Got my 997 yesterday!! Got two ??

[laserdoc]

997 came yesterday,was able to sneak it from the front door past the wife downstaries to the man cave to un pack it.
My 797 came with the GPS inside. The 997 came with the puck. Where is the best location to mount that puck or does it matter?.
Figure I will stick the old 797 up front on the trolling motor and sale my eagle thats up there know.
I had upgraded last year to that bigger transducer the 180HD something,something to see if I got a better pic on the 797 . A little bit of a change but not much. It seems to be the same transducer that came with the 997 in the box,so one less thing to mount and run a power to the base unit. I will use the same power cord and transducer for my 997 that I had my 797 hooked to since they are run to the location I want to mount the 997.

The biggest problem I have always had was my 797 would loose bottom lock while I was running the lake. I have readjusted the transducer until I was blue in the face but never could get it to stay locked on bottom.
Will the 997 lock onto the bottom better??

If I stick my old 797 upfront on the trolling motor which transducer setup should I get for the the 797 on the trolling motor. Or should I use the 180HD one that came with the 997 and get a trolling motor mount from HB Since I plan to leave the current 180 transducer thats already mounted to the transome for the new setup

[Shellback]

Losing bottom at speed seems to haunt me also. Dang near every boat I had before the present one had the problem. This boat, a G3 V-170T with a Humminbird has never lost bottom. I don't know if I finally got lucky and hit the sweet mounting spot mounting the transducer, or it's the hull design. Sure can be frustrating. I hope you have a transducer mounting board which will allow you to move it around without affecting the boat hull.

[fished-out]

The 997 loses bottom at higher speeds (over 35 MPH) on my boat. But I knew that going in, so I also mounted a high speed transducer on the other side of the boat with an A-B transducer switch on the dash. Real easy and the high speed trans was only about $60. Can't remember what the switch cost. Use wafer board to mount the transducers, makes it easy to move the transducers around a bit without drilling additional holes in the boat.

[Wiskers]

997 came yesterday,was able to sneak it from the front door past the wife downstaries to the man cave to un pack it.
My 797 came with the GPS inside. The 997 came with the puck. Where is the best location to mount that puck or does it matter?.
Figure I will stick the old 797 up front on the trolling motor and sale my eagle thats up there know.
I had upgraded last year to that bigger transducer the 180HD something,something to see if I got a better pic on the 797 . A little bit of a change but not much. It seems to be the same transducer that came with the 997 in the box,so one less thing to mount and run a power to the base unit. I will use the same power cord and transducer for my 997 that I had my 797 hooked to since they are run to the location I want to mount the 997.

The biggest problem I have always had was my 797 would loose bottom lock while I was running the lake. I have readjusted the transducer until I was blue in the face but never could get it to stay locked on bottom.
Will the 997 lock onto the bottom better??

If I stick my old 797 upfront on the trolling motor which transducer setup should I get for the the 797 on the trolling motor. Or should I use the 180HD one that came with the 997 and get a trolling motor mount from HB Since I plan to leave the current 180 transducer thats already mounted to the transome for the new setup

Before I forget it, I don't think you'll be able to use the same power cord with the 997. I had about the same situation as you have and the power cords are a little different. The 997plug head is shorter, if I remember correctly, and the 797 plug won't fit in the 997 holder. Had to change them out.

As for loosing bottom... I bet you have a step hull don't you. I moved my transducer down on the step. I used one of those plastic mounting plates and cut it to match the step. Works great! I'll try to post a picture. My Lowe has a pretty high step. Had to move the transducer inboard closer to the center line of the boat than they recommend, but it works great. Never loses bottom and has great detail on the SI.

As for the puck. I have mine mounted right over the transducer.

[Joby @ Humminbird]

laserdoc,

I would mount the 997 gps puck as close to the transducer as possible. If I was going to move the 797 up to the front I would use the big transducer on the trolling motor.

A couple of guys mentioned that they were loosing the bottom at high speeds. One thing I would do if you had a fiberglass boat is epoxy a XP 9 20 in the hull of the boat for high speed running and also use AS SIDB Y to tie the two transducers together. I have included a picture of a aluminum boat transom with two transducers mounted to a transom saver. By doing this you can move you transducers around to find the sweet spot that you need for high speed readings. One note you can not epoxy a high spped transducer in a aluminum boat.

By using this installation you are using a high speed transducer and a side imaging transducer and also AS SIDB Y.

[RogerR]

Hi,
I have found that playing with the software revision level of the 797c has helped my bottom lock performance. I have had my unit since 2007 and it came w/ level 3.54.
Since then I updated the unit to levels 3.72, 3.94, 4.18 and the latest 4.51 (until 4.70 comes out next month). My base lake (where my cabin is located) has a problem area where the unit looses’ bottom lock over a certain area of the lake ever time I go over it at speed. Humminbird seam's to want to play w/ ping rate and (what I call) ping penetration w/ every level that comes out. It has been my on personal test of their software updates that level 3.94 performed the best over this problem area.

With level 4.51 (I think) Hummingbird added a third water type to their water type selection. The three selection are fresh, salt (shallow), and salt (deep). I currently run w/ salt (shallow), and performs pretty well over the problem area of my home lake.

Take care,

Roger

[laserdoc]

Before I forget it, I don't think you'll be able to use the same power cord with the 997. I had about the same situation as you have and the power cords are a little different. The 997plug head is shorter, if I remember correctly, and the 797 plug won't fit in the 997 holder. Had to change them out.

As for loosing bottom... I bet you have a step hull don't you. I moved my transducer down on the step. I used one of those plastic mounting plates and cut it to match the step. Works great! I'll try to post a picture. My Lowe has a pretty high step. Had to move the transducer inboard closer to the center line of the boat than they recommend, but it works great. Never loses bottom and has great detail on the SI.

As for the puck. I have mine mounted right over the transducer.

Hmmm maybe a thought. I have a alu. Duracraft with a 50 on it. I will have to try moving the transducer more center. Would be good if you could post a pic so I could see the plastic mounting plate your talking about so I can drop it down a step.
As far as power thats no biggy anyway.

Joby, what mount do you recomend to attach that 180 HD transducer to my trolling motor

[Humminbird_Greg]

Laserdoc,
The best GPS Receiver location is right over (or as close to) the transducer that the unit is using.

That would be the XHS-9-HDSi-180-T transducer and it is the same model as the one that came with your 997 unit.

The power cable for your 997 unit should be different than the one that came with the 797. It should be of a larger gauge for added current carrying capability and have an in-line filter built into it. If not, than it may be an older model 997 unit. Can you send me your serial number and I can tell you when it was built.

There should be no difference between the 797 and 997 as far as tracking the bottom at speed. It sounds like you are getting air up under the transducer. Adjusting and/or moving the transducer is your only options unless you want to install a second (2D sonar only) transducer on the transom as mentioned. This could be connected to the HDSi transducer and your 997 by either a TS2-W Transducer Switch or an AS-Si-DB-Y cable. If you want to move the HDSi transducer to another location I would get one of the transducer mounting boards that has been mentioned.

We make a trolling motor mount Compact Side Imaging (CSi) transducer for the 797 unit. It is the XTM-9-Si-180-T. We also make an AD-STM-7 adapter for that HDSi transducer to mount to the trolling motor. There are also other companies that make adapters for the Si transducers mounted on trolling motors like Scap at Transducer Shield & Saver.

[laserdoc]

Laserdoc,
The best GPS Receiver location is right over (or as close to) the transducer that the unit is using.

That would be the XHS-9-HDSi-180-T transducer and it is the same model as the one that came with your 997 unit.

The power cable for your 997 unit should be different than the one that came with the 797. It should be of a larger gauge for added current carrying capability and have an in-line filter built into it. If not, than it may be an older model 997 unit. Can you send me your serial number and I can tell you when it was built.

There should be no difference between the 797 and 997 as far as tracking the bottom at speed. It sounds like you are getting air up under the transducer. Adjusting and/or moving the transducer is your only options unless you want to install a second (2D sonar only) transducer on the transom as mentioned. This could be connected to the HDSi transducer and your 997 by either a TS2-W Transducer Switch or an AS-Si-DB-Y cable. If you want to move the HDSi transducer to another location I would get one of the transducer mounting boards that has been mentioned.

We make a trolling motor mount Compact Side Imaging (CSi) transducer for the 797 unit. It is the XTM-9-Si-180-T. We also make an AD-STM-7 adapter for that HDSi transducer to mount to the trolling motor. There are also other companies that make adapters for the Si transducers mounted on trolling motors like Scap at Transducer Shield & Saver.

Greg,
the serial number is 9101903-0030
GPS puck is a AS GR 50.
Guess I will make a run to BPS to get one of those transducer mounting boards. Seems to be a better solution than buying and extra transducer and addind a switch.
When I ordered the XHS-9-HDSi-180-T transducer for my 797 they also sent a power cable with a inline choke in it so I may already be set.
It was the interferience kit for a trolling motor setup

[Wiskers]

Here's how I had to mount my SI Transducer to maintain bottom lock on plain.