eddallen

It is much easier to see fish and bait with traditional 2D sonar. That said, you can see some great bottom structure with the DSI unit.

This may be a lot simpler solution. Adjusts to any angle.

Could be the same or might be a tennis ball on a string. All things being equal, let's turn OFF the fishies and just use the raw sonar date (arches). To get the perfect arch the fish needs to be moving, the boat needs to be moving, and the fish needs to swim through the CENTER of the xdcr cone.That is what gives you the perfect arch. These arches will be all different sizes. I would bet you this.....in a lake full of 1# fish, your arches would appear different sizes and densities depending on their depth directly through the cone. (remember we are talking 'perfect' arches). Now if somebody in the middle of the knight dropped a tennis ball tied to a 5# weight with the ball 10' off the bottom, you certainly would NOT be able tell which arch 10' off the bottom was the ball. Now if you can't tell which one is the ball, how can you tell if it is a different species fish? Remember that only the targets within the xdcr cone will show as arches and also remember you will see partial arches, faded or washed-out arches which I believe are targets located between the center of the cone and the fringes of the outside on the cone. You can have a lot of fun and learn tons about your sonar if you spend the day on the water with tennis balls, empty soda bottles of various sizes and you can use rocks for weights. Take screen shots and study them later........lots to learn.

The pitot should have a small rubber tube that goes to the back of the speedometer. The paddle wheel will have an electrical connector on the end. You do not need either of those with your HDS units. The GPS speed will be far mor accurate than either of those sensore. Edd

The yellow wire is the 'wake-up' wire and you can use it to have other devices turn ON when you fire the HDS. Everything will work as you like and all you need to do is select where each unit gets its sonar data from. Do all this in the Network menu. The left sensor is a speed paddle wheel and the one on the right is a pitot pickup for a speedometer.

To add to what Wayne P. states, water temp at the depth you see the targets is crucial for the Salmonoid species. For instance, if you see targets at 45 feet and also at 70 feet in a lake holding Lake Trout and Kings, you would have a reasonable certainty that the targets seen at 70 would be your Lake Trout since they prefer temps 8 degrees colder than Kings do. I'm not sold on fish symbols either. I went out with a friend who is a Humminbird user. His unit was indicating large fish symbols at the 16 foot depth level, but, neither the WaterWolf camera or the bait indicated the same results. If you know your targets, fish finder and tackle, that's what you go with.

Gil Travis, or semperfifishing, is MR. Transducer in my book. He is the only person I know who studied this science in college and has worked in the field putting the knowledge to practical use. Please note tho, in his response he refers specifically to the Airmar M260 and makes no generalization regarding other transducers being run in dry air. I suggest, since you have the thread link, you PM Gil and talk transducers. He's a wealth of knowledge and doesn't mind getting people going in the right direction. If you go to the Vendor area of that forum you will find his blog, also full of great 411. Remember that SONAR is only an acronym for SOund NAvagation Ranging. The first article would have been more correct in referrencing a SONOGRAM in comparrison to SONAR. IMO Edd

OK so I read the entire article. It was difficult but I managed through it. I suggest everybody on this forum read it, and have your mind focused on your own experience as you do so. The ONLY thing I found worthwhile in that article was his referrence to Bruce Samson (Dr Sonar). The author undoubtedly has a strong knowledge of industrial Ultra-Sound but, 10,000 hours squinting at a sonar screen does NOT an expert make! He never qualified himself other than sitting in front of the screen for many hours and tying those hours into his industrial Ultra-Sound experience. No sonar commercial install experience, no sonar sales experience, no sonar troubleshooting experience or no sonar repair experience. For instance, this chap states; "The transducer needs to be nearly perfectly still, the fish needs to be nearly perfectly still, the fish has to be somewhat large and dense." to get perfect fish arches. Guys, this is absoultely backwards! Without movement you get only lines....NO arches. He even confuses SONAR for Ultra-Sound. He is unaware that SONAR is an acronym for SOund NAvigating Radar. Had he understood even the basics of sonar, I don't think he would have made some of his statements. I don't know that there is an absolute answer for the 'overheating' question, but I do know there is a lot more to transducers than he talks about. Edd

Could you share the link?

All the manufacturer's warn against running your transducer 'out of water for extended periods', but, never seem to say what an 'extended period' is. It doesn't need to be a high dollar Airmar like a TM185-HW as it could also happed to the P66. I have had my Lowrance transducers running in the shop for more than 2 hours at some times, and, when they finally fail I'm not sure anyone other than engineers could lay the blame on heat from that dry running. A person can scoff all they want until such time they need to replace one of those $1000 transducers, then, they will probably pay more attention to manufacturer's suggestions. I personally define 'extended period' as longer than 5 minutes, so anytime I am dry running a sonar transducer I will wrap the ducer in a cold soaking wet towel. If you have already 'accidentally' left the sonar ON for an 'extended period', the damage is done if any at all. No way to fix it now, so just wait till it fails, if it ever does, then replace it.

Without doubt the very best and easiest surveying method around! Just a few simple steps to creating a very accurate chart. One thing I would add to the proceedure is to add the ALTITUDE to your page Data Overlay and take a screen shot right after you launch. This way you have the most accurate offset when you upload your trips.

Haha OK

So we can have a difference of opinion on this. Lots of things come into play when mounting a TM xdcr on a boat and of utmost consideration is prop direction. Since the direction of rotation causes tremendous air bubbles (bad for sonar) on the opposing side, it is the main reason a starboard mounting is suggested. Most outboards have a right hand turning prop as you look at the prop from behind. The other things for mounting consideration is type of fishing, is there an off-shore bracket in use, single outboard or twins, and hull configuration. So maybe or maybe not........you're drilling the holes.

I never liked the '3-second' thing. Try different time intervals less than 3 seconds. Also, eleminate the fuse to see if it comes on without it. If it makes a difference, get another inline fuse holder and use it. How much voltage was at the Lowrance connector? Edd

My experience with iPad in open sunlight was never good. Too much concentration needed to see what's on the screen. But that said, the best iPad mounts come from Pro-Clip.

Yes you are correct! I don't know what I was thinking. The ONLY way he can double the capacity is to connect in parallel. Edd

Maybe you missed the part that said 4 batteries.

The answer is YES. Just wire the batteries in series and parallel. ie: 4 12v batteries each with 100 ah. In series+parallel you end up with 24vdc system with 400 amp hours. You can probably find some diagrams on Google. Edd

Go to 32g or less and you will be fine.

Too large. HDS has a 32 gig maximum.

The newer Opti Pro motors have a 60 amp, 756 watt belt driven alternator.......enough to keep everything at full charge while running the main. But the issue is charging ALL the batteries while on the trailer, AT THE SAME TIME. If it were me I would sell the 2 bank and replace it with a 3 bank smart charger.

Multiple maps on a single card is ONLY for HDS Gen2 and 3 units at this time. For Elite users, you still need a single map to a card. Edd

So Jim I'm sorry it has taken me this long to answer. Guess I don't have my notifications set up correctly. Your problem is easy to fix just DL each map to a separate Micro SD. One map per card for Elite.

Many benefits to upgrading to Premium. For instance, if you use HDS Gen2 Touch or Gen3, you can use color depth shading. You can customize the colors and depths to change. I am a Premium member and I love it! Edd