I have a new 788 and it does not read well in shallow water. The digital depth varies about 6 feet in about a second. I also get a double bottom reading. I have tried hummingbirds recommendations but they did not help. Has anyone experienced this?
Yes I have and found some things that helped but have not cured it. The first being set your max depth to what your realistic max depth is. I think default is auto. Second thing I did and maybe somebody else can chime in on this is set it up so it is reading salt water shallow instead of freshwater. I don’t understand this one but between the 2 things mentioned it did help.
Have not had any problem with mine but I use the white line bottom feature. Haven’t tried it without. Just something to try. Good luck.
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I have a new 788 and it does not read well in shallow water. The digital depth varies about 6 feet in about a second. I also get a double bottom reading. I have tried hummingbirds recommendations but they did not help. Has anyone experienced this?
My suggestion is buy a Lowrance HDS unit. 
Sorry… I couldn’t resist. On a more serious note I have not had any issues like that with my HDS unit.
Good luck and hopefully you get it figured out.
I had a problem with every lowrance unit I ever owned in water less than 2 feet, I read down to .8-1.0 depth with my hummingbird. What is the depth you are having the issue below? Also, are you shooting through hull?
This might help people problem solve for you.
Darin
I have a problem with anything shallower than about 8 feet. The transducer is mounted on my bow mount motor.
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I have a problem with anything shallower than about 8 feet. The transducer is mounted on my bow mount motor.
Dan
Just out of curiosity does your depth reading jump around when you’re not applying power to the electric motor or is it a consistent issue in shallow water?
I talked to a factory rep out of ark. a couple of weeks ago and this is what he told me because I had the same problem.Download the newer version 4.71 I think it is for the 788,next like waterboy said is to set your max depth to 100 feet or less,set water type to saltwater,turn TVG off if in water less than 15ft.(side note:if you download newer version the Tvg becomes Quickfire he said )I asked him about switching the tvg on and off and he said they are already working on the fix for the hassle of turning it on and off in the next update.He said something about setting the surface to 9 also.I`ve had the same problem with mine ,I still have to update mine and play with it.I am by no means an expert on this but it`s what I was told.Hbird has been awesome to deal with ,I`ve been fighting that issue and gps stuff for over a year ,hopefully when I download this gets cleared up.I`m usally the lucky one this stuff happens to,Hbird is working their tails off to make me happy,Kindof a bummer when you spend 37k on a Bboat and upgrade to 2 788`s.
Hope this helps
flor
It is a consistent issue.
H-Bird is working on the software fix. Mine has the same issue happened before I upgraded the software and is now worse with the new 4.7+ version. I have tried every setting and nothing fixes it completely where the digital depth readout actually reads what the bottom signal shows. I have found adjusting the max depth down to a minimum number is the easiest. 15ft usually works the best as it will allow you to tell if you run off a 2-15ft drop. Setting the max depth low keeps the screen from auto adjusting to 200ft max depth. I find that sometimes the bottom hardness can make it worse, seems like the problem comes from the double echo. Once you are set on 15ft or whatever your choice is, put the depth lines option on the graph. This divides your screen into 4 gradients each 1/4 of the max depth, with a line across at that gradient. Now you have the scaling similar to using a flasher with fixed positions on the screen being certain depths, but also have the picture.
This is what I do to get by, but I still put in a call every week to HB to make sure this stays on top of their to do list.
Shoot me a pm if you need some more help getting yours workable until we get the fix.
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