Helix 9-Lost All Programming?

I bought a power cord for my helix nine GEN three so that I could use it in my truck for icefishing. When I plugged it in it appears to have lost all the programming. it looks like you have to start all over just like when I took it out of the box. I’m talking about all the simple things like language, miles, and all the basic functions or settings. Is this normal? Being a lifelong Lowrance man I’m still struggling with all the functions on this thing, so that might have something to do with it. Problem is without a spare 12 V battery in my garage I have no way of resetting this whole thing without sitting in the truck and going through the manual. I wish I would’ve never switched away from Lowrance, I knew it well and knew the best ways of using it. The hummingbird is a great unit, but it’s like going from iPhone to android or the reverse. Everyone that’s done it knows how confusing that is.

Anybody?

Wish I could help you but I run Lowrance I set up my dads helix but that was a few years ago. We do take it from his boat to a small Portage b0at once a year but have never lost any info

Yeah not sure what happened either but unplugging it and plugging back in shouldn’t erase everything. A call to HB might be in order.

I did this to mine while building a shuttle to convert to ice unit this fall and it did not do a factory reset just due to switching from battery to 12vdc converter for in home power. Are you sure you didn’t factory reset through the menu?

Oh ya, I don’t go anywhere near factory reset. I’ll figure it out today with the manual. I have to guess most people in cold areas bring them in from their boats in the winter and I’ve never heard anyone else complaining so it might be something I’m doing wrong too. Change sucks, don’t listen to anyone that says it’s good😉

My buddy went from Lowrance to Humminbird a few years ago. He installed an update and then lost all of his tracks. I use Lowrance but I helped him out going through settings and found that somehow during the update the display tracks or whatever Humminbird calls it got turned off during the update. No update should ever mess around with settings, but I was able to get him going again. We returned to the lake a year later (LOW in Canada) and same thing happened to him again! He was pissed.

Well I’m feeling pretty fortunate right now that I didn’t call hummingbird stupid, worthless, and a lot of the other tags that people put on their equipment when they can’t work it. I just looked at the owners manual in on the very first page it appears that the unit starts up differently if the transducer is connected or if it’s not, which it isn’t for icefishing and just using the maps. Who knew? I haven’t tried it yet but I gotta bet that’s gonna be the cure.

That is really strange that they would do that.

its to prevent transducer driver damage….its a very smart thing they would do that

In trying to learn the hummingbird system after being a Lowrance guy, I found there’s a lot a little stuff like that. It’s not a real easy system to learn, at least it wasn’t for me. I used it quite a bit last summer but I still don’t even consider myself anywhere near proficient on it. I have to stop and think with just about every keystroke.
I think it’s kind of like Hummingbird tries to do way too much instead of trying to keep it simple. The units actually work great right out of the box. That is if you know what you’re doing.

The instruction manual isn’t too thick, and is worth reading.
Glad you figured it out.
In time, you’ll be pushing buttons like on your lowrance.

Like you said…A new phone…New routine.
The manual will really help you understand what is out there to mess with and why to mess with it.

Me when going from Lowrance to Humminbird Helix I thought the menus were much easier It probably depends on which generation one is coming from that either makes it hard or easy.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheTechnologicalAngler/videos there is a video for just about every helix setting/feature on this channel

Well it kind of works now but it keeps going back to simulator mode for no reason I can figure out. I went for about a mile ride once I thought I had it figured out. About 1/4 mile away for no reason it went back into simulator mode. Getting pissed now. Still probably my own fault but why does it have to be so complicated to turn a unit on and have it work?

Bassboatcentral.com. If you have an electronics question that’s where to go. I had an answer in 10 minutes. You not only have to start it up differently but you have to turn the sonar off, or it goes back to simulation. Crazy. Works fine now, but why make it so weird?

3rdtryguy wrote:

You not only have to start it up differently but you have to turn the sonar off, or it goes back to simulation. Crazy. Works fine now, but why make it so weird?

Exactly! There are other ways to “protect transducer drivers” than to do this. Its pretty simple to detect whether or not something is connected to a port and disable those features through the firmware.