Network option not showing up on Helix menus

Picked up my new boat at a dealer 10 hours away. Great dealer so far BTW. Frontier Marine and Power Sports, Fergus Falls, MN. Don’t stay at the Comfort Inn. Black mold in the AC/Heat unit. I have no reason to believe that they did not hook up everything correctly, but I removed the graphs and the trolling motor to get her home. Took her out for the first time and the graphs didn’t link with each other, the Ulterra, or the Talon. The dealer said my 8 inch chirp/Mega SI/Mega DI needed to be plugged into one harness and powered up in order, but I can’t get them to link or show the network option on the menus. They’re trouble shooting with me over text, but they closed for the Covid. I’m not sure which transducer to select on the 8 inch to get it to link and give me the network option. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Couple of things to check.
Are the graphs set to advanced mode? Not sure is it applicable.
Is your ethernet switch powered up? I have mine wired to a master switch and have forgotten to power it up on occasion.

I’ll check the switches. That might make difference. I assumed if they had power then there Ethernet switch box had power. Thanks. I’ll let you know.

Ok. So, I checked my settings and under User Mode, I only have the options of angler or custom. No, advanced option. Neither is giving me the network tab across the top.

Also, I’ve tried different switch combinations thinking maybe the Ethernet port is connected to a switch that I didn’t have on, and still no network option. It would be nice if there was an LED light showing the thing has power on it.

Any other ideas?

Humminbird changed from Normal and Advanced User Modes to Angler and Custom User Modes in a software update some time ago. The “Custom” User Mode will give you more options for settings, etc.

You may want to trace the wiring from the ethernet box back to the power source to ensure it is hooked up. There may also be an on/off switch installed to prevent battery drain of the ethernet switch.

If done right there should be a power cutoff some where did you call the dealer and ask them?

I can’t find any cut off switches to the Ethernet port. The dealer is closed due the covid-19 orders in MN.

I found some related posts on the web where guys didn’t have the network tab. Issues described were power source issues and stuck ip addresses.

I’m going to call Humminbird support and see if they can get me networked.

One thing to note is that when I picked up the boat, I took off the control heads to transport home in my truck. When I put them back in the boat, I put the DI where the SI should have been. The dealer said the SI needed to go on the bracket to my left and be powered on before the DI. So, I’m wondering if since I did it wrong, it messed something up with the network.

I’ll update this after I speak to support.

I’ve done the mix match of the DI/SI units, if I remember it gave me a transducer not found error and didn’t mess up the networking.

As Tom P stated about the power cut off, there maybe/should be a main battery disconnect switch, usually back by the or on the main battery.

For me, I have the main disconnect on the battery.
This kills power to the console and all switches i.e. livewell, bilge, lights etc.
My ethernet switch is located under the console and wired to an auxiliary switch on the console.
To power up I close the battery disconnect, turn on main switch at console then the auxiliary switch for the ethernet if using the DI on the bow.

I went through this yesterday. I set both units to default settings on both and then I was able to set them up. I had to restart both units as well after going to default settings.

I truly don’t think it is a power issue, but I guess it’s not out of the question. Everything works, just no networking going on.

I did what this post below, from another forum, said to do. It didn’t work, but I may have rushed the process. Think I’m going to try it again before calling support.

Quote:
If you DO NOT get a network tab to populate – hook them both up, and once they are fully booted and running, DISCONNECT both your Ethernet connections while powered, reset defaults – and shut down.
Power both back up and make sure they have been running several minute to ensure they are fully booted and they should be reset to defaults once again. Shut down a second time – before you boot each back up again,reconnect the units and boot which ever one you were planning to be “the master” or unit supplying “the food chain” the most of the usable data 1st.
Again, let them run for several minutes and hit exit if any of them quack about any source found or lost – then go see if you can configure the Ethernet tab, if you are on very similar software (if not the exact same) version and do not “see” an IP address assigned in the system status tab(s) – it is possible the onboard NIC (Ethernet device) has failed. Out of the box, you generally won’t have a network tab until it has been Ethernet connected to another unit. The above procedure “releases” a stuck IP address, it happens with PCs & Servers too.
RAS

Can you see where they connected the power to the ethernet hub in the first place? I imagine it’s possible they didn’t power it, or that they didn’t validate that everything was networked together when you first got it. The power connector is the far RH side “port” – follow those wires to where they connect to a fuse block / terminal block / etc and validate that everything looks good there.

The other option is to pop the connections from the ethernet hub & connect one (trolling motor or other locator) directly to the other locator & validate that they’re “seeing” each other.

Alright. I felt that I should explain what happened in case anyone else has the same issue. Here is what happened.

After putting the graphs on the console in the wrong positions, I took the boat out and started playing with them. I had it in my head that one should be sourced to the transducer (SI) on the stern, and the other to the DI transducer on my Ulterra. I made the changes under the Sonar tab, not even realizing there was a Netework tab that was already set by the dealer. So, I set one source to the rear (SI) and the other to the DI from the Sonar tab (not the Network tab). That apparently threw them off network. My dealer’s Humminbird Tech called me today and walked me through fixing things up. He had me power the graph on the left side of the console up (8 inch DI SI) and then the other graph (9 inch DI). He asked me to power on the Ulterra and see if it flashed iLink on the graphs, which they both did. So, he said it wasn’t a power issue to the Ethernet port. Next, he had me go to settings and select Custom instead of Angler for User Mode. Then he had me scroll down to Sonar, which was set to off, and switch it to on. When I did, the Network tab appeared at the top of the menu. Next, he had me go to the Network tab on the graph on the right (9 inch DI) and select Network Source Setup. From there I had to set the 2D, DI, SI, and T1 all to the 8 inch DI SI source. So, it was user error. I had it in my head that the 9 would be reading off the Ulterra DI transducer, which now I know will only happen when I put the 9 on the bow and plug it into the Ethernet/Ulterra cords up there. I just assumed they would run off separate transducers, but now I know they are both sourced to the Stern transducer when they are both on the console. I have an Alumacraft Competitor 185 Tiller by the way.

Thanks for the help along the way.

Glad you figured it out!