Structurescan Issue

Took new boat out today to break in the motor and was planning on trying out my hds 8 gen 2 w/ structure scan since I needed to drive around for a couple hours. Here is the problem. When I tried to use the downscan feature it would not show the bottom of the lake. Plus it would only show 5 feet down and I could not for the life of me get it to show any deeper. I tries changing the range to 10, 15, 30 and it would just jump right back to 5 foot and not show a clear picture. Anybody know what I am doing wrong? I had unit professionally installed and I am pretty sure everything is hooked up correctly. Not sure what my next step is.

How close is your LSS transducer to your motor. If its to close it can get interference and try to pick up for motor on the down scan as well as partially block the side scan. This happens on mine in deeper water and it will jump to 5′ then I have to bump my trim up and it goes right back. Try trimming your motor up out of the water the rule this out. They typically need to be mounted further out then a standard 2D transducer.

I also had interference problems where it would go static and it ended up being a loose transducer to the hull so had to add 2 more extra mounting screws to the hull and snug the piviot bolt.

Also try shutting every thing off in your boat including main motor then power down your graph and power it back up and see what it does before your turn anything else on. This should rule out accessory interference.

HDS units tend to be very touchy so you need to rule out some other things before you assume it is the unit.

If your screen is not saying “no source” then the LSS module is working so It’s possible you could have a bad transducer.

Please report back if and when you figure it out.

I will try those suggestions and see what happens. Problem is I am not going to get a chance to get back to the water for a few days I probably can’t test them in my garage can I?

No not really… Can make sure your transducer is snug. Does your normal “sonar” work fine and its just the “structure” that does not work right?

Little di-electric grease on both ends of your ethernet cable and LSS transducer plug will save you a problem down the road.

If your unit is new and have not really saved or customized anything look up how to do a “soft reset” (hold page and power keys while powering up) which should set things back to the default settings then try those suggestions.

Also make sure you have the most current software version. I am not sure what the current gen 2 version is of the top of my head.