I think we are talking about 2 different things. In the screen shot you posted. The boxes across the top. The one with 58.6′ labeled cursor. I know Humminbird calls it “depth of cursor” or sometimes “slant range”. It is really just a distance from the path the boat took to where the cursor is. The user can’t move the cursor up and down in the water column to select a suspended target so it is to the bottom distance. Not a “depth” but a range. The second box labeled depth, which is empty in your pic, would be the actual depth. This box only gets filled if the cursor is placed in an area on the screen where the standard sonar passed over, giving a depth reading. I have done factory training at Humminbird when these units were introduced.

Side Imaging does not tell you depth. The only way to get a depth reading is with the standard 2d sonar, which is active all the time no matter what screen you are viewing. When you are out with your SI unit next time or in a store with display models do this. In the SI view hit the direction button to bring up the cursor. It will put a number in the depth box at that time because the cursor is centered on the path of the boat. Now, move the cursor, left or right doesnt matter, slowly. Once the cursor leaves the area covered by the 2d sonar cone angle the depth will dissapear. You will only see a number in the cursor box then in ft which is a distance from the center line to the cursor. The other box labeled distance will give the current distance from the boat to the cursor. Hope this helps clarify what is being shown.

Which is exactly what i paid for. My “obsolete” 997 can do everything the current 998 does with the main exception of ethernet. Humminbird has continued to refine and add functionality to it, something Lowrance never does. It is great to know a company services the units it builds, especially after warranty expires. I have never had to send in my Bird for service, and I have had trouble free Lowrance units as well. It is nice to know that if there ever was a problem it can get taken care of through repair intead of paying quite a bit more to upgrade to a current model.

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If the same scenario happened with hummingbird, would they have given you money to upgrade to a newer unit? Answer is probably No! I have never heard of hummingbird doing that. Working at a dealership I have seen plenty of bad hummingbirds in my time. If my transmission went out in my car 2 weeks out of warranty would a manufacturer cover it? Answer is no! Would the manufacturer give you allowance for an upgrade to a new transmission? Answer is No! So really Lowrance has stepped up to help with their customer service. If they did not care about the people that buy there equipment they would not offer the upgrade incentive into a new unit.

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Humminbird doesn’t offer that because they service older models still. I can still get service on my 5 year old 997c. The day a Lowrance goes legacy they stop servicing it and require to upgrade.

The manual is confusing on this. The box showing depth in the screen shot is blank. Meaning the unit couldn’t determing the “depth under cursor” Side Imaging can not and will not ever determing depth. The standard traditional 200 khz sonar beam always determines the depth on a Humminbird. If the cursor was placed in the water colum directly under the boat there would be a depth reading showing up in the depth box, but because it is off to the side a ways the unit has no way of determining the depth beacause the standard sonar didn’t go over it and leaves it blank. Just looking at the photo there is now way there is a hole 20′ deeper than the rest of the surrounding area. The number in the cursor box, 58.4′, is how far away from the center line the cursor is and the distance number is how far back it is from the current boat position. If you would keep moving the cursor to the right the number would increase, move it back toward the center it would decrease. The curor box doesn’t show the depth at cursor only a distance.

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As a “mark” on the screen passes, touch the cursor button and scroll over to the object. It will tell you the distance.

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So, Youre saying the “object” is 58 feet right of the boat and 151 back?

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That is exactly what the unit is telling you. With cursor on the object just hit a waypoint to navigate directly to it.

the 1198’s have not changed since they came out. The HD on the 700’s units was put on to show off the higher screen resolution than competitors and to differenciate the HD ethernet capable models from the non ethernet capable models.

The unit needs movement to read and draw the image on the screen, especially for DI. Sitting still it just redraws the same thing over and over. It should read the depth all the time though, moving or not.

The chokes are there to help eliminate interference. I would go ahead and use them it will not hurt anything.

If you sonar has the older spring loaded glass fuse holders, take them out and replace them with the blade style holders. The springs weaken and cause the voltage to the sonar unit to drop when starting the outboard.

The preloaded maps do not inhibit the use of other mapping chips. If you are using the map chips, which have more current information and quite a few more lakes mapped, don’t waste the $200 on the preloaded maps.

I have both a HDS 8 and a 997 and I prefer the Humminbird for several reasons. It is much easier to use, the side imaging is quite a bit better that Lowrance especially further away from the boat you go, at least it does for me. I tend to fish shallower water most of the time and the lowrance system does not scan out like the Humminbird does. In 3 years I have had the 997 not one issue. The HDS model is extremely slow to responde to button pushes, it has gotten better with software updates but not what an $1800 unit should be. The problem with Lowrance customer service is their products lack the same level of quality control Humminbird has. There are way to many issues with them for water intrustion to very slow operation.

I don’t for sure if the Interlink is being discontinued, but I do know that the current 700 series units do not have an ethernet port. So, the only way for them to share information with other units is through the interlink. The ethernet will allow for more than 2 units to be networked and you will be able to share a transducer between units.

Are the trolling motors clear as well? Just take the screen off and see if makes a difference.

Make sure you have the latest software version installed.

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I have a HB 937 can I put several updates on the same sd card then install into unit thanks for any replys

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The most recent or newest update will have all of the previous changes to the unit included with it plus any new ones for that update. So, all you would need to download is the one update to bring you model up to “speed” so to speak.

The new updates are supposed to automatically restore defaults.

“
Description:
1/12/2010 12:00:00 AM – v4.750 Adds Down Imaging. Adds LakeMaster compatibility. Adds GPS improvements. Adds new 2D sonar color palettes. Adds New SI sonar color palettes. Improves trolling motor noise rejection. Fixes Track offset issue. Changes Depth Alarm Setting to be maintained in memory upon Power Off. Supports new NVB maps w/o Canada data. (NVB models only) Automatically restores defaults when reprogramming unit. Adds additional AIS message support. Fixes Disabled GPS output. Fixes Snapshots not displaying in POS mode. Fixes Navionics library drawing when no map is available. Fixes various cosmetic and minor operational defects. Switchfire was made available in a previous release. It is automatically included in this update. “

More info here BBC

More info here BBC

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Johnson & Johnson is a Health Care Products & Pharmaceuticals company. I am pretty sure there are no ties between Johnson Outdoors and Johnson & Johnson

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Why go through the 4 year process to get the patent in the first place if you are’t going to defend it? I think Johnson outdoors ( Johnson & Johnson ) can afford the lawyers to protect their patents.

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It is the same founder of S.C Johnosn wax not Johnson and Johnson sorry for the mix up

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This will be tied for years in court unless both Company’s use some common sense and stop feeding the Lawyers all their money.

Patent infringement is one of the more difficult things prove and winning is a very long shot at best for HB.
The main goal HB has to be getting an Temporary injunction and halting Lowrance selling their units. Doubtful also.

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Why go through the 4 year process to get the patent in the first place if you are’t going to defend it? I think Johnson outdoors (Johnson & Johnson) can afford the lawyers to protect their patents.

I’m looking forward to it as well. I think a more appropriate term instead of “gap” would be the sonar beams for side imaging are weakest directly under the boat.

I think Fishton’s apolgy on BBC on this issue is a good start. There are many images showing the SI beams looking straight down with mirror images on both right and left sides.

web page

Or the apolgy he made to T Mike on the Humminbird forum here about the “gap” on the down imaging.

When in SI mode the 200khz only gives the depth number. It isn’t needed for anything but that.

to Fishton

To say that one company is using software to make the image is really irresponsible. All modern sonar units are specialized computers and they all have software in them to create the image on the screen. The information coming from the tranducer is processed and displayed. They all do it. The signal isn’t made up to create the image. I really don’t get your point on a lot of your post on many forums and you seem to go out of your way to post on Lowrance specific boards. I have seen evidence disproving your own results that the Humminbird SI beams do look straigt down. I think Doug Vahrenberg and Triton Mikes images showed that they do. There are many excellent images from both companies as well. Even your own images comparing side to side have one brand showing things and the other showing things it missed. I will make my own conclusions when things finally thaw out to do my own testing.

The 797 updates are out. Log into your Humminbird.com account and download the update.

Humminbird has added the 797 to the list to get Down Imaging as well. It isn’t out yet but will be soon.

Yes the 898 transducer will work with the 797. You will be able to share the 898 transducer with the switch the same way you are set up now. The different transducers have the same connector ends.

You don’t need to the broadband sounder to turn a Globalmap into a sonar. Just link another sonar unit with the yellow ethernet port to it.

Cost wise it is better to compare apples to apples an 8″ HDS 8 ($1699) with structure scan($599)is more costly than an 8″ 997c($1999). It will be cheaper than the 1197 but there is a difference between a 8″ display and a 10″ one. I have both on my boat and the HDS 8 still has a ways to go to see its full potential. There is no noticeable difference in the 2d sonar images when comparing the hds 8 and 997. Both show the same level of detail. The HDS does get closer to the advertised performace with each software fix, but when will they get it right. I like that Humminbird has enhanched the performance of my 997 and contiue to tweak every bit of performance out of it, not just try to correct problems. The switchfire mode is one such example and really makes a difference in the 2d sonar, but only how the user wants it to be.