Last minute sounder help

Hi all

Heading out to the look in the 40s tomorrow off mandurah as the weather looks awesome.

The last couple of times i have been out this far my sounder, Lowrance Elite-5, only reads in water less than 30m deep, and doesnt read at all after driving at speed for a while. Taking its time to start reading again in the shallow water.

I have tried changing the sonar settings when im out there to a lower frequency, or as the sounder says "its deep setting."

Has anyone had a similar issue because it woudl be awesome if i could get it going for tommorrow.

Cheers


luke george's picture

Posts: 554

Date Joined: 13/04/07

 It should pick up much

Wed, 2017-02-01 19:32

 It should pick up much deeper than 30m, are you sure you haven't got it set on bottom lock? Also check that your transducer is positioned correctly on the hull. I know of someone who set up a transducer backwards and it would only read at low speeds, they changed it around and got readings up to 25 knots

jeddddy's picture

Posts: 104

Date Joined: 12/07/13

[img]https://plus.google.com

Wed, 2017-02-01 20:27

Hey mate, I'm pretty sure its on the right way. But to be sure thats a photo of it. Sorry i cant work out how to put it up on this website

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/photo/116672049052628005552/6382114374616449538?icm=false&authkey=CICAltXKhozyBg

Posts: 6265

Date Joined: 26/04/14

 have you hot your depth on

Wed, 2017-02-01 19:33

 have you got your depth setting on auto

jeddddy's picture

Posts: 104

Date Joined: 12/07/13

Thanks

Wed, 2017-02-01 20:10

 Yeah mate depth is on auto. I can tell as it changes to the depth in the shallower water.

Thanks anyway though i appreciate it

Daryn's picture

Posts: 166

Date Joined: 01/05/12

 I have the Elite 7 - the

Wed, 2017-02-01 20:19

 I have the Elite 7 - the transducer bracket it comes with needs a tighten everynow and then or you can't read at speed.

jeddddy's picture

Posts: 104

Date Joined: 12/07/13

 Cheers mate I will have a

Wed, 2017-02-01 20:30

 Cheers mate I will have a look at that

Posts: 41

Date Joined: 19/01/16

 Sounds like its loosing the

Wed, 2017-02-01 20:34

 Sounds like its loosing the bottom returns if it looses readings at speed then picks up again after a while in shallow water that may be bad transducer placement as mentioned but id try a couple of things ive mentioned bellow first befor fidling with it.

I had simlar sounder a fair while ago hds5 gen1 played up after 30m like yours. Id first check that the right transducers selected on sounder, there should be a silver tag on the cable up near where the plug conection to sounder is. 

Id also check the depth range like the other guys said, if ur still getting ur head around the sounder id have it set to auto and probly all the other functions as well, the depth/range function is basicaly to do with water depth and where abouts the bottom return is displayd on the screen.

From memory of setting my old sounder lowrance also sugest setting sounder to shallow water in system settings 

Couple of easy ideas for ya to check, bit late for you now but when you find out what transducer you have if you dont have the 200/50khz you might want to change to that one as its made for deeper salt water use. Think most of them sounders came out with 83/200khz made for fresh water lakes good luck tomorrow mate

Posts: 128

Date Joined: 07/12/15

Placement

Thu, 2017-02-02 09:10

 My 5 cents worth - I reckon it has to do with transdeucer placement.  You've got some funky chanels going on. Chanels will collect and funnel air bubbles, so not the best if you've got the transdeucer sitting in line with that.  I'd be looking at placing the transdeucer so it sits 10mm below one of the strakes and angled forward slightly so the bottom of the transdeucer hits clean water.  I've found using a piece of timber is great to get things lined up correctly.  Place it up against the strake and extend the timber past the stern. Will allow you to easily see where everything should be placed.

Had a similar hull when I had a Quintrex, and never had any issues.

jeddddy's picture

Posts: 104

Date Joined: 12/07/13

 Thanks mate, I will give

Thu, 2017-02-02 18:53

 Thanks mate, I will give that a go and let you know if it works next time.

Paul H's picture

Posts: 2104

Date Joined: 18/01/07

 Strakes themselves often

Fri, 2017-02-03 08:04

 

Strakes themselves often cause turbulence/air bubbles, it should ideally be between them, best bet is to have someone else drive and look over the stern whilst underway - best way to determine where you have clean non-airated water as all hulls are different.

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