I have a problem with my huminbird fish finder, maybe someone could suggest
a solution for me.

It's a wide portrait with a tri-beam transducer attached on the transom. The
transducer is detected by the fish finder, and I have reset the unit to the
factory defaults and tried different settings to try & get it to work
properly. The water temperature gauge works correctly.

If I am in what I know to be about 15ft of water... the depth that is
displayed numerically is like... 549ft or so... give or take a few 10ft. If
I set the depth range to 30ft..... the terrain that is graphed on the screen
is what I believe to be correct... meaning that the bottom shows to be in
the middle of the screen.... 15ft. This works at other depths that I have
tried. The speed also shows 0.0 always as well.

Hopefully this was explained correctly.... maybe someone has a suggestion I
could try. I'd sure appreciate it!

"Habda" wrote in message ...
I have a problem with my huminbird fish finder, maybe someone could suggest
a solution for me.
snip

Presumably you've checked the easy stuff (transducer not dirty or
slimy, connections to back of headunit corrosion free and appear to be
sound etc.)?

Do you get the screwy depth readings at all times, or only while under
way?

If the 549' depth reading happening when you are under way, say, anything
about an idle. Then you need to adjust your transducer's alignment with the
hull. Generally, the front of the transducer should the slightly higher than
the rear. The bottom of the transducer should be just a little below the
transom, about 1/8"-1/4". What the adjustments are trying to do is get a
clean water flow around it (no bubbles and minimum turbulence ) .
For the speed, maybe your transducer is missing the optional paddle
wheel/temperature sender? Temp and speed are optional on some of the
Hummingbirds.
Most units like Hummingbirds may never read properly while planing. If you
are getting a useable graph then things aren't so bad.

--
Ron White
Boat building web address is
www.concentric.net/~knotreel

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 21:28:25 -0500, "Habda"
wrote:
I have a problem with my huminbird fish finder, maybe someone could suggest
a solution for me.

It's a wide portrait with a tri-beam transducer attached on the transom. The
transducer is detected by the fish finder, and I have reset the unit to the
factory defaults and tried different settings to try & get it to work
properly. The water temperature gauge works correctly.

If I am in what I know to be about 15ft of water... the depth that is
displayed numerically is like... 549ft or so... give or take a few 10ft. If
I set the depth range to 30ft..... the terrain that is graphed on the screen
is what I believe to be correct... meaning that the bottom shows to be in
the middle of the screen.... 15ft. This works at other depths that I have
tried. The speed also shows 0.0 always as well.

Hopefully this was explained correctly.... maybe someone has a suggestion I
could try. I'd sure appreciate it!
==========================================

Some things you might try to see if it makes a difference:

Decrease or increase sensitivity.

Explicitly select wide beam and/or narrow beam.

Check transducer mounting - should be about even with the bottom of
the hull.

Try unplugging and replugging your display head a couple of times to
clean the contacts.

Turn the unit off and on to reset it.

No guaranty, but these sometimes work on my Hummingbird.

"Habda" wrote in message
...



If I am in what I know to be about 15ft of water... the depth that is
displayed numerically is like... 549ft or so... give or take a few 10ft.
If
I set the depth range to 30ft..... the terrain that is graphed on the
screen
is what I believe to be correct...

When you turn the unit on, does it come up in the last mode you selected, or
does it always start at some default?

It sounds to me like the gain is set too high for proper operation in
shallow water. If the unit is in a mode where it automatically selects the
appropriate depth range then it can easily get confused if the gain is too
high.

Here is what happens:

The transducer sends out a pulse of sound and then waits for an echo return.
The first echo it gets could be from the bottom, or it could be from a fish
swimming by so it will note the arrival time and keep listening. The longer
it waits represents a deeper depth, which also means that the expected
strength of the signal will be much less. To compensate for this the unit
will increase "turn up the volume" the longer it waits. The last echo that
it gets it considers to be the bottom, and it selects a depth range that is
appropriate.

If you are in shallow water and the initial gain is set too high, the unit
gets fooled by reflections. The original signal travels down and bounces
off the bottom. The returning signal is very strong because it hasn't had
to travel very far. This strong signal bounces off the bottom of the boat
and heads back to the bottom. A second bounce off the bottom and you get a
second reading that is twice the actual depth. This continues, giving you
echo returns at 1x depth, 2x, 3x, 4x, etc.

I know that I can get three bounces off of mine in an actual depth of 20
feet and off a very soft, muddy bottom. You seem to be getting 40 bounces,
which seems to be a bit much. Are you over a hard, rocky bottom?

If you are getting the bounces then you should see lines every 15 feet on
the graphical display. Of course, a line every 15 feet on a depth range of
600 feet would pretty much make the display a solid mass of lines.

So, long story short: turn the gain down. Or give it a clue by manually
selecting the depth range.

Rod