12″ g3n died.

Well, after many, many years of trouble free use with Helix locators, I finally got a bad one. Couple months out of warranty, and I got the black screen of death. Out trolling and everything was fine, turned my head to look at the rods and turned back and nothing, just a black screen. Popped my 10″ off the front and plugged it in to the 12″s power cord to trouble shoot, and 10″ fired right up. Called Humminbird while out on the water and they had me try something else but no go. Little over 400 bucks flat fee to fix. That sucks, but I had been thinking about putting a 15″ helix on the dash, so I made a call to see if I could find one. Called yesterday, showed up at my door today. Have to make a decision on what to do with the 12″ unit when I get it back. I guess a lot of times they just send you a new unit. May put the 12″ on the bow to replace the 10″ one there now, and that way if the 15″ ever has problems, I can move the 12″ back to the dash temporarily. Couldn’t believe our company store had a 15″ in stock, as the Humminbird website shows not available. Now I just need to get the SI transducer switched over.

so are you looking for someone to take the 12 off your hands??

Not at this time. Just sent the 12 off for repair, will be interesting to see if they just replace it with a new one. Am probably going to put the 12 on the bow, to replace the 10 I have there now. I virtually never use the bow unit, and because of that, just have a basic 10 there, but if I put the 12 there, and if something ever goes wrong with the 15, I can take the full featured 12 off the bow to put on the dash till the 15 is repaired. Will probably keep the 10 also incase I ever sell the boat. I’ve rough mounted the 15 to see how it fits. Redrilled a few holes to center it, and moved the top mounting plate to move it back some, but would like to have it back another 3/4″ so I can put a small foam support block between the unit and dash edge. Will take two people though, as One needs to wrench under dash, and one hold a screwdriver on top. Later when wife gets home I guess. It really has fit better than I had hoped for. Plenty of clearance to see around.

Gotta give Humminbird credit on their service. While I was hoping they would send me a new unit, looks like that will not be the case, but instead, was fixed and sent out with a one day turnaround. New circuit board, and software update. Probably took less time to fix than I waited on the phone to talk to someone.

So you looking for someone to take the 10″ off your hands? lol

Got to try out the new Helix 15 the other day. Really nice, and was really fortunate that all my waypoints were still saved on my repaired Helix 12. Really like the ability for 6 screen favorites on the 15, and the additional screen space is really great when putting 3 or 4 screen views up at once. I did turn the screen brightness down to 9 to conserve on the power draw. There was a chart on BBC that showed the Amp draw at different settings, and turning it down from 10 to 9 saves 1.3 amps of draw. Only two days of trolling with it so far, but really liking it.

Hey Ed how far out are you running your planer boards? Must be far if you need binoculars to watch them.