I struggle getting a good left side return on my 997. I believe the transducer install is good. Has anyone else had a similar problem. I’ve attached an example of a return and a photo of how the transducer is installed. Anyone have any ideas? Is my transducer bad? My control unit?
Position is bad. I had mine in the exact same position and had the same left handed drop out (Shadowing). Moved the transducer down to almost the center. To the right of center buy about 6-8 inches. Between that and making sure my motor is tilted while running SI, it fixed the problem.
Your motor is in the way of the transducer. It’s a line of sight thing.
Do you have clearance past the main engine and kicker when they are down? If you have a bow mount trolling motor I would try moving both motors up out of the way and see if your screen image changes at all. From the view you are getting looks like the transducer is seeing the bottom part of ths scan well, but looking off further to the left dissapears. Looks like the signal is getting blocked.
I believe its way to high on the right side I have mine mounted very near where you have that intake hole near your plug hole, it gives a little rooster but is very clear on both sides and the 2d will hold the bottem at 40 mph! Just sucks putting more holes in the boat. 
Your metal livewell intake caps might possibly interfere…Or does that white piece put the transducer far enough out? I sort of mashed down the metal on those intake pipes. Might have helped me out a little?? I’m thinking about either adding a “bump out” bracket for the transducer or possibly just sawing off the part of the intake that sticks out, and rigging a different sort of screen system.
I assume you tilt your kicker up when running your SI… I put mine all the way out of the water (mainly for drag reasons.. I haven’t yet run my SI with my kicker running)… My left side is very slightly darker than my right, but not a ton. Enough to make me notice, but not enough to make me really want to change anything. My setup is similar to yours, but further down…
Mike
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I believe its way to high on the right side I have mine mounted very near where you have that intake hole near your plug hole, it gives a little rooster but is very clear on both sides and the 2d will hold the bottem at 40 mph! Just sucks putting more holes in the boat.
I get the same rooster. I can live with that as long as the images are clear.
Is it like that all the time? If you happened to be on the edge of a huge dropoff (very deep to the left side, with the shallower top part of the dropoff on the right), you might possibly get a return something like that… I noticed you were in fairly deep water. I assume that this screenshot is an example of a commonly occuring event, though…
Food for thought. Mount your existing SI transducer where the other guys told you(midline) and get a 2nd transducer for running at speed–you’d be able to keep the SI ducer up and out of the water at running speeds.
For the 2K investment of a 997, spending a little more on a 2nd ducer would be good insurance.
Jeremy
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Food for thought. Mount your existing SI transducer where the other guys told you(midline) and get a 2nd transducer for running at speed–you’d be able to keep the SI ducer up and out of the water at running speeds.
For the 2K investment of a 997, spending a little more on a 2nd ducer would be good insurance.Jeremy
I did not buy the extra transducer. What was the price of another 2-d transducer?
Here are some shots you might find interesting… The first one is a similar problem to what you are having an issue with. My transducer location has never changed or moved, all of these images are taking with the transducer posted in one of my previous posts
1. I thought my transducer was goofy or something was wrong (It had read normally all day, then I did a high speed run and got this image when I slowed down). I flipped out a little, but then realized that between my sensitivity settings and the fact that I was right along a big breakline (Shore to the right, 37 fow under the boat, and down to maybe 45-50 feet to the left) the left side just didn’t pick up the bottom very well. The sonar was probably shooting out at a very close angle to how the bottom was dropping off. Combine that with a very soft bottom and low sensitivity setting for that depth, and its reasonable to get a very faint return in this situation…
2. Image two is a “normal” image of the riverbottom. The right side is VERY slightly brighter than the left. I find the brightness difference much LESS noticable with hard bottom and MORE noticable with soft bottoms.
3. Image 3 shows the left side being brighter than the right. This I imagine is due to the left side just plain being shallower than the right. I have found my sensitivity to be pretty finicky when I change depth, especially when I go from 10 foot to 30-40 foot plus.. Anyone else really have to crank sensitivity to get good depth readings?
4. This is about the same image as image 3, but the boat is coming back in the other direction. Brightness between the right and left sides when comparing images 3 and 4 are very similar.. Shore side might be a touch brighter in image 4, but its hard to compare since the boat isn’t in exactly the same spot…
5. Some bright, hard returns.. The right side is a little whiter, but it might be a touch shallower there as well, or I might have been slightly closer, or both.
Bottom line is that I have found that sensitivity adjustment is fairly critical based on water depth. My transducer locoation might give a slightly brighter return on the right side, but probably not enough to make a major difference. I get great readings at 40mph.. It even held SI imaging at 44.8mph when I was out on Tuesday. Nice enough image to see depth changes, anyway. Sensitivity adjustment for me though, is especially important when you are talking about rapid depth change like a 50 foot plus dropoff. Anyone else find this out as well?
Anyone use this on deeper water (80-100 feet)?? Get decent images at that depth? What sensitivity setting did you have to use to get good bottom images at depth??
Mike
Doc is right with the install location. On my bassboat I mounted on the bottom of my jackplate. This helps protect a very expensive SI transducer!!! I shiver when i see guys hanging them off the bottom of their boat!
Buy the “Y” cable and extra 2d transducer to mount (epoxy) in bottom of the boat. The unit senses the SI transducer is out of the water when you start to run and will switch over automatically, vice-versa when you set down off pad.
I think the extra 2d transducer and Y cable are around $60-80??? Can’t remember for sure.
Not sure about the shoot through hull advise on the aluminum rig. Works well for our fiberglass rigs but not so well on aluminum from what I know.
Love the y cable and 2D transducer set-up on my 997.
Don’t think the through-hull works as well for aluminum.
I’ve read quite a bit about adding an extra transducer, but I wonder what the stats actually are on how often damage occurs to flush-with-the-bottom mounted transducers?? I know these are bigger, but I’ve never had issues with any of my transducers getting damamged in the past…. Hopefully this trend will continue.
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I know these are bigger, but I’ve never had issues with any of my transducers getting damamged in the past…. Hopefully this trend will continue.
This could be a bigger issue for river guys, but looking at the transducers on our older boats, they are pretty trashed, and I’m a lake guy.
I put mine on the jack plate as well. I go in some pretty shallow areas and sometimes the back end of my boat hits bottom.
I actually already have an older HB transducer that would work, mounted and ready to rock (off of a matrix that I still have in the boat).. If I wanted to split the signal off of that, I don’t see any reason why I couldn’t.
I’m tempted, although not totally convinced to move the tranducer. I get great hi-speed reading with both 2-d and SI how I have it mounted now. Two main motivators to move the transducer would be to prevent damage and to move it slightly more centerline to possibly get each side to read equal brightness (although the second is a pretty minor issue, its very close as it sits now….) Hate to put more holes in the boat, though. Plus, once I move it higher, the other transducers, livewell outflows, whatever start to interfere more. Maybe just leave well-enough alone in this case.
Anyone know what connector (model number, order number, part number, whatever) that you need to split the sonar signal from a separate 2d transducer???
Sorry, i was talking about fiberglass boats, my bad. here is the $24 part you need to split the transducer from SI to Dual Beam/2d sonar:
http://store.humminbird.com/humminbird-products/accessories/cables/as-sidb-y/prod720055-1.html
My buddy ripped his SI transducer off on a tree bass fishing the second time he had his boat out with the SI unit on it. I learned from him to tuck it up and away!!!
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