Humminbird 597ci HD DI Combo PROBLEMS

Has anyone else had these problems with this unit ( Humminbird 597ci HD DI Combo)

1. electrical interferance
a. put a ground wire from skeg of trolling motor (motor guide 24 volt varible speed trolling motor) to ground wire to trolling motor battery.
b. put rubber around trolling motor housing to isolate transducer from motor housing.
c. put new power cable with interference module from humminbird in.
d. ran seperate power cables from starting battery away from any other cables to597ci HD DI Combo .
2. you cannot run a different depth finder at the same time ( my dash unit is a lowrance) in any depth without having electrical interference (lines on the screen in the 2d mode).
3. course up does not function even if you are traveling over 2 miles an hour.
4.Shallow water (3 feet or less) gives you digital readings of 1 to 600 feet.

I have to put the unit back to factory settings and turn it off and on repeatedly to restore any semblence of workability and this will only work an long as I do not adjust any other settings.

I have tried just about every setting in the unit to try to get this thing to work properly. I am getting very frustrated.

after spending a lot of money for this unit I am extremely dissapointed for a supposedly plug and play depth finder.

at this point I would not recommend this humminbird unit to anyone.

badaxed,
Are you seeing trolling motor interference or are you seeing sonar-to-sonar interference or are you seeing both?

For the trolling motor interference you need to contact the Humminbird Customer resource folks again.

For sonar-to-sonar interference you need to try turning on and up the Noise Filter menu. If that does not help enough than your need to try selecting a Lower Range menu setting that is different than what the unit automatically selects. I think that the Lowrance unit has a ping rate adjustment or something that may help as well.

For the shallow water depth reading problem this could be tied in with either trolling motor interference or the sonar-to-sonar interference. If this is being caused by neither of these than try using both Beam select menu settings and see which give you the better readings.
Try adjusting the Surface Clutter menu.
As a last resort try setting the Water Type menu to the Salt (Deep) setting. Yes I know that sounds strange but it changes the algorithms used and may be a temporary fix that you can use.

Greg: I tried all of those settings including the ping, clutter different water types and noise filter. Tried different beams. the depth would go haywire in both sonar and di. I turned off everything in my boat (including my lowerance 522c) The digital depth still went haywire. if you went over a drop off from 10 to 20 feet (nothing else on) the depth would read anywhere from 1 to 600 feet. sometimes i would just get solid colored lines (bars) across the screen in addition to the digital depth reading like a slot machine. I had to power down the unit then back on to get it back. now that will not do it either. if you went shallower than 3 feet it would do the same thing. a few times i would restore to factory settings just to get the depth to work at all. now that does not help either. I could "never" get the gps to go course up. After contacting humminbird they told me to send it in. Sent it in today. hope that fixes the problems.

i had the shallow water dept fixed when i changed the surface clutter.it works great in as little as 1.5 feet. i run both my humminbirds at the same time,no interference. i also have a lowrance unit.i do not remember if i have run it while my 597 is runnig.next time i go out i will try it.as far as the rf noise gos from trolling motor, i only have a little on the 800khz.when i speed up to maybe three quarter speed or faster then i have no noise at all on the 800khz. i do remember that i can run my lowrance with my 997 with no interference.i will check for you when i get the time .good luck

Did you fellers know that 800kHz is the third harmonic of 200kHz? Yep. Wonder why they chose that 800K number?

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Originally Posted by Humminbird_Greg

badaxed,
Are you seeing trolling motor interference or are you seeing sonar-to-sonar interference or are you seeing both?

For the trolling motor interference you need to contact the Humminbird Customer resource folks again.

For sonar-to-sonar interference you need to try turning on and up the Noise Filter menu. If that does not help enough than your need to try selecting a Lower Range menu setting that is different than what the unit automatically selects. I think that the Lowrance unit has a ping rate adjustment or something that may help as well.

For the shallow water depth reading problem this could be tied in with either trolling motor interference or the sonar-to-sonar interference. If this is being caused by neither of these than try using both Beam select menu settings and see which give you the better readings.
Try adjusting the Surface Clutter menu.
As a last resort try setting the Water Type menu to the Salt (Deep) setting. Yes I know that sounds strange but it changes the algorithms used and may be a temporary fix that you can use.

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I like these words.Thumbs UpThumbs Up

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Originally Posted by badaxed

Has anyone else had these problems with this unit ( Humminbird 597ci HD DI Combo)

1. electrical interferance
a. put a ground wire from skeg of trolling motor (motor guide 24 volt varible speed trolling motor) to ground wire to trolling motor battery.
b. put rubber around trolling motor housing to isolate transducer from motor housing.
c. put new power cable with interference module from humminbird in.
d. ran seperate power cables from starting battery away from any other cables to597ci HD DI Combo .
2. you cannot run a different depth finder at the same time ( my dash unit is a lowrance) in any depth without having electrical interference (lines on the screen in the 2d mode).
3. course up does not function even if you are traveling over 2 miles an hour.
4.Shallow water (3 feet or less) gives you digital readings of 1 to 600 feet.

I have to put the unit back to factory settings and turn it off and on repeatedly to restore any semblence of workability and this will only work an long as I do not adjust any other settings.

I have tried just about every setting in the unit to try to get this thing to work properly. I am getting very frustrated.

after spending a lot of money for this unit I am extremely dissapointed for a supposedly plug and play depth finder.

at this point I would not recommend this humminbird unit to anyone.

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i think that you have the same trolling motor that i have.send pictures of your transducer setup, we will see what we have different.heres a picture of shallow water, ive gone even shallower than this with no problem. i think here i went to 2.5 feet. i no that this is just a picture not a video of the hole time in the shallow water,but please beleive me it does work and we can get yours to work to unless theres something else wrong unit

i think that you are using your trolling motor battery. im using my outboard motor battery

I am using my starting battery. I have a 24 volt system for my motor guide with two other seperate batteries.

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Originally Posted by kosmo

i think that you are using your trolling motor battery. im using my outboard motor battery

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Do you think my trolling motor causes a harmonic imbalance in the 597?

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

Did you fellers know that 800kHz is the third harmonic of 200kHz? Yep. Wonder why they chose that 800K number?

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Exactly when does the interference appear on the screen? When the TM "go" button is pushed? Or when the Lowrance is turned on?. If the Lowrance is on 200kHz and the HB 2d Is on 200 kHz, there can be interference. If you adjust the ping speed of either unit, sometimes this will clear the "shadow frequency" noises.

What model TM do you have? What is your sensitivity set on? Do you have any program filters turned on?

Do you have a tin boat?

I have a 24 volt motor guide varible speed trolling motor. If it were only as simple as another unit turned on or just a trolling motor button. This unit's digital depth goes haywire with nothing else on and not using the trolling motor. Just a change of depth sometimes causes the units digital depth to start panicking and go from 1 to 600 feet. I first used this in truman lake and for a period the depth would read 5 feet deeper than it was constantly. I turned my lowerance off to see if it could be corrected and that did not work.
I read this forum daily and tried many if not every setting the unit has and became very frustrated.
The last straw was on monday. I was fishing in 8-9 feet of water (constant). Nothing else on my boat was running. did not use the trolling motor (drifting with the wind). was in factory settings and the digital depth went from 1.5 to 900 feet and everthing in between. Rebooted twice. Same results. At that point I suspected an evil spirit had taken up residence behind the donut of my humminbird. Called humminbird and they told me to send in everything including the tranducer. Hope it gets fixed. Am lost without a trolling motor up front when crappie fishing. Funny I never had this much trouble with all of the other lowerance units i have had. If the lowerance causes the humminbird to have problems, why doesn't the humminbird cause the lowerance to have problems?

Well, I would say you did the right thing. I have worked with electronics for over 50 years. I don't understand all I know. That is why they call it electronic theory. We make assumptions and guesses when applying theory. Oh, and don't forget algorithms.

HB will fix it I am sure. Good luck.

good luck .wish we could have helped more

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

I like these words.Thumbs UpThumbs Up

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i still do not understand,even after reading the def.Algorithm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:confused:

i have a 596c hd di thats doing the same thing i have called them 3 times they sent me a pc11 power cable said that will fix it WRONG . had to reset 9 times today i wiil call again monday and tell them what they can do with this high price junk they sold me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by kosmo

i still do not understand,even after reading the def.Algorithm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:confused:

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Try this example.

Algorithm - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

thanks , i can understand that.theres more than one way to solve a problem,but with the same end result,right?

now i might still be on the wrong page,cane pole but bare with me.this is what i think you are meaning.the people that right the code for the software need to change some of the ingredients in recipe in the software to get the desired result:confused:

What gauge wire are you running from the sonar to the battery, if it is to small a gauge it could cause this, I know , I tried 2 sonars before I figured it out.

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Originally Posted by kosmo

now i might still be on the wrong page,cane pole but bare with me.this is what i think you are meaning.the people that right the code for the software need to change some of the ingredients in recipe in the software to get the desired result:confused:

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Yes. You can say that.

I am using an 18 gauge wire. What gauge wire do you use?

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Originally Posted by quikcarl61

What gauge wire are you running from the sonar to the battery, if it is to small a gauge it could cause this, I know , I tried 2 sonars before I figured it out.

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We ended up running 12 or 14, you have a lot of current loss when you run long lengths of small wire, don't use anything smaller than 16 if its only about 10 to 12 feet, go up to 14 if its longer than this, I think this should help your problem, let me know how it works. Oh by the way my boat is 18.5 feet long so thats why we use 12.

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Originally Posted by badaxed

I have a 24 volt motor guide varible speed trolling motor. If it were only as simple as another unit turned on or just a trolling motor button. This unit's digital depth goes haywire with nothing else on and not using the trolling motor. Just a change of depth sometimes causes the units digital depth to start panicking and go from 1 to 600 feet. I first used this in truman lake and for a period the depth would read 5 feet deeper than it was constantly. I turned my lowerance off to see if it could be corrected and that did not work.
I read this forum daily and tried many if not every setting the unit has and became very frustrated.
The last straw was on monday. I was fishing in 8-9 feet of water (constant). Nothing else on my boat was running. did not use the trolling motor (drifting with the wind). was in factory settings and the digital depth went from 1.5 to 900 feet and everthing in between. Rebooted twice. Same results. At that point I suspected an evil spirit had taken up residence behind the donut of my humminbird. Called humminbird and they told me to send in everything including the tranducer. Hope it gets fixed. Am lost without a trolling motor up front when crappie fishing. Funny I never had this much trouble with all of the other lowerance units i have had. If the lowerance causes the humminbird to have problems, why doesn't the humminbird cause the lowerance to have problems?

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We have to remember that these newer high tech gadgets are more sensitive than models of "yore"...

Processors are fasters...xducers are more sensitive....these are mini computers....

I feel that RF interference submission techniques have not kept up with sonar capability gains in the sonar electronics field....(although some techniques are helping)....

That being said....in a nutshell....these higher end electronics ae just finikier than models of years past...and it's not a matter of HB or Low or whatever brand X...

So we can't really compare these units with what we are all used to from the past....

The end result will be worth the trouble....

Unfortunatley RF happens...(sometimes)...

Rickie

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Originally Posted by kosmo

i had the shallow water dept fixed when i changed the surface clutter.it works great in as little as 1.5 feet. i run both my humminbirds at the same time,no interference. i also have a lowrance unit.i do not remember if i have run it while my 597 is runnig.next time i go out i will try it.as far as the rf noise gos from trolling motor, i only have a little on the 800khz.when i speed up to maybe three quarter speed or faster then i have no noise at all on the 800khz. i do remember that i can run my lowrance with my 997 with no interference.i will check for you when i get the time .good luck

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ok i tryed running the 597 with the lowrance running. i did get interference on the 200khz that they both were pinging.

ordered 212 gauge marine wire. still waiting for unit to come back from humminbird. called them and they said my transducer was bad.

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Originally Posted by quikcarl61

We ended up running 12 or 14, you have a lot of current loss when you run long lengths of small wire, don't use anything smaller than 16 if its only about 10 to 12 feet, go up to 14 if its longer than this, I think this should help your problem, let me know how it works. Oh by the way my boat is 18.5 feet long so thats why we use 12.

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mean 12 gauge not 212.

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Originally Posted by badaxed

ordered 212 gauge marine wire. still waiting for unit to come back from humminbird. called them and they said my transducer was bad.

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iam having a problem with mine , the background is blue. how can i get it back the way it was

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Originally Posted by fedexlady

iam having a problem with mine , the background is blue. how can i get it back the way it was

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fedexlady... You might get better results with your query by starting a new thread with your topic questions...

Sometimes "new" questions down in the "body" of another thread get lost and dont garner the attention they should...

Even tho your question pertains to the same unit of discussion...your new thread would put your question as the leading question in the topic to discuss...

Plenty of people here will be willing to help...

Rickie

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Originally Posted by fedexlady

iam having a problem with mine , the background is blue. how can i get it back the way it was

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menu/menu then right curser over to setup.down curser to restore defaults.not at home right now but that seems right.ill check back tonight when i get home

Or you coukd press power button breifly.there will be option to change background color.good luck