MinnKota Terrova Universal Sonar + 597ci Help!

Hey All,

I have a traditional setup in the front of the boat and am having sonar problems. Whenever I kick the terrova into gear, my sonar unit goes bonkers. I know, I know – the Terrova and the sonar unit should not be hooked up the the same power source, and they are not. What’s funny is that when I kick the power on, I can hear the ducer clicking loudly. When I turn off the trolling motor, the ducer stops clicking. This of course, would be the Terrova’s built in ducer.

Previous to owning the Terrova, I had a powerdrive v2. I had the sonar unit hooked up to a ducer attached to the bottom of the trolling motor. I never had this issue. It only started when I purchased the Terrova and hooked up the universal sonar.

Are there any experts out there could get me started on what could potentially be going on?

Thanks much!
Drew

Yep just went through that with my 958 and terrova. Call humminbird and have them send you a new transducer. You will need to bypass your us2. Should work.

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Yep just went through that with my 958 and terrova. Call humminbird and have them send you a new transducer. You will need to mount it on the bottom of your minnkota. Should work.

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Did Minn Kota give you a reason for the issue? The reason I went with the universal sonar was so that I did not have to have the stupid chord running all the way up the outside of the shaft. Is this a known problem with certain sonar units?

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Oops – I thought you said contact Minn Kota. Did humminbird give a reason why US2 was not working with your unit?

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Just interference. You don need to run it out side the shaft. I took the head unit off and pulled the shaft through the base. Then you can run the cable in the groove of the shaft. Just use some epoxy to hold the cable to the shaft. Sure its not exactly what you wanted to hear.

I can take some pictures if it helps.

So all HB units have this problem with the the Terrova? Booo! I have a separate ducer I can use in the meantime, but that a little strange to me. Expecially considering that HB and Minn Kota are owned by the same company…

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I can take some pictures if it helps.

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That would be awesome!

Yep sucks doesn’t it. I’m not sure if its all units but I had the same thing on my old boat (Was a 788). Another thing is to make sure you trolling motor power cables are not running near your humminbird power cable or transducer cable. I had to make sure of this because on my flat bottom I was running all of the wires under the floor. Didn’t seem to help moving them for me but something to look at. Hook it up and test it before you install it just to make sure it clears up your problem.

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Hook it up and test it before you install it just to make sure it clears up your problem.

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Yup – took care of the problem. Yeah it certainly does suck. I will get in touch with Humminbird on Monday (or Tuesday if they are not open) to get the scoop. I find it really hard to believe that every HB unit has problems with the Terrova. Same darn compnay!!! At least I have a fix for now! Thanks much!

So its really easy. Prolly a half hour project.

Disconnect power to trolling motor.

First take the cover off of the head of the trolling motor

Next you will see where you can disconnect the power. Disconnect the red and black cables.

Then take this screw out.

After that you will need to pull the head up off of the shaft. The head will not be completely disconnected. If I remember there is a brown wire and a white (maybe) wire that won’t get disconnected.

When that is done engage your trolling motor and slide the shaft out of the base. You will need someone to help hold the lower unit when you put the transducer cable through the hole.

Next just slide the shaft back on and reinstall everything back together.

Should look something like this.

I left the U.S.2 installed just as a back up so you will see both wires in this picture. Left is U.S.2, right wire is from the standard transducer.

Worked Beautifully!

Anyone else have this issue with other units besides HB? Just wondering if this is an issue with any other units as well or just an HB issue?

My Lowrance stuff works perfectly with my terrova.

I’m running a 788 on the bow with my terrova and everything worked out of the box. I have my accessories wired to their own battery separate from my starting battery. My terrova is wired to its own isolated set of batteries.

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Anyone else have this issue with other units besides HB? Just wondering if this is an issue with any other units as well or just an HB issue?

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For what its worth I’ve never had any issue with any HB unit connected to a Terrova through universal sonar. This includes 500, 700, 900 or 1100 series graphs. I’m also not aware of any wide spread issue with interference/ etc. with these units when run through the US2.

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For what its worth I’ve never had any issue with any HB unit connected to a Terrova through universal sonar. This includes 500, 700, 900 or 1100 series graphs. I’m also not aware of any wide spread issue with interference/ etc. with these units when run through the US2.

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Maybe I have a bad ducer on the Terrova and should contact Minn Kota instead.

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Anyone else have this issue with other units besides HB? Just wondering if this is an issue with any other units as well or just an HB issue?

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For what its worth I’ve never had any issue with any HB unit connected to a Terrova through universal sonar. This includes 500, 700, 900 or 1100 series graphs. I’m also not aware of any wide spread issue with interference/ etc. with these units when run through the US2.

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I have not heard of this being a wide spread issue either, for what it’s worth.

I have seen and heard of a couple of the same issues that you have mentioned. I would not call it a wide spread issue by any means either. From the people I have talked to and the ones I have fixed, the easiest fix was to make sure you have a pc-11 power cable and not a pc-10 power cable. The pc-11 power cable will have the ball on the power cable about 12″ down from the plug in.

I would check that and try a pc-11 power cable before I ripped apart my trolling motor.

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I would check that and try a pc-11 power cable before I ripped apart my trolling motor.

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On my 1198 and 958 I used a pc- 11. Both received interference from my terrova. Another thing to check is the 3 amp fuse under the head of your terrova. Even if it’s not blown I would still change it. That’s what humminbird told me.

Change it to what?

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Change it to what?

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Just replace it with another 3 amp fuse.

For the most extreme cases of interference, there is a add on electrical choke called a TMC1 for the power cord to the trolling motor. Use this, in conjunction with a PC11 power cord to the depth finder.

They also say to not to thread the transducer cord back down the coiled power cord, although I run mine that way, and havent seen any significant change in the picture. (I’m running a 997 with a HDSI Side Imaging xducer up front.)

There has been much discussion about what causes this type on interference, and to date, it really hasnt been nailed down. Identical boats, wired with identical equipment by the same guy…. some that need interference intervention and some that dont.

It is definitly not a brand issue. Both companies are having battles.

One thing is for certain, the diameter of the Humminbird transducer cord will fit in the slot of the Terrova. The Lowrance cord is too large of a diameter to run in the slot.

In the past, Humminbird has supplied the TMC1 at no charge.