Topic: humminbird 180

[mel]

hello all,
first post, new to this forum not so new to side imaging. After reading alot of posts I can see there are many very knowledgeable people on here, so I thought I would post my latest project in hopes of getting a little feedback and some ideas on how to improve. After seeing and reading about the humminbird 360 I thought i would make my own. I am a fishing guide and the fish I target are usually in open water and are not very structure oriented, finding fish and determining their direction is my objective. So here's what I did, started with a 3/4" copper pipe and put a 1/2" pipe inside with a plastic bushing to take out play, made a plastic base to go on top, threw in a small geared motor and speed controller, fab a pvc housing and top. on top of this on the 1/2" pipe I made a small plastic disk with holes drilled 20 deg. apart with 2 pegs that I can move to each hole to limit rotation. by moving pegs I can chose rotation between 60 and 180 deg. in 20 deg. increments. The pegs trip reversing switch that changes direction of rotation. With speed controll I can adjust speed from approx 1/4 rpm to 3 rpm. Finally attached si ducer to 1/2" pipe and connected it to my 997c si. One thing I need is a way to disconnect ducer cable near top of housing without degrading signal, as of now I don't have any noticeable noise or interference. any advice or ideas would be appreciated. I know it don't look as good as a humminbird and I don't have a way to display info like the real thing, but at less than $75 not incl. ducer I can live with it. pics on the way.

[Jim Jack]

Mel.
I don't have any advice but I sure do like what you have done. Can you post a screen shot of the picture you do get? Are you selecting just one side to display on screen when rotating?

[mel]

the screen views look no different than the transom mount. the only real advantage for me is being able to see around the boat without spinning in circles till I'm drunk, used this technique for few years. also when i see fish with the transom mount and i turn the boat to go to them i cant see them till i get to them or miss them alltogether. i just got the thing running this weekend so in practice I'm not sure how i will use it in all situations, but i assume i will use both sides when drifting or moving very slow and one side with about a 80 or 100 deg. sweep in front of the boat when trolling