Humminbird Side Imaging Forums
Side Imaging Forums => 898c SI => Topic started by: ilvtfly2 on December 19, 2010, 09:05:11 PM
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Good evening. I spent the morning hanging over the back of my boat at 45 mph looking for some smooth water area to mount my si transducer. I have a stepped hull and it rises nearly 8" on plane. There is no good place to mount the transducer. I am looking to mount the transducer on the trolling motor with the Transducer Shield & Saver mount. My issue is with the trolling motor itself. It is on a quick release mount and I remove it after every fishing trip. I am looking to add quick release connectors to the transducer cable but I am thinking that this will jeopardize the integrity of the shield. Has anybody done this with positive results? Any ideas/suggestions are appreciated.
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Hi :)
Get the shorter transducer extension cable, plug that into your front sounder and run the other end to an easily accesible point near you trolling motor.
When you remove the toller you just unplug it from the extension cable.
You may need to coil up the excess cable length from the transducer to keep it out of the way, but it all work a treat :)
I've never tried to shorten a transducer cable, wonder if that's possbile to neaten it all up ???
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Hm,
never thought about that possibility, but I guess that you can avoid the shielding problem by working precisely and accurate. When I extended my transducer cable for my tow fish I was looking to get the aluminium foils of the pairs as good as possible back in place and around the whole solder spot. It turned out good after some initial problems and the results I have with my set up are quite OK.
It's kinda tricky and needs some patience, but it's doable.
A different approach would be if you would unplug the transducer cable from the unit if you want to remove the trolling motor, but I guess it's too much hassle to get the cable sorted out and stowed away/ rearranged and plugged in.
EDIT: Something else just came to my mind. There was a discussion going on that it's not recommended to switch the unit on without the transducer connected. Allthough it was related to a problem caused by the transducer switch, I think it is worth to read:
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=1368.msg7435#msg7435 (http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=1368.msg7435#msg7435)
So if you are getting a disconnection plug in your cable, make sure you have the transducer hooked up to the unit before you turn it on!
Regards / Harry
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Thanks, guys. The extension cable will probably do the trick. I will do some more thinking on this since I am not sure that I want a long coil of cable at the trolling motor.
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The cable on the transducer switch from the unit to the switch is 55" long and with the added bulk of the switch, it would be a better choice to use the 10' transducer extension cable. Cheaper too.
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Wayne,
I'm not saying that ilvtfly2 should buy a transducer switch to solve the connection problem, but he should read the linked thread.
The transducer switch would in deed not be an alternative ;).
Regards / Harry
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Roger, the transducer switch is a good idea for a shorter "jumper" but the cost is more and the length is only 1/2 of the shortest transducer extension, so the trade-off is not very attractive.
Unplugging and plugging-in the transducer cable into each is the same.
I already have a switch (don't use it) but wouldn't hesitate to use it for the purpose stated.
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Harry is right on not having a cable plugged in and no transducer attached. It is ok to not have a transducer attached to the unit but not with a cable like the 10 foot extension cable as the connection.
We had to make a short 16 inch cable to mount to the unit and then from there an extender cable and the transducer. That way we could be portable in a box without having to have the transducer attached in case we forgot to do that when turning on the unit.
If you want to shorten the transducer cable remember that in doing so you make a cable to cable splice and connection exactly. The transducer to connector does some connection grounding and it is hard to duplicate that. So just make a wire for wire connection.
Chuck (sonar2000)
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Decided to go with the extension cable. Running the splitter for the thru hull and the si transducer at the tm. Thanks for all of the great info.