Understanding my universal sonar?

Ok here it goes:

Own the Terrova Minnkota with universal US2 transducer using a Helix 5 locator

Without a war I’m not even remotely impressed with the Helix for open water, ice it’s great for summer it just does not mark fish while my Lowrance Hook reveal in the rear works great and shows fish.

I want to put a Lowrance Hook 5 up front here is the questions

1. Does the universal transducer cause the Helix or Lowrance not to mark fish as well?
2. Ok putting the Lowrance up front I know that down scan does not work with the universal transducer would you leave as is or mount the transducer from the Lowrance on the Minn Kota? concerns are cables running down with the cord there already, after seeing spot lock turn in a corkscrew worried it would break over time.
3. Kinda defeats the universal transducer by putting on the other tranducer on
I don’t have to have down scan it would be nice but generally fish less than 15 FOW so the regular color graph would still be great.

Thanks for your help

If your helix 5 has switchfire make sure that it is set to max mode. Depending on the way your trolling motor is mounted will change how the sonar responds. Think of it as the transducer on the back of your boat if it is not correctly mounted and placed at the incorrect angle it will not respond correctly. Even when you rotate your trolling motor will change how the transducer signal is received. I’m not saying this is your problem but you might want to check this first.

Your right I did not have it on switchfire it’s put away but maybe I should wait before I put another one on maybe it’s just this it just does not seem to show much if it’s a fish it’s hard to even distinguish thanks

Did you set the transducer type on the graph? I have Garmin so I don’t know where you do it on yours but you need to set it to the correct transducer type probably. I think the US2 is 83/200 so there should be some option that says that.

Yes I do have it set to correct transducer thanks never hurts to double check

I use that exact same setup (Terrova & Helix 5 sonar) but I only use it for depth reading, I have no interest in the fish finder functionality, its much too basic….

That Helix 5 should show fish in 2D just as well as the larger model Helixes. I have a 9 and it will mark anything and everything. Have you played around with sensitivity?? Another thing to try is turning CHIRP off. I’m not sure that the US2 83/200 supports it anyway, but I’ve found I see better results without it on sometimes.

It sounds like just getting another locator may not be the answer to my problems. I sure wish they would make locators a little easier to figure out. to me the Lowrance is a little easier to figure out but if I can save money all the better thanks.

mrpike1973 wrote:

I sure wish they would make locators a little easier to figure out. to me the Lowrance is a little easier to figure out but if I can save money all the better thanks.

I am not familiar with anything other than Lowrance because its been what I’ve been using since 2001. I was kinda surprised to hear that you use both Humminbird and Lowrance in your boat. I can’t comment on the Birds, but I’ve become so familiar with Lowrance’s operating system that it would be very difficult for me to go to another brand now.

My old Lowrance sure was a lot simpler to use and IMO better, except the fact that they kept failing. After the 2nd one I switch to a Helix 7 which is less than impressive and certainly not simple. After several hours of messing around and lots of reading I know how to use it well enough to find fish (or logs or debris).

I’m going to swap out for a garmin one of these days, just because I haven’t tried one yet and I’ve heard good things.

That universal sonar is junk, You need the Hummingbird one. You can get a mount to mount to the bottom the motor. Other wise you have to upgrade to the Unit with the Bird transducer built in.

Big crappie sounds like you have done this already did the cord routing work good.

I mounted the helix 7 transducer under my minn kota with usb and I really like the bird ducer much better and I run the cable along side the cable with zip ties and I do not use spot lock on my minn kota.

Mike