Humminbird iceducer discussion

I have a ton of questions regarding transducers, specifically the humminbird iceducer. So i ice fish a lot and contrary to most people that use traditional vexilar's etc...i have used the humminbird 345 ci with great success for about 5 years now. The unit came with the 60 and 20 degree ice transducer.
One of the problems almost everyone has when fishing in a group of fisherman is interference. I have specifically struggled when fishing beside marcum lx-1 and older vexilar fl-8's. I either cant pick up the jig on my screen or get a lot of distortion and cant see fish or my jig. I almost exclusively fish with he 20 degree cone because the 60 degree picks up so much that the readout is unusable even when not around other fisherman.
Most of my fishing is done in 10-25 Fow. I have played with the filter settings with not much success.
I recently bought a hbird 899 unit and am thinking about building a box for it, incorporating an external battery, and using it as an ice unit as well. Would the processing part of the finder work any better or worse then my 345 unit given the same transducer is used? I am assuming i would put the 899 into jigging mode and it would function like my 345?
I saw hbird makes a 9 and 19 degree transducer as well. If i used the 9 degree setting would i then potentially experience less interference all the while knowing i am seeing less of the bottom under me?

Would there be any advantage to me rigging up my hdsi boat transducer on a stick and using it under the ice? Does side imaging work correctly with the ducer holding still? Im specifically thinking of being able to go out on erie on the ice and look 100' circle around me, see a walleye and go over and drill a hole on top of him and catch him with traditional jigging mode? Maybe a pipe dream but it doesnt hurt to think outside of the box. It would also be cool to be able to sidescan schools of pan fish under the ice. I have reached under the ice and " shined" my transducer around in a circle to see schools of fish maybe 15' away, but hat is about as far as it works, And it makes your hands cold.

Its a lot of questions i know, but i had to just lay it all out there.

MAY NEED TO TALK TO VIC ON THIS BOARD

Back around software version 6.500 (in the HB SI units) ... HB changed the ping sequence to give priority to the SI imaging (at the detriment to the 2d) ...

We now have "Jigging Mode" (in the HB SI units) to select the "pre-6.500" ping sequence ...which then gives priority to the 2d (at the detriment of the SI) ...

I would assume the 899 would perform somewhat better than the 345 ... Simply because of a more expensive and better processor ...

I would also assume that the noise filtering in the 899 could be more effective (also because of the better processor) ...

The XI 9 19 will not work correctly on the 899 nor the 345 because neither of these 2 head units can transmit the 455kHz/240kHz 2d frequencies that the XI 9 19 vibrates at ...
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I have read of some guys using the SI xducer under the ice and slowly scanning in a circle ...

The challenge in this is being able to scan in a circle smoothly ...and trying to interpret what the SI image display is showing ....

The SI image format displayed cannot be changed to display a circle ... The image will still be a "left SI" and "right SI" scrolling top to bottom ...
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Like Gene mentions ...Vik has done some experiments with this idea ...maybe he will post soon ...

Rickie

You can think about getting a HB DI unit ...

These DI units can transmit 455kHz 16°/200kHz 25° (in the 2d frequencies) ...

Setting the 2d to transmit the 455kHz frequency would get you on a different frequency than the other close by units to help eliminate crosstalk ...

Rickie

Thanks for all of the feedback.
if I'm not mistaken the research I have done Vexilar transmits at a 200 khz frequency. Right now i'm mostly leaning towards building a portable box of sorts to mount the 899 to and be able to try it a bit this winter. To take another side imaging transducer out on a stick and rotate it starts to sound like more work then i'm in for, but there is always thoughts that if it did work how cool would that be.
In the meantime I may just try to plug in my 60/20 ice transducer and dangle it over the side of the boat and play around with jigging mode a bit. I do have times where buddy's bring their vexilar's on my boat when we do vertical jigging. I could then try out the different jigging settings on the 899 as well as the ability to filter out the junk. Are the filter settings the same on the 899 as my 345? To be honest the depth of some of the 899 menu's and all the settings have me baffled at times, but i'm starting to learn them.
One other question I have is when i turn my 899 unit on I get no reading out of the 2d. I have to manually go select some other transducer other then the hdsi one and then go back and re-select the hdsi transducer then the 2d image magically comes on. I have never understood why it does that.

Humminbird | XI 9 20 Is this the ice ducer you will be using ? If so you kinda have to trick the 899 into using the ice ducer. Sine the transducer menu doesn't list the ice ducer. Select the quad beam option or the universal 200/83 option.

To do this hook ice ducer up your 899. When you start 899 up select from menu normal start. Then go to sonar menu to make the transducer selection. If the 899 goes into auto start it may not see transducer and go into simulation mode. If my directions are confusing go to Humminbirds page and they have excellent write up how to do it.

Another caution your 899 draws a little more power than machines that are designed for this. Make sure your battery is at least 9AH rated or higher. I have used the bigger birds 800 and 900 series on the ice with good results.

Forgot to add don't bother trying to use the regular HDSI ducer on the ice. Without a lot of elaboarte reconfiguration and bother engineering it just isn't worth it. Been down this road myself.

Just to add a few things to hays' good info above ...

Upon power up the HB unit sends a signal to the temp probe to detect if a xducer is attached or not ...if the signal does not detect a temp probe - the unit boots into Demonstration Mode ...

Here are instructions to start the unit with the XI 9 20 (which doesn't have the temp probe) ...(and which hays explained pretty well above) ...
http://www.humminbird.com/Category/S...not-connected/

Rickie

There are several filters available in the HB units ...
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http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...pslknocop5.png

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...psxldwo3ju.png

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...psvxzmngot.png

Even the Sensitivity settings are basically filters ...which adjust how many echo returns are shown on the display ...

Rickie

Your issue with no depth reading at startup could be the xducer is not level with the water surface ...

Or maybe the unit just hasn't found definite bottom yet ...

If you just wait ...without changing the Transducer Select menu ...will the depth reading eventually come in ...??

Rickie

"Humminbird | XI 9 20 Is this the ice ducer you will be using ?" Yes I believe that is the transducer I already own that came with my 345 ci, although I can't tell for sure as I can't find any numbers on the ducer. So, if I understand correctly my only option for an iceducer on either the 899, 345, and now 385 would be the XI 9 20?

I am going out again tonight and will try to wait and see if the no 2d reading will come on after a while if i wait. It seems I have waited a few minutes with nothing coming in. By not level with the water surface are you referring to left/right or front/back of the boat? Left/right on my boat could change somewhat drastically pending where I stand in the boat. Would a picture of the installed ducer help? I just eyeballed it when screwing it onto the back, but it looks level to the eye. The 2d functions fine after I select a different transducer then come back to the correct one.

Yes, I like my Humm 385ci DI for icefishing and look forward for winter :) :

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/side-...enting-17.html

It is better to spend a couple of minutes first and see what is going on 50-100' around under ice in scaning mode, and then to fish in 2D mode.

Now I am going to buy Helix 7 DI and to use it with SI transducer or with two DI transducers - the width of its sceen will alow to see both scaned sides in 2D and DI window. They added four more pallets and black background to 2D window - this is exactly what I wonted, now I will be able to see both SI sides in vertical DI format - bottom is down.
I will certainly inform you of that :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tater140

"Humminbird | XI 9 20 Is this the ice ducer you will be using ?" Yes I believe that is the transducer I already own that came with my 345 ci, although I can't tell for sure as I can't find any numbers on the ducer ...So, if I understand correctly my only option for an iceducer on either the 899, 345, and now 385 would be the XI 9 20? Correct the XI 9 19 would not work effectively because of different transmit frequencies

I am going out again tonight and will try to wait and see if the no 2d reading will come on after a while if i wait. It seems I have waited a few minutes with nothing coming in. By not level with the water surface are you referring to left/right or front/back of the boat? Left/right on my boat could change somewhat drastically pending where I stand in the boat. Would a picture of the installed ducer help? I just eyeballed it when screwing it onto the back, but it looks level to the eye.Yes a pic might be beneficial The 2d functions fine after I select a different transducer then come back to the correct one.I'm stumped on this one

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Rickie

Ok, so i've ordered the new xi 9 19 transducer.
I still have a problem with the 899 picking up the bottom in 2d. I tried leaving the unit on for up to 10 min's with the 2d screen staying blank. I can then go into the menu select any other transducer then flip right back to the hdsi transducer and the 2d starts working fine. Here is some pics of the transducer mounting.
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...psfsimgdjb.jpg
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...pseh49m9h5.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tater140

Ok, so i've ordered the new xi 9 19 transducer.
I still have a problem with the 899 picking up the bottom in 2d. I tried leaving the unit on for up to 10 min's with the 2d screen staying blank. I can then go into the menu select any other transducer then flip right back to the hdsi transducer and the 2d starts working fine. Here is some pics of the transducer mounting.

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I have no clue as to why switching the Transducer Select menu to another xducer and then back would get the 2d to functioning ...

Maybe a call to HB on this one ... 1-800-633-1468

Rickie

Don't know if this would help or not but worth a try. I would move your ducer as far to the right as possible further away from engine. Also would lower it slightly. I like the face of my ducer slightly below bottom of boat. Yours appears to be slightly above it. But pix can be a little deceiving.

Well i finally got around to calling hbird and they had me reset the unit back to the defaults. That fixed the problem, its picking up the 2d fine now everytime i turn it on, not sure why i didnt think about that.