Topic: 998c hdsi

[Mesly]

When my unit is out of the water I ran the sensitivity on the 800 khz all the way up to 20 and my left side filled up most of the screen on the side imaging, but the right side only filled up half the screen. Looks like to me the sensitivity power on each side should be the same to get a good and equal reading. Should they be the same?

[rnvinc]

The sound pulse must have water as a medium to travel thru...

Because the screen will only display the processed return echo...you have no "real" return echo in air...

Check it in the water...

Rickie

[Mesly]

i Know the unit needs to be in the water to give a bottom and a reading, but the humminbird techs said you could test the sensitivity, contrast and brightness by running the sensitivity all the way up, and then running the contrast up and down. When you do this on my units the color from the sensitivity and contrast is not equal on each side, and the tech said that they should put out equal on each side of the side imaging unit. On the side that the whole screen colors in the unit always shows better and more detail than the side that does not go as high when I do the sensitivity-contrast test.

[Humminbird_Greg]

Welcome to the Humminbird Side Imaging Forums Mesly.

You need to test the sonar with the unit in the water.
If the unit is displaying anything than it is most likely noise which may not be equally present in both the left and right Si sonar beams, which may make not make any difference when the sonar is used on the water.

[Mesly]

I have tested the sonar in the water, and the side that the sensitivity shows to be higher when out of the water shows a better picture and the depth perception is a little deeper looking when in the water. The 998c hdsi is under cabelas warranty so I am just sending this one back. This is actually the third 998c hdsi that I have had to send back since getting the depth finder for Christmas! I am a big humminbird fan but starting to get a little frustrated. I have three of these and the other 2 work fine, but it seems like the third one has been nothing but a hassling problem. I have tried this unit on various bass boats and get the same reaction on every one , and all the boats have correctly functioning units on them now, but  this one has a bad reading on every one ( tried on 4 boats in fishing club). Humminbird techs say the transducer mounting is the problem. If so it would not be the same on the other boats. I will update you when the next one arrives, hope it is better. When I talked to the humminbird techs they said the sensitivity controls the brightness of the unit and that each side should put out the same brightness of screen on each side of the side imaging whether in or out of the water. the only difference is that in the water they said you get a reading of the contents below your boat, but they said your screen should brighten up the same on each side as you go up higher in the sensitivity. Like i said earlier we have 2 other 998c hdsi units and they brightened up equal on each side as I go up in sensitivity, whether in or out of the water. Just like the humminbird techs said.

[slackwater]

Out of the water, I've read, you should run the unit in simulator mode.
Simulator mode, I think I've read, the transducer is automatically in disconnect.
So all you have for tasting is simulator mode recording or your own recordings.

[Mesly]

I have spoken with the Humminbird supervisor J Trammel and a tech supervisor at Humminbird and the tech supervisor said that the way they first test a unit for sensitivity problems is to run the unit out of the water and adjust the sensitivity up to see if the unit is putting out the same on each sid e of the side image. This is not giving you a reading of any kind of structure, but the sensitivity along with the contrast controls the brightness and clarity of the processed sonar returns. When you run the sensitivity up the screen should brighten on both side imaging sides the same. I have three 998c hdsi units and the ones that puts out equal on each side imaging side picks up things that the other  never picks up.If your sensitivity is not the same on each side you are not going to get the same clear picture consistancy on both sides of your units( one side will always pick up more structure than the other side if your sensitivity is not equal).  We have tried all three of these units on  different bass boats with all three units and the  units that has the consistant equal sides works better on all boats we have tried them on in our fishing club. Out of the 14 side imaging units in our fishing club only six units out of the 14 are equal on the sensitivity when doing this test on the units. And all of the ones that have the equal sensitivity on the side imaging are showing the best pictures and are consistant on both sides of the units.