Topic: Converting HB devices ci -> cxi (international version)

[ru_hum]

Hello,

Since recently guide explaining how to convert you HB device to international has been published. This was headache for many fishermen outside US after saving some $ and buying it on Amazon/Ebay to switch to metric system and change language. This also allowed some companies to provide gray "solution" installing hacked firmware for clients and making money this way. Whatever commercial reasons HB had in mind back in days they decided to have domestic and international version, they didn't implement the protection on hardware, but on software level. This never was a big deal for people, who can reverse engineer the software, now everyone can ci->cxi conversion.
As I see HB is loosing it's competition to Lowrance in sonar market (personal opinion), that also can be caused by this versioning, there is no need to keep this trick in secret.
The detailed walkthrough is available using the direct link to Medium.

Merry Xmas!

[rnvinc]

While I have no reason to doubt your findings or your purpose of the noted procedure info (it is quite interesting)  ... 

I should add that HELIX users with active warranty could compromise their warranty attempting a procedure not documented by Humminbird  ...

Users should call HB for more info  ...

1-800-633-1468

Rickie

[ru_hum]

In case of any concerns: before dealing with HB warranty service one can simply change SMDL parameter back to the original value using the same procedure.

[peterv6i]

It works..

I have done the conversion on my HB998 which was a domestic and now I can choose different languages and units..
Nice because I am more familiar with "meters" rather than "feets"

[Swann]

Unfortunately, it did not work for me. I was even trying to convert hexadecimal to decimal where I learned that 368(dec) = 170(hex) b/c my unit is a 598ciHDsi. I was careful about Case Sensitivity & even tried All Caps & all Lower Case and still didnt work. I even spoke with an independent authorized Humminbird Serice Rep about this and he says this is a Firmware issue that is Not So Easily Resolved via Software Plugin as U describe? Thanks, Sandro.

[gmtandi]

Tried today in my Helix 7 MSI G4N bought in the USA, this procedure is not working anymore. If anyone has any other procedure that works on G4N would be great!

Humminbird seems to be a good device, but having it only in feet, fahrenheit, and the clock limited up to UTC-4 makes it hard to use.  By here almost nobody knows HB devices, almost all of who i know use Garmin devices. HB makes it even hard for who is trying to test/bring HB for other regions. So from my point of view they make devices for US only. Who is outside of US should not buy it, even from local resellers.

[Swann]

It actually did end up working 4my old 598ciHDSI (which I don't own anymore) But maybe something from this link might help? Dunno? But what I do remember is that although I was able 2change from Imperial to Metric Units (I actually prefer imperial anyway b/c I work in a Toolroom weather I live in Canada or Not) it did Not yield the Language pack amongst a few other things But was still Nice that my Map Broadened from just the USA 2a Global Perspective.
(Hope This Helps):

https://medium.com/@ru_hum/below-is-instruction-how-to-convert-humminbird-5xx-7xx-99x-119x-helix-sonar-series-from-ci-to-2f1e5dd5777a

[gmtandi]

Thank you, already tried that, not working in newer generation devices (at least on my Helix 7 MSI G4N), would be great if that works but no luck with that. any other sugestion/hint is welcome.. seems that file is loaded but SMDL is not changed. I tried some other tricks on the file,  and it runs some commands to change views, however SET SMDL command has no effect.