898 SI Question...

First off, I must say this 898 is the best thing I have EVER bought. It is worth its weight in gold. I do however have a question. In shallow water the normal depth finder view is pretty much blacked out down to 5 feet. I have mainly fished shallow water so far but it would be nice to have this fixed. What do you think is causing it? I thought it was the trolling motor interference but it is there whether the trolling motor is on or off. HB sent me a trolling motor choke but it has little wires (maybe 12 gauge) to connect to my 6 gauge (wires ran to battery) or 10 gauge wire on trolling motor. I am not a real big fan of splicing wires to my trolling motor which could reduce my trolling time. What do yall think?

http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/t...ams/S00313.png

Also, when using side scan the right side is sometimes real dark. Esp in shallow water. I believe this is due to me sitting on the right side of the boat when driving and the boat leaning to the right side. I could adjust the transducer but then when I have a passenger it would level the boat out more. What ya think... It is worse in shallow water since the angle of the SI does can not travel far before it hits the bottom. In deep water you can hardly notice it.

http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/t...ams/S00308.png
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/t...ams/S00012.png
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/S00131-1.png

DoubleG

Turn down surface clutter in the sonar menu. Not sure what's happening in SI. Are you sure nothing on the boat is obstructing the transducer view?

Set Switchfire to clear mode to get the surface clutter to go away.

I didn't know there was a surface clutter settings. I will have to look for that. I am not sure which switchfire mode I am in.. but I believe I am in clear mode. I know I am not in max mode. I will double check them tonight.

I am pretty sure there are not obstructions. As long as my motor is not trimmed all the way down there should be no obstructions to the side. The transducer is mounted on the left side of the boat (if facing the back of the boat looking at the motor). I have an old transducer already mounted on the right side of the boat. I don't think it is in the way.

Here is another picture that does not show the dark image on the right:
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/S00250-1.png

DoubleG

You might try removing the old transducer just as a test. In that pic you just posted it looks like there is a fairly solid line in the clutter in the water column. That's probably the transducer. When in shallow water, the line of sight of the transducer more parallel to the water surface comes more into play in gathering the data for the image. Looks like you're in clear mode to me just judging from what I see on my unit. Surface clutter default is 5 so turning it down should clear up the 2d sonar. You're images look pretty well noise free to me.

Thanks TN... You know.. Come to think of it more. That transducer might be in the way. It is not in the way when the boat is level since I mounted the SI transducer lower than the old transducer. But... I didn't mount it that much lower. With my big rear end on the right side of the boat, that is problem enough lean to make them parallel or the old transducer might even be lower than the SI when it is just me in the boat. My boat is aluminum so it leans to one side more drastically than a glass boat.

When you turn the surface clutter down, does that just affect the surface? It won't mess up my SI will it? I got that baby fine tuned right now and just want to make sure it won't change it.

DoubleG

Surface clutter setting won't affect SI. As far as I can tell from my experience it might reduce the 2d sonar sensitivity by a bit but not enough to matter to me. Good luck.

Try sitting in the center of the boat and see what you get.

Thanks TN

Yeah it gets much better when I either have a passenger in the boat or sit in the middle or to the left side of the boat. So I believe the boat leaning to the right and the old transducer might be my problem. I will experiment a little more.

Anybody else have trouble like the first picture? I hope turning down the surface clutter will fix that.

DoubleG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DoubleGobble00

Thanks TN... You know.. Come to think of it more. That transducer might be in the way. It is not in the way when the boat is level since I mounted the SI transducer lower than the old transducer. But... I didn't mount it that much lower. With my big rear end on the right side of the boat, that is problem enough lean to make them parallel or the old transducer might even be lower than the SI when it is just me in the boat. My boat is aluminum so it leans to one side more drastically than a glass boat.

When you turn the surface clutter down, does that just affect the surface? It won't mess up my SI will it? I got that baby fine tuned right now and just want to make sure it won't change it.

DoubleG

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Since both transducers are fixed, when the boat tilts or leans it wont change the relationship the ducers have to each other. In others words if it can see past the original transducer when the boat is level, then it can see past it when the boat leans.

Your right.. Not sure what I was thinking... Ahh.. One of those days. The angle to the ground would be steeper. In other words the SI transducer would not be level with the water surface when I am sitting on one side. I guess I need to tilt it a little to make sure it is parallel with say... the water mark on my boat after a day of just me riding around. That would work but then it might hit the old transducer since the angle has changed. Also, when my fishing partner would be with me, I would need to adjust the angle of the transducer again... I might can find an adjustment that would get it to work just right for both situations. I will try and see. It is not that big a deal.

DoubleG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Allan

Since both transducers are fixed, when the boat tilts or leans it wont change the relationship the ducers have to each other. In others words if it can see past the original transducer when the boat is level, then it can see past it when the boat leans.

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I thought you might be right on this one but the more I think about it It can block the view. As the boat leans one TD gets a lot higher or lower than the other. I guess it all depends on the view of the TD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wilbur

I thought you might be right on this one but the more I think about it It can block the view. As the boat leans one TD gets a lot higher or lower than the other. I guess it all depends on the view of the TD

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I am right on this one. If its not obstructed level then it wont be obstucted leaning. It wont see out as far, to one side or the other but it will still see past the other TD.

I think if DG gets rid of the old ducer he'll see a big improvement. Won't cost anything to try.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Allan

I am right on this one. If its not obstructed level then it wont be obstucted leaning. It wont see out as far, to one side or the other but it will still see past the other TD.

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Sorry Allan dont know what I was thinking. Too many Miller Lites I guess.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wilbur

Sorry Allan dont know what I was thinking. Too many Miller Lites I guess.

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Thats a good reason, and perfectly undestandable. At least it wasn't some flimsy excuse! lol

Allan is right on this: the relationship of the two transducers does not change and neither does the direction of the Si beam change as it relates to the other transducer. Still, that second transducer could be part of what is blocking part of the Si sonar to that side. If you look at the pictures that show the Si sonar there are vertical lines that parallel the zero/surface line. This usually means that something is reflecting a part of the Si sonar. The Si beams radiate outwards, downwards and a bit upwards, so it could be the second transducer even though it is slightly higher than the Si transducer is (when the boat is level).

I would check the SwitchFire menu setting, try adjusting the Surface Clutter menu and also see what the Beam Select menu setting is on. It looks like it may be showing the 83kHz sonar. I would try the 200kHz setting.

Thanks for the help... The surface clutter setting helped the first problem drastically... but it also seemed to soften up the bottom hardness return. I will have to mess with it a little more.

As for as the SI goes.. I plan to remove the other sonar to see if that helps. I don't use it anymore anyway....

DoubleG

Turn up the sensitivity on the 2d sonar to firm up the bottom return.

Thanks TN.. I will give that a try!