New 899 Humminbird user here with lots of questions

So I have a 899 Humminbird that I just purchased used from a fellow member. I was able to take it out once fishing and the side imaging, down imaging, etc... all looked great, so I think the installation went well. I was fishing a crappie tournament so I didn't want to take too much time fiddling around with settings, but what little I messed with the unit I realized I had a lot of questions. Hopefully it's ok to ask them all in one thread. I lost the manual already, so i'm flying blind a bit.

1. I haven't had any luck moving my waypoints out of my handheld garmin into humminbird just yet. I was able to export out of Garmin's Mapsource software as a .gpx file. I have downloaded HumminbirdPC and am able to upload Garmin's .gpx file. As far as I can tell I have the .gpx file uploaded to the sd card ok. I can't seem to find any settings on the Humminbird unit to pull in the data with the card installed, or is it supposed to be automatic.
2. How do I get the information bar that's on the left side showing depth, speed, etc... to be on the bottom of the screen? I have seen screenshots of that information at the bottom and I think that's where I would prefer it.
3. When I first arrived on the lake I didn't have any sonar readings, it was completely blank. I was messing with the settings and and I believe I changed the side imaging from the hi def transducer to standard or something like that. Then the sonar 2d readings started coming in ok. Now the unit does have the hi def transducer. Does that transducer not support standard sonar?
4. I see people talk about recording with their unit then going home and reviewing. Are you recording the whole entire time, or just recording interesting things that you see? I have a fairly large sd card, I'm just trying to get a handle on how much I can record until it's full. I wish I would have had it turned on, there was several interesting things I wish I could go back and review.
5. I saw there was some basic topo information on the lake that I was fishing, I guess I wasn't expecting that. What maps are recommended to purchase for this unit?
6. If you have a map card installed in the unit are you able to review your data at home with all of the information from that map card. That would be very helpful if so.

Thanks for all your help.

Hey tater140, If you go to Hummingbird website, you can download a manual. Go to the support pulldown. Good luck.

For #2, you might just have to get used to having the readouts on the left.


I use a Lakemaster card in mine, and it seems pretty good. Have not seen any Navionics

Try putting the SD card(with gpx files) in when the unit is up and running. It will see the card and prompt you to load the files to the unit.

I lost the manual already, so i'm flying blind a bit.

Here is your manual ...
http://www.humminbird.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=3146
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1. I haven't had any luck moving my waypoints out of my handheld garmin into humminbird just yet. I was able to export out of Garmin's Mapsource software as a .gpx file. I have downloaded HumminbirdPC and am able to upload Garmin's .gpx file. As far as I can tell I have the .gpx file uploaded to the sd card ok. I can't seem to find any settings on the Humminbird unit to pull in the data with the card installed, or is it supposed to be automatic.

Like vic mentioned ... with the unit booted up, insert the SD Card ... The unit should give you a popup that asks if you want to import the NAV data ... If it still doesn't... post back for diagnosing why the NAV data didn't load from HBPC to the SD Card ...
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2. How do I get the information bar that's on the left side showing depth, speed, etc... to be on the bottom of the screen?

Also like vic mentioned ... the readout boxes cannot be moved ... Some can be shut off ... If you need info for this, post back ...
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I have seen screenshots of that information at the bottom and I think that's where I would prefer it.

Readouts at the bottom would have been screenshots from an 1100 series unit ...
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3. When I first arrived on the lake I didn't have any sonar readings, it was completely blank. I was messing with the settings and and I believe I changed the side imaging from the hi def transducer to standard or something like that. Then the sonar 2d readings started coming in ok. Now the unit does have the hi def transducer. Does that transducer not support standard sonar?

All of the "Transducer Select" menu choices include the 2d sonar transmitter ...the correct Transducer Select menu choices are ...:
*Sidescan - when the stock XNT 9 SI 180 T is connected ...
*Hi Def Sidescan - when the upgrade XHS 9 HDSI 180 T is connected ...

If your sonar screen was blank at any time during Normal Operation- your xducer may have a bad connection where the xducer cable plugs into the unit ... Are the 2d views working now ...or is there still an issue with blank views ...
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4. I see people talk about recording with their unit then going home and reviewing. Are you recording the whole entire time, or just recording interesting things that you see? I have a fairly large sd card, I'm just trying to get a handle on how much I can record until it's full. I wish I would have had it turned on, there was several interesting things I wish I could go back and review.

It is recommended to keep recordings to 30 minutes or less ...even if this means stopping the recording and immediately starting another recording ...
The advantage in this is file management for you to keep different "sections" of your lake manageable for later review ...
And longer recordings take longer to load into Humviewer when you get ready to venture into Humviewer ...
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15. I saw there was some basic topo information on the lake that I was fishing, I guess I wasn't expecting that.

Your 899 provide contours for 3000 lakes with the included Contour XD maps ... Your lakes may or may not be included in this 3000 lake list ...

What maps are recommended to purchase for this unit?

HB core units can use LakeMaster and Navionics mapping ...the LakeMaster versions allows extra menu settings for map customization ...
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6. If you have a map card installed in the unit are you able to review your data at home with all of the information from that map card. That would be very helpful if so.

Yes ... To start the unit in Simulator ...:
*Press the Menu button at the HB loading a screen ...
*Choose Simulator from the 3 choices in the popup ...

The Simulator is a recording that is hard coded into the unit memory ...
You can change views, settings and even record the Simulator ...

When you start the Simulator, your boat icon position will most likely default to Lake Lanier ...

To set the Simulator boat position to your lake ...::
*Zoom out on the chart view (the - button) until you see your lake's general area in the Unite States ...
*Activate the 4way cursor and move the crosshairs to your lake ...
*Zoom in on the chart view (the + button) ...
*Press Menu twice to enter the main tabbed menu system ...
*Cursor over to the Chart tab ...
*Cursor down to "Set Simulator Position" ...
*Cursor right to activate the "Set Simulator Position" ...

Now every time you power on the unit into the simulator, the map will default to your lake instead of Lake Lanier ...
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Rickie

Thanks for all the great feedback so far. I will play around a bit with the unit in the next couple of days and see what I can come up with.