Humminbird 859 Trouble

[LowePro]

My depth on my Humminbird 859 DI is messing up in the 2d sonar. The image on the screen is correct, shows baitfish and fish like always, shows the bottom and had the depth lines on the screen so I know pretty close the depth. But the actual depth number is going haywire like im in a foot of water or less. It will say its anywhere from 0.9ft-71feet and constantly changing even though the bottom on my screen isnt. Its mounted on my trolling motor.


Went out this weekend again and now the image on the screen in downimaging is all whited out. Seems like I was washing out the image with too much sensitivity or enhancement. I adjusted the settings around for an hour and could get the screen to clear up some but not near enough to even see any structure on the bottom. The 2d sonor however is still working great as far as images, depth is still going haywire. I restored default settings and that didnt help. Someone please help! Unit is just 3 months old. should I just try to get it replaced?

[crappielimits]

Trolling motor interference!

[rnvinc]

Crappielimits makes a good point...

Is this "white out" happening when you step on the TM....??

Is there any other units operating on the boat at the same time...??

Rickie

[LowePro]

I didn't even think of interference. I have it on a Minn Kota Fortrex, but it has worked on there fine for 2 of the 3 months I have owned the unit. I also have a Hmminbird 899 on the back. Along with a Lowrance 5x, which I never turn on, and the transducer to that unit is just laying in the back of my boat. Its just made into my console and I didnt wanna take it out and have a huge hole in it where it is. So only 2 units on the boat that are being used is 859, and 899.

[LowePro]

I was looking at the transducer after I got off work last night, noticed about an inch long scratch on it. Its very very shallow, and doesnt look bad at all, just a slight color change on the plastic. Dont know when this happened, so dont know if unit started messing up when this happened, or if this scratch would even bother it. Just letting yaw know everything I see that could potentially be a problem.

[Humminbird_Greg]

LowePro,
Generally a scratch in the transducer housing will not cause any problems – unless the scratch was the result of the transducer hitting something.
Try and see if this digital depth problem is only happening in a certain water depth. Example: it only happens when I am in more than 10 feet of water or something like that.
Make sure that either problem is not interference form the trolling motor, your main motor or the other sonar unit.
If you know of anyone else that has a Humminbird DI model unit, try testing your unit on their boat and their unit on your boat. This will help point to where the problem is.

[LowePro]

Awesome idea. I will pay more attention to my depth when it starts going haywire. And dont know anyone that has the same unit as I around me, but I will start asking around.

[Humminbird_Greg]

It doesn't have to be the same model unit as yours LowePro, just as long as it has "DI" in the model name it should work.

By the way: what settings are you using on the Connected Transducer and Digital Depth Source menus?

[LowePro]

What is the Digital Depth Source?

[rnvinc]

What is the Digital Depth Source?

The larger HB DI units (800/900/1100 series) have a menu selection that tells the unit to derive "Digital Depth Source" from either the 2d piezo data or the DI piezo data...

It should be found under the Sonar tab...

Greg is asking which selection this "Digital Depth Source" menu setting is set to...

Rickie