Humminbird Side Imaging Forums
Side Imaging Forums => 898c SI => Topic started by: gumbygold on May 06, 2013, 11:42:37 AM
-
I have a few issues with my 898 and as soon as I figure out how to do a snapshot I'll take one.
1) The depth will actually read pretty consistently up through 35mph. At trolling speeds, even <1mph in the coves, etc. I will see depth bounce around very rapidly, 6', 10', 4', 12', etc. It doesn't always happen but it happens enough to notice it.
2) The left side was ok for most of my 2 hours last night but near the end of the trip it became very dark and very difficult to read. The motor was trimmed all the way up. Any ideas?
3) The transducer moves around quite a bit within the bracket. For some reason I assumed it would be rock solid. So the bracket itself has no movement but the transducer has a bit of play within the bracket. Is this normal?
Chris
-
I have experienced similar things.
1) If you have your sensitivity cranked up you could be hitting a hard bottom and getting multiple returns from the signal bouncing back off the bottom to the hull to the hard bottom and back.
2) Keep in mind that water bottom falling away from you will be darker and the bottom sloping up from you will be brighter. were you running along a shoreline? Is it possible that this is what you were seeing. Did you try turning the boat to the opposite heading and see if the dark side stayed on the same side of the screen or switched sides? If it switches sides then it is not the unit.
3)If you are talking about the silver part of the bracket that should be normal as far as I know. If it was tightened down hard with no slack at all and you hit something it would not flip up thus causing more damage to the transducer.
The more time on the water the better. Take a day or even two to go out and get familiar with the unit. Take the manual with you. Another good resource is to do a youtube search on "Doug Vahrenberg". He has a lot of Humminbird specific how to's.
HTH
Greg
-
1) When you say “at trolling speeds”, is this with an electric trolling motor or the main motor?
Was there another sonar unit on at the same time?
Were you over a very hard type bottom when this happened?
Try adjusting the Surface Clutter menu the next time that it happens.
2) If the left side is still dark; check to make sure that the transducer has not rotated (when viewed from behind) and that the boat is fairly level. If the left side of the transducer is pointing more skywards it could cause a darker left Si sonar. Usually though it is due to some sort of partial blockage of the left Si sonar. In your case it could be something else like the left Si element starting to fail (hope not). Try and figure out what changed during your fishing trip (weeds on transducer?).
3) The movement of the transducer/pivot arm in the metal bracket is normal and a part of the kick-up design.