Topic: 798 crashed

[stuart]

had my 798 out today,was working fine,pulled into a cove and caught a couple fish,went to leave and the two D sonar was blank.side imaging was still there but it wasn't right very slow scroll speed and just didn't look right. two d sonar totaly blank.help

[stuart]

went back to the lake later in the day and now the unit is working fine. can't understand it but it is working again.

[RGecy]

[xd35]

What is going on with these 798 units

[RGecy]

I can't believe no one has said anything about my Gremlin! 

As for losing the 2d, its possible it was just a loose connector, or just a quirk in the software that took rebooting it to clear it out.  Hense the Gremlin!

Robert

[Jolly Roger]

I can't believe no one has said anything about my Gremlin! 
Robert

Finding him chewing on my Humminbird? -->

[sonar2000]

Your gremlin.   I thought that was you.....    

Software today is a bit fragile be it Humminbird or other programs.  Some of the integrity depends on who is writing the code.  If is a single group the code maybe fine but if sections are vended out then the final result may not get all the test needed.  HB does a good job of coding but on another thought  when you download the code it can get corrupted during the internet process.  Dont get frustrated if a suggestion is to delete and reload.  We see some success for this step.   Chuck

[Humminbird_Greg]

Actually Chuck I didn’t think that Robert had quite that many gray hairs on his head – yet!

Stuart,
Check that the transducer connector comes all the way to the top of the connector holder that is in the unit mount.  Sometimes these are loose and can cause a problem.  Best bet would be to see if there is anything on the boat that seems to be causing this to happen like using the trolling motor or a second sonar unit being on at the same time.  If none of that shows a definite cause than I would see about testing your 798 unit on someone else’s boat and their unit on your boat as well.  This will at least show where the problem is at: in your unit or on your boat.

[terry0540]

My 798 has similar problems with slow scroll speed and loss of 2D on plane.
I first noticed after Jan software update. It took 2.5 min. to scroll across the
screen at a setting of 10.
Reloaded old software with no improvement then back to the latest.
Unit is now at Humminbird for repair

[RGecy]

If the unit is losing bottom lock, then it will listen longer for the ping and will slow the scroll speed down to almost nothing.  This is why I set max depth to 150' for my area.

Robert

[rnvinc]

I've got mine set at 50 because there is very little water in my home lakes deeper than that...

If I understand the manual correctly....it says that if the SI distance is more than the max depth..the unit will default to the SI distance anyway....

[littleman]

i hope everone is more satisfied with there 798 than me wish i had not let my 30 days go by. i can go over the brush pile i put out and can not see it . and this stuff about being able to recognize  i sure don't believe at least not mine .i bought a porkie pine to put out for crappy which consist of a big barrowel you cant see it at all .look like a moon surfice , and whats so bad is the old unit shows thing better. and what about the sales man tell in  you  that you can even see fish. what a joke . I am so disappointed wish i had someone that could help me . I live near north myrtle beach and have a house on lake wateree  that's where i have used it , all help will be appreciated . that's lake wateree south carolina thanks

[salvor6]

Littleman put your 798 for sale on Ebay. They are going for big bucks there. You might be able to get all of your money back.

[Jolly Roger]

Littleman,

what are your settings and where can't you see your "target"? In 2D or SI?
How fast are you going when scanning? What's the depth of your target?

The Birds are good units and I hate to see someone who's not satisfied. Lets get this thing hummin'!

Regards / Harry

[littleman]

sure could use the help  the water is 6 ft  i go by at different feet start about 10 and keep going up  but the si does not show even the tree and nothing of the porkie pine  barrowel. the i get aggravated and start moving  things  and it gets worse . is there a standard setting for Si to  have a starting point. wish i knew how to video so i could put it on here and let you see it and tell me what I'm looking at . i looked at other s and what they say are fish then i have a million because mine has thousands of whit lines another thing would it be nice if it were in front in stead of behind you . when you see it it already gone.any help  will be welcome

[littleman]

jolly roger if can tell me any thing i sure would like  to know me and my fishing Buddy's have try ed ever thing and they want to go back to the old  finder

[Jolly Roger]

Hm,
tricky tricky tricky....

6 ft isn't much depth, but let's start here.

Your side range setting should be 2 - 3 times the water depth your in. So at 6 ft you should set it to max. 18 ft side range. This is the best compromise between details shown on the screen to side range. If you set your side range further out, you will loose some details on your screen. The 798 doesn't have a big screen so you're a bit handicapped here.

Next thing which is essential is chart speed in relation to boat speed. I wrote something about it here:

http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=242.0

If you set your chart speed too high, the images on the screen will be stretched. If it's set too low, the images will be shrunken on the screen.

You're talking about white lines. That sounds like electrical interference. Is your trolling motor running while scanning? That's one of the most propably reasons, 'cause electric trolling motors emit electrical energy that can be picked up by the electrical system of your unit.

Is your unit hooked up to a single battery or are there other electrical users running while you scan?

To avoid electrical interference Humminbird offers a choke kit for this. I would also suggest you use a separate battery for your 798. This would make sure that no other users will emit interference to your unit through the wiring.

I bought a separate battery in February to run my 981 to accomplish this. I haven't tested this set up yet, but I'm confident that this will eliminate any interference.

About seeing what is in front of you: Not possible with SI, because you have to pass the objects / area first to emit and receive the sound wave to them / it and their echo.

As for making recordings or snapshots. You need a SD card to do this. I use ScanDisk extreme III 2 GB cards and have good results with them. If you go for higher Gigs, make sure you have a HCSD compatible card reader (everything bigger than 2 GB is "high capacity", HC stands for "high capacity").

To do recordings, set your unit to "advanced user" mode in the settings tab. You can see the snapshot / recording view on your unit after choosing in the views displayed.
To start a recording go to the snapshot/ recordings screen and hit the menu button. Scroll down to "start recording" and use the right cursor to start the recording. You can stop the recording in any view by pressing the menu button again and scroll to "Stop Recording" and then using the right cursor again.

To download your recordings / snapshots place the SD card in your card reader and down load the from your SD card to your PC. You can post them here afterwards to give us an impression about what's going on.

Pictures of your mounting place of the transducer on your boat will also help a lot. Make them from straight behind and from both sides with your engine in up and down position.

Let's get rolling...
Harry

[terry0540]

Received my repaired 798ci SI Combo and took to the water scroll speed was corrected until
I started to RECORD then it started to crawl again. I talked to Robert for help and found that
I had set the PING rate incorrectly it should be set to AUTO. Returned to the water today
and my problems are gone.
Terry0540

[littleman]

thinks  harry i am going to get the card to record wish i had bought the bigger screen should sell mine and get bigger .do you just use a battery just for the unit. i hooked mine to a hot wire in the fuse box. so that's a  no  no i never thought about  having it on only 18 ft i had it on 50 ft also i had the chart speed on 10 no no to

[Jolly Roger]

Good to hear you got your stuff sorted out Terry!

Littleman,
I use the new battery only for the unit, nothing else is attached there. I bought a 90amp/h battery for this purpose. Quite big I know, but it will last quite some time until it's drained and then I just switch it with my starter battery and have a full battery while the drained one will be recharged by the engine.

If you want to check if you have interference coming to your unit from other devices on your boat, turn on the unit and leave everthing else off. Then start every other device on your boat one by one and watch your unit. You should see what causes the interference this way.

Chart speed at 10?
Whew, way too fast! Keep your boat speed at max. 6 mph and see what you can get on the screen with chart speed set to 7. I try to keep my boat speed at 6 Km/h and run with chart speed set to 5.

50 ft side range at 6 ft water depth?
This will size down the details you can see on the screen.

If you're not satisfied with your screen size, follow salvor6' advice and sell your unit on EBAY. Go for a 898 or 998 or even a 1197. The bigger the screen, the better!

I moved my 981 from the dash to the ceiling of the hardtop to have it closer to my eyes. Not that I'm getting old, hehe, but there I don't have to hug the dash board to get a closer look if I notice something interesting. 

Check what you can get out of your unit with the new settings. I'm confident that you will be more satisfied with it when you are getting more familiar with it.

Regards / Harry