Topic: Brand new 998c SI HD!

[dmoss69]

I just ordered my 998C SI HD unit from universal mania, and it should be arriving tommorow.

I'm mounting it on the back of a 16ft hightide, using the transom mount.  I have a short shaft 40hp yamaha, non-tilt and trim. 

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome, I have never had one or used on of these units, so I'm as green as they come. 

Updates or Maps or anything else needed, or is it good to go out of the box?

Thanks

David

[staoB regnaR]

I ordered the navionics mapping chip for mine. My next chip will be lakemaster, if I go with humminbird on my new boat.

Navionics has regions for each chip, with a lot of lakes covered. They do have good contours, but lack some of the features that Lakemaster has. Lakemaster doesn't have as many lakes, but they have some really cool highlighting features for depths, and they have great detail and contours. I should also add the ipilot capability if you have a ipilot minn kota.

[ITGEEK]

This question has been asked a few times before.

Here are some replies you might want to look through:
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=671.msg3643#msg3643
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=1050.msg5537#msg5537
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=4457.msg27673#msg27673
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=1410.msg7617#msg7617

[hvychev77]

it does have everything you need to go out of the box 99 percent. The only thing you may have to do, depending on mounting location, is extend the power supply cable. Not a big deal, just a little soldering and some heat shrink tubing and you're off. I'm new to the same unit and can tell you that it's like fishing blind your whole life, and then obtaining the gift of sight! I used a ram mount for mine as well, and it's a solid unit. you'll find that a lot of folks lose the depth reading at higher speeds as well with these really large transducers so, i would suggest doing some research and reading on that, which in turn would help prepare on installing transducer. Just my 2 cents.......all in all, i love mine.

[dmoss69]

 

I got it hooked up today!  The transducer is mounted, luckly the old depth finder on the boat was a humminbird, and had the same exact metal bracket on the transom already, to that was easy.

I made a bracket for the GPS puck, should get it finished in the morning.

Picked up a water resistant fuse holder, new fuses, some heat shrink wire connectors, so I should have the power wire ran in the morning also.

Then at the lake hopefully tommorow evening, if not, defin by Monday morning will be in the water!

Thank you for all responses, I will keep yall up to date on progress.  I'm hoping to stop by wallmart on the way to the lake and picking up a SD card.

Thanks

D Moss

[LocDown]

After getting on the water, make sure you get clean readings from both left and right side of the SideImaging sonar and make sure you don't get any interference with your trolling motor if you have one.

[dmoss69]

alright yall, problem arises!

At first, I hooked it up, and everything works perfect!  we trolled, found fish, and got so happy we saved the image for about 10 minutes so we could get back to the dock.  (phones were at the truck.)

So we the pic, and powered the unit down.  finished watching the super bowl, and went back out to catch fish, and I have NO SIDE IMAGE!!!   There are 2 small thin lines indicating the bottom, but nothing inbetween the boat and the bottom. 

The other sonars seam to indicate everthing, but the down imaging and side imaging in not showing anything. 

What in the world can cause this?  It worked perfectly on the first fire up, and then after powering it down, nothing.

even the GPS worked, putting us back on the spot where we marked eariler, but the imaging didnt work.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks yall....

[ITGEEK]

Have you looked at your transducer.
Maybe last time out, you hit something and it got bent or
there is mud/debris on in.

I would fully charge your battery, and load test it, and check all connections.
Check transducer cable for nicks/kinks.

As a last resort, reset your unit's settings to default and recheck.

[dmoss69]

Dont know what in the hell got into it, but I hooked it back up the next morning, and it worked perfectly fine.  I went back out to the spot where I thought it was fish, and i was just some kind of undergrowth, but it was still nice to see.

I still have to work with this so I can recognize fish when I see them.  The only way I see fish it when I put the fish ID on, and it indicates a fish.

Any colors in particular that is easier to see fish with besides the amber/orange?

Thanks yall!

[LocDown]

In 2d I use the green/red default colors. I've seen people use the lowrance colors. It's all user preference.

..As for figuring out what is fish, that will take a little bit of time but viewing both 2d and DI in splitscreen will give you a good idea of what it is until you understand what you're seeing on the SI screen.
Best advice I can give you is about chart speed:
0-2mph about chart speed 1. .so maybe 1-2mph per increment  ..depends on your liking. And don't expect to see SI very well above 7mph ..some do ..I don't.

[dmoss69]

I did notice that the SI image was good from about 1mph to 5mph.  The faster I got in that range, the better is seemed to work.

[ITGEEK]

Fish are supposed to show up as hooks, or sort of
shaped like a boomerang.

The nice thing about using the fish id, is that you
will still see the hooks.

[Midtin]

I'm in the same shape as you are.Except "GREENER" I have a 17 foot alum boat with a 30 hp tiller steer.

I'm still setting it up.I'm old and slow.This stuff has just about used all of my brain cells up

I'm hoping to hit the water next week It's hard to work when you have your fingers crossed

Wish me luck, MT