Topic: 987C SI No image on the left side

[lacdubonnet]

Bought a 987C SI and installed everything on my boat this past weekend.  To say was disappointed would be a understatement.  I got the boat in the water and turned the unit on.  Right away I knew something was wrong, was only getting a image from the right side of the boat.  I followed the instructions when mounting to make sure motor was out of the way.  I have a 141C transducer on the left side of the transom and the 987 is on the right hand side.  Didn't want them to interfer with each other.

I spent 45 minutes on the lake trying everything, but to no avail!!!  Even put the motor all the way up, but got no image.  if I looked really close at the screen I could see very faint lines on the left side.  But nothing more than that, the right side works great.

All other functions on the unit work great, but I spent the money for the side imaging function for sure!!!!


Any ideas?

[stillbear]

Have you got the left side enabled ? Have you got a friend close to mount your head on his boat ?
Can you post  some images of your installation? Right and left side and rear shot.  Gary

[lacdubonnet]

Have you got the left side enabled ? Have you got a friend close to mount your head on his boat ?
Can you post  some images of your installation? Right and left side and rear shot.  Gary

I have the left side enabled yes.  It is showing both sides on the screen, just the left side is dark, where the right side is working fine.  I do not know of anyone that has side imaging on thier boat.  I phoned humminbird yesterday to ask a couple of questions.  I informed them that I also have a 797C SI on my boat as well, and that I could try that unit with the transducer for the 987.  The 797 has a XTM 9 HD SI180T transducer and the 987 uses a XHS-9-SI-160T and it says this tranducer will only work with 2 units and not the 797.  So know I'm not sure how to check to see if it's the transducer or the head unit.  At this time I do not have a picture of the head unit working or the install of the transducer as the boat is at the lake.

Any other thoughts?

[Humminbird_Greg]

Go ahead and test the 987c Si on your 797’s transducer.  Be sure and set the Side View Frequency menu to the 455kHz setting though.  Both of these units use the 455kHz Si sonar frequency so the 797’s transducer will work for the test.  This will show whether the problem is with the transducer or the unit.

[lacdubonnet]

Thanks for info Greg.  Much appreciated!!!  One question, it's easier for me to unhook the 987 from all the wires than the 787.  Can I just connect the 797 to the 987 transducer?  Or do I have to go with your above information.

Thanks again!!!

[Humminbird_Greg]

You can use the 797 to test the 987’s transducer.  The results will be the same in that we will know if it is the transducer or the unit that has the problem.

[lacdubonnet]

Awesome, thanks Greg.  That will be much easier for me to do.  I will not know till after next weekend, but I will post the results for sure.  My gut is telling me the transducer is not working properly.  I should have pictures of my install after this weekend though to post the pictures.

Thanks.

[lacdubonnet]

Have you got the left side enabled ? Have you got a friend close to mount your head on his boat ?
Can you post  some images of your installation? Right and left side and rear shot.  Gary

I have attached a few pics of the install.  Any thoughts?

[Humminbird_Greg]

With the motor trimmed up there does not look to be any obstructions that I can see that would cause the left Si sonar to not work.  Test the 797 on the 987’s transducer and see if you get the same results or not.

[lacdubonnet]

Well finally got out on the water this weekend to try and couple of things  Switched the 797 to the 987 cables to see what happened.  Well nothing did, and it looks like the transducer is shot.  Don't really understand how, as there is nothing physically wrong with it from what I can see. 

Here are a couple of pictures, only had a blackberry and it was bright out.
 

[lacdubonnet]

The first picutre is the 987 and the second one is the 797 hooked up to the 987 cables. Tried all the settings, but had no luck at all.  You can see there is a image on the right had side and nothing on the left hand side.

[Humminbird_Greg]

Yep, bad transducer.  Make sure you replace it with the correct one: XHS-9-Si-160-T