Lowrance Elite 4 Chirp Problems

[spencer12]

Hey guys I recently installed this depth finder to my boat. I can't figure out what's wrong with it. The transducer is installed flush to the bottom of my trolling motor(jon boat) and while sitting still the screen is almost unreadable I'll post some pics later but there's colors everywhere the bottom is not reading solid and there's vertical streaks everywhere. Any suggestions?

[MDBowHunter]

Sonar only works while your moving, if you standing still it will stall. Try moving a little and it should pick back up and look normal as soon as you start moving again.

[spencer12]

Sonar only works while your moving, if you standing still it will stall. Try moving a little and it should pick back up and look normal as soon as you start moving again.

Yeah that was my mistake on the sitting still. It's doing a bit better now, but it still has a ton of clustered vertical blue streaks any ideas?

[scaleface]

I have an Elite 3 with transducer mounted on trolling motor and all it would show was vertical lines . I had a broken transducer cable .

[spencer12]

I'm back home now, I was posting from the water earlier so I didn't feel like going into detail on my phone. Anyways the elite-4 showed the depth perfectly. It's just the picture was just lines of color everywhere for the most part. It would clear up some at times. I mainly fish soft bottomed lakes with this unit anywhere form 5-10 feet deep.  Any suggestions?

[Wayne P.]

A picture of what you are seeing would be helpful to determine what, if any, issue you have.

[Senko lover]

For some reason, the "chirp" sonar cracks me up. 

Try chirping back at it.....sometimes you've got to coax it into working lol. 

[Wayne P.]

For some reason, the "chirp" sonar cracks me up. 

Try chirping back at it.....sometimes you've got to coax it into working lol.

It's more than just CHIRP.

There is true CHIRP with the very expensive transducers.

There is cheap CHIRP with a standard transducer.

Some units have WiFi.

So you have CHIRP, Cheap, CHIRP, Tweet.

[Comfortably Numb]

Reset to defaults and start over

[RAMBLER]

I had a problem like that on my Elite 4 (minus the chirp).  I found out that there is a zoom feature.  If you look at the lower left hand corner of the screen and in very small font is a 2 or 4, it is zoomed.  Press the minus button until that disappears and the display may clear up.  Another thing that helped was to turn off the auto sensitivity and reduce the sensitivity until the screen clears up.  Reducing it too much will cause it to not show fish.  Having it too high will show every little scrap of weed and blow it out of proportion.  Mine might chirp but I wouldn't know it because my hearing is bad and I don't hear high frequency. 

[tomustang]

Photo would help, also whats your settings?

[spencer12]

Sorry guys been away a little while. I think the (Or actually I almost know) the problem is "interference" with my trolling motor. I have both the trolling motor and unit connected to the same battery but connected away from each other. I really hope I can figure out a solution without having to lug 2 batteries in this small boat around all the time. My settings are:

freshwater mode

sensitivity around 70-76%

color depth around 80%

surface clarity High

Noise level High

 

I've attached a "good picture" this is the best I can get it but as soon as I pick up speed it starts getting worse. It starts showing yellow balls of color small fishy looking blobs that arent fish etc etc when I know there isnt anything below me. Unless the entire 100 acre lake has schools of shad and fish every foot of the lake from the bottom to the top I know it has to be interference. It really isn't  a problem finding depth and structure it does that perfectly its just showing a lot of unnecessary things. Again this is a good picture I took only because someone asked me how it was working and of course I wanted them to think I was a tech saavy electronic fish pro. When I turn the sensitivity down to around 60% most of it goes away I'm just scared that this may cause me to actually miss true fish arches. What do you all think? Is a 50-60% sensitivity to low for spotting fish or no?

[Jig Man]

I'd reduce the sensitivity just a tad and see how it does.