997...need troubleshooting

Ok. I got my new boat today installed with a 787 up front and a 997 back at the helm. Went out drive around and play iit. So i turn it on and get a pretty darned good picture. I went over to an area where known trees were and they showed up great. As I continued to drive around I noticed a distinct continuous line just to the left of center in the water column. I tried everything to eliminate it...but nothing worked. Then as I drove around more the water column itself began to get what i would call interference in it. It was no longer black....but has static everywhere within in.....the whole screen and water columnn just had a "snowy" appearance. I switched over to traditional sonar and it was full of interference which confirmed to me why the water column had so much interference in it. The pictures below illustrate this..i took them with my digital camera so you guys could see. I thought maybe it was getting interference from the 787 up front...but it was turned off. No other electronics were turned on in the boat. I dont think its an air bubble problem either..as it looked the same moving as it did when I stopped dead in the water. The only thing I can think of is the battery may not be at full charge which explains the better picture initially and then deteriorating as i drove around. The other picture below shows what I got when I tried to expand to 220 feet. This was out in the middle of the lake where its basically all the same depth..yet about halfway out the picture just goes black. What do you think?? I am stumped!

CP --go to yahoo-click groups--type in sideimaging and thats the best site ---all side imaging and several people from HB are on there a lot--I,m sure you will get some help there

Theres alot of good help here also.They may just be busy at moment.When they see this they will help you all they can.Theres Tom & 3-4 from the Va board who are electronic geeks....I mean freaks :D Just give them time they will pop up here.

I think he already has a post on the users group. They may not have got to it yet.
WarrenMN

I did post it in the users group at yahoo. Greg did responde with a few questions and would like some pictures. Im going to try and get them to him this evening.

CarpPoop,
Try this site.http://www.xumba.scholleco.com/index.php

Carp, Greg and Mark are the best for info but I wonder if you mind if I ask a couple questions, just out of curiosity.
WarrenMN

Warren...by all means ask anything you like. Using you all as a sounding board gives me a much better chance at solving this. Just send me a PM or post here. Carp.

Post here,:D:D

When ever I post some thing, its things I'd look at. Did you pull the connector off and put it back on, making sure it was snug? Just thinking if vibration wiggled it loose. It looks like some thing was physically changing on your transducer or cable.
I'll wait to ask another.

Warren

Warren. I did not try that. It would explain why I got images I expected at first...but after driving around they faded to what you see above. Its worth a try. I am going to go again tommorrow so I will reconnect the unit. There is a screw that snugs the "bus" up to the unit in back. Perhaps I did not have it all the way screwed in. I will post back here tommorrow evening on the result. Thanks for that question...didnt think of that one.

What strikes me as odd is what ever it was, it affected all "3" beams at the same time and increasing degree, left si, right si and vertical. This going to be one of my WAG's but I'd take a rag with and check see oil or some thing got on the transducer.
If you know you had the screw down tight on that connector I'd doubt that it would have wiggled loose, but never know.

OK....the unit performed much better today. I dont know why? I dont know what changed. The only 2 things that happened since it was screwed up the other night was I replugged it in...and I gave the battery the usual charge. At any rate..the water column looked alot better today and the sonar was cleaned up without that mess in the picture I posted. This is one addictive tool. I found myself wanting to drive around more than fish! Warren...do you prefer the blue, green, or brown setting for color? I kind of like brown. Also, how do i master chart speed vs. boat speed?

I like the brown, but I think if it was bright out I might switch to the blue or gray to try seeing it better. I don't have that problem because I have a cabinet on a swivel on the floor of the boat to hold laptop, a high end GPS and a hood on top that protects the sonar.
On chart speed, a quick starting point is scroll speed number equal to the boat speed. Then adjust so things look proportionate in the XY from there. The scroll speed that way might be a bit low, but try it.
Pictures remind me I need to paint the floor and cabinet again.

WarrenMN

One thing I forgot to mention on how fast to run scroll is that how wide your viewing to the sides or just one side will change all the variables. If you find a good number, then cut down the sides to half as far or change it to one side, your enlarging the area in window in the direction perpendicular to the path of the boat. This is some thing I'll have to play with when I can get out on the water but what in effect I think its going to do is make the ratio of the distance the boat travels to the distance out to the sides different. WAG here, I'm thinking it might make it look like you halved the scroll speed.
People having problems with this concept, don't get worried. What it boils down to is, I think you might want to try different scrolls if you shorten the sides or go with only one. My new motto for the side scans, see it, fish it, way point it. If you see some thing different on the bottom put the cursor on it and move to it and fish it, if nothing else hit the way point button for later. Don't pull your hair out if you can't tell what it is, the fish don't care either. I have no clue what this was in this image, I just know when I ran over it with the vertical sonar it showed crappies stacked up over it.
WarrenMN