Humminbirg Helix G4 Assistance

Looking for assistance from the friendly folks of IDO on getting more familiar with my Humminbird. Coming from a world of Lowrance the last 7 years I am needing to learn more about Hbird and the unit I have on the new boat. I’ve done some of the settings tutorials on utube and continue to tinker.

The unit I have is the Helix 12 G4 Chirp MSI+ and MDI+. On my boat invoice it also says I have the Hbird XNT 9 HW-T X-Ducer. I’m assuming this second ducer is the high speed ducer? Why do I need this? Also, which ducer should I be selecting on the unit?

Is your boat a fiberglass boat?
I have the same set up on mine.
The high speed transducer is epoxied onto the hull and will shoot through the hull for running at higher speeds. I say higher because around 40 mine will quit reading.
They should have the high speed and your SI/DI transducers connected together with a Y cable.
If I remember right I have mine set 2 the Mega MSI on the unit.

As for settings I usually run my sensitivity between 2 and 4 and contrast around 6.

Everyone’s eyes are a little different the lakes bottom will determine what to set it as well.

You just need to play with color pallet and dentist/contrast till things look good to your eyes.

Lund 1875 Crossover, aluminum.

Also, I did the update download and transfer via One Boat App. Said it was transferred. Shut the unit down and turned it back on…shows old software. Tried to transfer again and the app says the new software os already installed??????

Really wondering if that follow the contour piece os as important to me now, miss the Lowrance.

Good news…used the SD card and the update process was done in less than a minute.

Bad news….have to re-do all my settings. I guess I didn’t have it dialed in very well anyway, so is what it is.

FYI, I think follow the contour is a personal thing. I rarely use mine but I don’t fish that way as a bass fisherman. When we go to rainy I will use it sometimes but prefer to just highlife the depth I am fishing, plus or minus two feet and just either slow troll or jig through those areas. It has a hard time following contours that change and meander quickly and often and a lot it times I find myself scratching my head wondering what’s wrong. Probably user error but mine are also Gen 1 so the units may have improved since the. I personally find spot lock to be the best invention ever but that’s just me.

I’ve had my Helix for 3 years now and hate it more every time I use it. Take it back while you still can and get another Lowrance or Garmin. Completely different languages.

acarroline wrote:

Looking for assistance from the friendly folks of IDO on getting more familiar with my Humminbird. Coming from a world of Lowrance the last 7 years I am needing to learn more about Hbird and the unit I have on the new boat. I’ve done some of the settings tutorials on utube and continue to tinker.

The unit I have is the Helix 12 G4 Chirp MSI+ and MDI+. On my boat invoice it also says I have the Hbird XNT 9 HW-T X-Ducer. I’m assuming this second ducer is the high speed ducer? Why do I need this? Also, which ducer should I be selecting on the unit?

I have the same setup, albeit a 10″ screen. I have the SI ducer on the starboard side of the transom and the HW ducer on the port side, as this seems to be what was recommended (I haven’t looked into the through-hull option). The thinking is that the SI ducer is large and can be tricky to get good on-plane readings but moreso it’s a $300 bill if you hit a floating branch, etc and break it so you set the transducer up a couple inches so that it is dry when on plane. The HW ducer is around $80 so hurts less if you wreck it. You connect the two to the unit with a Y cable. I can’t recall which ducer you’d select but it should work fine. This video’s first couple minutes discuss the setup a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG1B_gJzJHs

Thanks for the info, all. Can’t take it back, bought it with the new boat in Aug. I went this route as I mainly use this unit for mapping, want to be better with and use more the contour follow feature, the connectivity to auto deploy trolling motor ulterra, and some research led me to believe H-bird side imaging was the best. Time will tell. I have Garmin LVS that I run on two screens for further finding fish and jigging. In theory, I still like the idea and think I can learn more about dialing in the side imaging on this unit for what I want. I’ve said on here before, if/when Garmin gets the auto deploy, contour follow, and FFS units to align and play well together the others are in big trouble.

I’m not a helix guy, I like my lowrance units. If I really need the follow the contour, I’ll use it through one boat network and link to my phone. But I’m not much of a fan of the follow the contour, I’ll do that manually.

acarroline wrote:

Good news…used the SD card and the update process was done in less than a minute.

Bad news….have to re-do all my settings. I guess I didn’t have it dialed in very well anyway, so is what it is.

It will do you good as a new user to recreate your settings. Consider it practice..
The default sonar settings are pretty stellar.

When setting up the Humminbird settings, for me, I select 1 color. (which gives you 4) depth highlight to your desires, Depth highlight range +2. shallow set at 3..

water level offset. put your boat in a flat bottom area, and match your depth setting to match the lakemaster contour.

I agree Red Dog, have to keep working at it to get it where I want it to be. Took me time and effort with the previous Lowrance, also.

I have the depth settings highlighted for low water and other. Side imaging is what I really plan to dial in as that will be the main use, with the mapping.

I have a Helix 12, a Helix 9 and a Garmin ECHOMAP 106sv all mounted on my dash. I run them all at the same time using the Garmin for Livescope, the Helix 12 for 2D, DI and SI and the Helix 9 for mapping and “follow the contour” which I use whenever I can. The ability to push with my kicker with the Ulterra automatically steering the boat while trolling or even just automatically following contours slowly with the electric while casting or working a point or shoreline is a great feature.
I like them all alot and think they’re pretty easy to all use together.