Topic: Shallow water trouble

[Dean Nelson]

Took a new helix 9 today and it had huge problems with water under 6 feet deep and the side scan was just a bunch of fuz no matter what depth. Just wonder if there is a setting I need to change or is the transducer not working right. When I got under three feet the sonar would start saying it was 10 feet deep or more which made auto chart live look goofy. This is what I saw in shallow.

[fishreed]

Try turning down the power or sensitivity.....you are looking at triple echos and that mean the factory setting of "10" is set way too high for 4 foot of water. Get out in deeper water and see what you got. 

[D S]

if its in switchfire mode max  then change it to clear

[ITGEEK]

I agree with fishreed.  In that shallow of water, set your sensitivity to the minimum.
Even that may be too much.

[Dean Nelson]

Well tried every different settings I could and results all the same. As soon as I got to less then 8 feet it would jump to the second bottom thus reading 10 feet deeper then it was. First pic is 83khz at 0 sensitivity switchfire to clear and the second is a couple seconds later. So is there another place to adjust power or is thing malfunctioning. Didn't have any problems like this with my 7.

[D S]

change the frequency to 200 kHz.......... u probly  don't need 83khz in that shallow of water
is the bottom hard???
I fish up to 40feet and never use 83
its worth a try
DS

[Dean Nelson]

200 was the original setting thar didn't work either.

[rnvinc]

Have you tried Restore Defaults ...??

Rickie

[Dean Nelson]

Yep.....mind you this problem started out of the box so theoretically it's started in the default mode. At this point it's going to be exchanged for a new one and will see if the problem is still present after. I have tried every conceivable setting and group of settings in can think off and that have been suggested and although the way the unit displays the data changes (sometimes drastically) the 7.5 foot barrier is always the same. Having never had this issue with my seven I have to belive it's a bug in this particular unit.

[fishreed]

It could be, but it might be a bad transducer too. If you still got the 7 and you know the 7's transducer is good....try using the 9 with 7's transducer.

[tschultz]

Try turning surface clutter up to 10 in shallow water!

Also transducer placement can have an effect in shallow water and side lobes reflecting off the bottom of the boat.  moving the ducer up 1/8" or another location may also work.

[Dean Nelson]

Nothing could fix it so exchanged it for a new one and all is well now. Well other then having to go back and forth a ton of times to fix the bad spots in the map. Do you know how many passes it tacks to to get the bottom from 100 feet to the three feet it really is!  Lol