Topic: help me troubleshoot

[gumbygold]

Hi again.  I have taken some screen shots of what I am experiencing with my SI unit.  The first one is the mounting location. 
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The first sonar image shows how I started out.  I had a strong right side reading and a somewhat weaker but still ok left side.  The motor was trimmed up here.


Now I pulled into a cove and went from outboard to bow mount and the left side disappears.  It's a small cove and it's not all that deep so I should see a very similar reading on the side.


Change locations again, oh, it's back!


Another example. 


I can't figure out the pattern as to why it comes in and out.  The bracket is rock solid and does not move.  Is this a mounting position issue?  Transducer issue?  BTW, I am getting decent depth readings up to 25 mph but the imaging is useless at that speed.

Another issue, I have a lot of disturbance showing up on the surface on the traditional graph.  It was windy this day but not very bad and it is showing disturbance 2.5ft down.  Is this a setting?  I set it to minimum sensitivity to tune out some of it.

[gumbygold]

The first two boat pics were upside down and I tried to fix it but it reordered them.  I am afraid to try again.  Hopefully you can make some sense of it.  The bottom line is the left side is flaky and I don't know what to do.

[ITGEEK]

BTW, I am getting decent depth readings up to 25 mph but the imaging is useless at that speed.

This is perfectly normal.

Your transducer installation looks perfect to me.
Are you running the newest software?
On my 1197, early on, my left side was also
fainter than the right side.  A later software
update fixed it.
That first picture of your left side imaging looks pretty dark.

You might want to try to unplug your transducer,
and inspect the connections (unit and cable end).
Then plug it in again.
It could be a loose connection in the transducer.

If all else fails:
Set your unit back to the default settings.
Then turn unit off and back on, then
go through and set your custom settings
again.  It makes no sense that it work, but
I'd try it anyway.
This also makes no sense, but if I had your problem, then
I'd try it:I'd take a plastic hammer and gently tap on the
bottom, left, and right side of the transducer a couple of times.
You might have to get the cobwebs out.

One final thing: is your battery good?
Fully charged, and load tested recently?
A weak/bad battery could cause all kinds
of things.

Under your sonar menu, there is a surface clutter
filter which goes from 1-10.
1 is the least amount of filtering, with 10 being the
most.
That surface stuff could be algae, plankton, debris,
and oxygen bubbles caused to waves.

[Humminbird_Greg]

gumbygold,
I would start by trying to test your Humminbird Si unit on someone else’s boat that is also running a Humminbird Si model unit (any model will work for the test).  Just connect up the transducer and power cable for the test.  Test their Si unit on your boat as well.  This will show if the problem is in your unit or boat/transducer.

[gumbygold]

gumbygold,
I would start by trying to test your Humminbird Si unit on someone else’s boat that is also running a Humminbird Si model unit (any model will work for the test).  Just connect up the transducer and power cable for the test.  Test their Si unit on your boat as well.  This will show if the problem is in your unit or boat/transducer.

I thought the transducer wire was not able to be disconnected from the transducer end, is that not true?  If so, this would be a major undertaking.

[Humminbird_Greg]

I mean that when you test your unit on someone else’s boat (and their unit on your boat) that you only have to plug in the transducer and the power cable connectors (not the GPS).  If the other person has a model different than yours you may have to take the cables out of the connector collector to do this.  the connector collector is the parts that hold the cable connectors to the unit and keep them plugged in.

[RBrad]

I had major problems when I first tried to mount my unit back in 2011.  I have a skeeter 2003 TZX190 where the sponsons protrude backwards.  I tried mounting on the jack plate, and with shield and extender.  I always had left side interference (mounted on right side of boat looking from back). 
I finally mounted the transducer on a pole so I could hold and position it in various locations and depths while watching the unit.  (Sort of like the new 360 degree mounting pole, wish they had that option for all transducers).  You might try this to see if changing locations might help.  From your pictures, I think maybe the motor ( not set back on like a jack plate) might be causing some interference as the transducer is not low on the transom.

Anyway, I could only get mine to work by mounting low on transom, where the transducer is just below the bottom of boat.  I'm thinking on your boat that would be just to the between drain hole and live well drain. Trying the pole mount and moving around would probably tell you if that would work.