side imaging sonar issue

[Chrisper4694]

If that statement about voltage is true I'm going to be pissed. They told me I could run the ff on a 10amp battery and there is no way it's holding that voltage very long. I really hate technology honestly, what a part n in the ass. I just want to fish and now I spend money on this crap and have to fiddle with it forever to try to get my worth out of it.

Thanks a lot jimmy, I'll test/try the things you say. Appreciate the info.

[Rich196]

Chris, I assume this is the only one your running at one time? On my buddy's boat, he was picking up interference with another system we were running, and also had interference with the trolling motor, it was also a hummingbird. Hope this helps.

[Ken Lyons]

I don't know what unit you're running but a fully charged 10 AH will run a pretty good sized unit for a long day before it gets down to 11.7 but not two days.
I forgot about the ferrite ring trick. Will try it .
I have seen videos where they dealt with the problem by simply grounding the TM housing.
My first unit gave Humminbird its name with its sound. Now I have a transducer that's 9 inches long. What a country!

[Rich196]

Chris, I'm posting this because this never happened on my boat before, Tuesday after work, I hit the Squan as always, half way through the night, I noticed my down vision, and side imaging were very pix-elated, and hard to read, long story short, I have my Lowrance HDS 7 on the 12v strter battery, and always keep it charged, well for some reason the other night, the battery must have drawn down, not low enough to kill anything, I went home, and gave it a overnight charge, and yesterday it worked PERFECT. When I checked the voltage before charging it was at 11.1 Volts... Just a thought.

[Ken Lyons]

The FF itself needs 8 volts to run. They all have voltage regulator circuits that reduce whatever the battery is putting out to 8. What can be confusing is that the voltage reading across the terminals with no load is always greater than under load. If your getting 11.1 with no load you really have nothing left. The relatively small load imposed by the FF could easily drop the output voltage under 8. Most of the time the FF jousts quits when this happens.

[Chrisper4694]

I have two newer 9ah batteries. I've tried them both. Right off the bat fully charged, it's still pixelated on either one. So I don't think that's my problem. These batteries last about 7 hours or so, not all day. Helix 7 si gps is the unit.

[Jigman13]

Toss it overboard and use a paper topo map. Less aggravation and cheaper lol...

[Chrisper4694]

Tell me about it

[jimmythegreek]

you should be able to run the unit of a ice battery no problem for at least a few hours if its fully charged. You didnt say if you were having the issues all the time or if you tested w TM on or off. Do that and reply back here. Im not gonna be in the boat for a few weeks yet so I couldnt rly help to test your unit on my transducers, that is the best way to check, maybe you know somebody that has a Hbird with down or side either ducer will work to check with. Make sure in you transducer selection you have the right one selected, you dont want to pick HD sidescan if you have that option you have the compact sidescan w the Helix

[Chrisper4694]

didn't even know it was an option to choose the wrong transducer...i really don't have the slightest clue when it comes to this technology...