage in shallow water with the 83/200kHz transducer. I am not an Lowrance man put I think it is the same as my HB. The 200kHz will only give you approximately 1/3 of water depth coverage on the bottom and the 83kHz will be 1 times water depth. In 10' of water with the 200kHz you will see ~ 3.4' circle at bottom and with the 83kHz it will be ~ 10' circle at bottom. But remember it is a cone that starts at the transducer. I will let the Lowrance guys discuss what would be best, but I think SI, DI, plus 2D would be best. You might want to clarify "shallow" water. That can be very different to many people, in a lake with 100' deep water 20' is shallow.

The 455/800 kHz sonar is for Down Scan Imaging .... the 83/200 is for the 2d sonar cone.

As I understand it, looking at the Touch 7 on the Lowrance website, it should be capable of showing a GPS map, Down Scan, and 2d (singly or in combination). Are you saying that you only have 2d screen capability, or is that the only screen you use ?? Is the transducer, that you got with the unit, only capable of emitting the 83/200 2d cone sonar ??

... cp

I just swapped out an Elite 7HDi for the touch 7 and I have the 4 frequency transducer on the touch 7. You need to go to the installation screen on your unit and make sure you have selected that transducer. Mine came out of the box with a default transducer setting and I could not get the down image to work. I called Lowrance while I was on the water and he walked me through setting the correct transducer. I had already figured out that the transducer was not set correctly but there must be a 100 choices on the unit and I gave up before I got to the 82/200 & 455/800 option. I am going to get the LSS unit soon as I can save up a few pennies. I mean why have a unit that will also do side scan and not use it???? I had to pay a couple of hundred dollars extra to upgrade but the Elite 7 was driving me crazy with the navionics chip problem plus I was getting a $1300 unit for about half price. By the way I understand that Release 4 from Lowrance fixed the E7/chip issue, but I am really pleased with the Touch 7.

Searay nailed it, transducer selection is wrong,

Well, I've "selected" the exact transducer several times and still can not get any different results. Once in use there is an option-sorry but I can't remember the exact screen - that allows me to toggle between the different frequencies. When touched it allows me to go from 83 to 200, but that is all. However, if these are the only frequencies that the sonar (2d) uses I now understand why. I can not get the down imaging to work. One thing I didn't mention-can't imagine it would make a difference, though-is that I'm using a transducer protector that houses the td. I'm sure that it is possible that the 455/800 is not working, but before I contact Lowrance I just wondered if any of you might have a solution.

At this point we are just guessing without being able to see it. If you have the correct 4-frequency transducer selected and it still does not work on DI, either the transducer is defective or it is not actually a 2d/DI transducer, or....the unit itself is defective.
And then there is always the possibility that an electronic gremlin is loose somewhere and very hard to pinpoint.

By the way your ealier question about using the built in transducer if you got a new TM, it will only work with 2D I believe. I have the I-Pilot with the U2 transducer and it works fine on my 2D unit I have up front. If it were me, I would insist the dealer swap out the transducer you got for the LSS and then you would have all the features of the Touch 7 available to you. You would have to pay some diffrence but you should get credit for the one you have.
If you want to use the full blown Touch 7 on the front, you will need to put the LSS on a separate stable mount or leave it on the transom.

SeaRay, thanks for the info about the td's incorporated in the TM and about the mount for the LSS. I've seen the mount Jimmy Freeland commented about, and it is a good one-easily relocated and adjustable. I've actually done a little more investigating and found that somehow (probably due to my own incompetence with things like this) the split screen option that should show 2d, DI and structure had been adjusted to show only a very small slice of downscan. Since I don't have sidescan (structure) capability I had been ignoring this screen option. Once I figured this out I adjusted it to show 2d on the left half screen, DI on the bottom of the right side and left the sidescan as a small portion of the upper right side. As I understand it this is the best I can do as the literature states that you can't change the split options beyond the type adjustment I just described. Too bad as I would benefit from eliminating the sidescan for now. Wonder why they didn't include the options of 2d/DI and DI by itself? Now all I need is some time to try this out to see if I can get a better interpretation of things. No one commented on how water clarity might affect what I see on the screen. Also, since I'm fishing water 5'-15', deep will sidescan be of a significant help?

I don't think that is correct. You can configure your screen to any number of views. As I am still learning DI images, I put the DI on top and the 2D right under it so I can see one over the other just as they appear. To me that is easier to compare than side by side. This is one example of a screen shot. Since I took this shot, I have reconfigured the overlay data, temp, speed, etc. so they align better on the screen, You can adjust the size of the digits also.