1197 tranducer problem (I think)

I’m going to call Humminbird tomorrow, but thought I’d post here in case someone else has had the same experience or I’m missing something obvious.

I installed my new 1197 on Friday (thanks, Jolly Ann Marine!). It’s obviously an awesome unit. I spent Friday night and Saturday trying to run the side scan and thinking I was doing something wrong. It drew super slowly and wouldn’t tell me how deep it was. I read the manual and found that the 800 frequency would add detail. So I went out today, alone this time so I could spend time learning the HB. I turned it on and set it to 800. It was still horribly slow to draw and didn’t display a depth. Then it suddenly started working. Wow! The side scanner was drawing like crazy and everything looked great!! I noticed at this point that it was telling me the depth for the first time ever. Previously it wouldn’t run the traditional 2D sonar and didn’t display a depth. I figured I needed to change a setting and never investigated the issue. I checked out the different views (2D was working great!) and buzzed a few wingdams. The thing is amazing … or it was for 10 minutes, because then it suddeny stopped working again. I made absolutely no changes that would have made it stop working — I was just driving along.

Here’s what I mean when I say it stops working: first, it does not register a depth. The 2D sonar doesn’t work at all, period. The side imaging doesn’t work well, but it does draw a super pixelated image that is generated very, very slowly. When I say slowly, I mean that it takes 5+ minutes for the line it draws at the top to get to the bottom of the screen.

Anyway, I can only figure I got a bad transducer given the fact that it suddenly worked briefly today and stopped working with no changes made. The connection is good, I’ve reviewed all the settings in the manual (I have the Hi-Def tranducer selected, etc.).

Any ideas? Or should I get it ready to mail back to HB? Thanks in advance to anyone who has an idea.

Jason will probably post an answer for you soon. It sounds like a connection problem, and hopefully an easy fix.
good luck.
Jack

If you know anyone else that has one, plug your unit into their wiring. You will know right away if it is your transducer or unit.

I wish I had the opportunity to swap the display out with a known good one. I’m hoping to get it taken care of ASAP, obviously, and I doubt I’ll have the chance to do that in the next few days.

I took a video of the unit on water yesterday so I could show the problem I’m having.Link: youtube video of my 1197 issue. The SI is drawing so slowly that it almost looks frozen, but if you watch carefully you’ll see that it’s actually moving. I switched to the 2D view for a moment to show that I’m getting nothing there.

Did you do any updates on the software? Did you reset factory defaults prior to doing the updates?

Seems like a weird issue… Everything connected ok in the back of the unit?

Give HB a call, hopefully they have a quick and easy anwer for you…

Yep, everything is connected. When I unplug the transducer it stops working completely. It’s sensing a transducer because it’s not going into simulator mode; plus, it’s actually drawing something on the side imaging.

It did this right out of the box, the first time I turned it on. It started working correctly only briefly on the third day. I haven’t made any updates.

I ended up emailing Humminbird today instead of calling simply because of the time a phone call would take. I’m sure I’ll hear back soon.

Still, I decided to install the software update tonight … and the frickin thing was showing a depth and producing a side scan image in the garage both before and after the update. Obviously, it wasn’t reading much of anything but it the super slow no depth problem was gone. I didn’t touch a thing between being on the water yesterday and checking it in the garage tonight. Wish I had been on the water to check it out for real and see if it kept working. Hopefully I can figure this out soon.

John-

I have some feedback related to your situation from Humminbird. Does your system have a Y cable for two transducers, or are you using just the single HDSI transducer?

John-

I’ll be down to Everts this weekend, possibly both days. I’ll bring a spare transducer with me. If you’re around, let’s get together to see if your problem is solved with a new transducer.

I appreciate the offer, Jason. I may be down there this weekend now that the Pool 2 launches are closed. If so, I’ll keep my eyes open for you.

I don’t have the Y cable — just the HDSI. Humminbird emailed me back and said I should send it in for repair. However, as I mentioned above it started working mysteriously the other night when I installed the software update. I took it out on Wednesday night and it worked perfectly. I’m a little nervous that it will stop working again, but I’d rather take that chance than send it in for repair.

Thanks again for the offer to help. I’ve got my fingers crossed in hopes that I won’t need it!

John

Hope you get it figured out!! I started thinking I was looking at the Lowrance forum, my LCX-113 did this exact same thing 2 years ago. Unit locked up showing a flashing depth value, sonar screen would move to the left but showed nothing mostly then would spit out some gibberish pixels then go black again. Cost me a new transducer and shipping back to Low to get it fixed. I think HB will treat you alot better though! Good Luck! you’ll love your 1197 once it is up and running!