HDS 5 owners, can you help.

[Bri The Pom]

Im still having trouble with my hds 5x, it struggles to find bottom and when i get to about 8 knots it looses bottom again, spoken to lowrance in sydney,done the reset, done the upgrade, adjusted the settings and still no joy, so they suggested the unit or transducer is faulty send it back, but because the unit was from the us, i have to send it back there, so im in contact with them.( the downside to saving a few dollars).

What im after is someone with a hds 5 to come on my boat with there unit and compare it with mine, so look at mine, then plug in theres and see the difference, if any. hopefully this will say unit or transducer. This can be done anywhere close,so it wont take long and at anytime.

Any help appreciated.

Bri.

[aussie123]

It sounds more like incorrect tranny placement Bri.

Have you tried adjusting the tranny angle/position at all.

[Bri The Pom]

It sounds more like incorrect tranny placement Bri.

Have you tried adjusting the tranny angle/position at all.

Yes, i have altered the angle slightly and lowered it as well and im hoping to try it friday morning.Im noting the angle on paper aswell so i can see if its better or worse.These photo's are the new positions, as you can see there are no ribs on the hull so its clean water over the trany.

Anyone think the position is wrong.

[Bri The Pom]

[Bri The Pom]

[ipk18]

Have you set the trans up in the menu 83/200 or 50/200 I was going to say lower it before the photo but I think it should be right

[Bri The Pom]

Have you set the trans up in the menu 83/200 or 50/200 I was going to say lower it before the photo but I think it should be right

Yes, its the right transducer selected in the menu.83/200 hst wsbl.

[ipk18]

From the second pic it looks higher if you get a straight edge on the hull is the tranny below it

[Bri The Pom]

From the second pic it looks higher if you get a straight edge on the hull is the tranny below it

The transducer is in the Same position just different photo angle.

[dhess]

Just ditch the Lowrance and get a Furuno. :evil:

Transducer position is 100% fine. Putting it on an adjustable sliding bracket and lowering it may help a little, but go to low and you will kick up a rooster tail of spray that will drench your motor.

That transducer is a little anaemic 300w POS. I used to have the same one on my Garmin and its performance was pathetic. Anything over drift speed in 80m and it wouldn't show anything. Even in 30m you had to drive at a crawl. In the river it was fine. Ted had the same transducer on his Lowrance and he said it was rubbish. Daveylad had one on his Lowrance. Same thing, completely rubbish in deeper water. I experienced its performance many a time.

Travis (Homer4Duff) has a Airmar P66 transducer on his HDS8 and its deeper water performance is fine. Most of the guys on here that use Furuno's (myself included) use a P66 and it does the trick. Its a matter power. The stock tranny just doesn't have enough grunt despite the manual claiming it will read up to 500m (maybe in a crystal clear lake whilst not moving at all. If you want serious performance get a 1kw TM258 or TM260. But big $$$. Otherwise just order an airmar P66 with a lowrance blue plug and it will still be night and day difference in performance.

Give Lance a yell, he might be able to fix you up with one.

[dhess]

At second glance the tranny could definitely be angled down further. The rule of thumb is you have trannies facing slightly forward or parallel to the keel. Never tilted up so they face backwards.

[aussie123]

I also think it could be 10mm lower and angled forward a small amount.

If that tranny is only 300 watts I would do what Dom suggests and throw it away and get an Airmar P66,they are one kickass tranny.

A 300 watt tranny is only good for spotting tadpoles in a puddle.

[Bri The Pom]

I also think it could be 10mm lower and angled forward a small amount.

If that tranny is only 300 watts I would do what Dom suggests and throw it away and get an Airmar P66,they are one kickass tranny.

A 300 watt tranny is only good for spotting tadpoles in a puddle.

I will check on the power of the tranny, can you price a p66 lance, i angled the tranny up slightly because i thought as i was moving with the bow coming up, then the tranny would be flatter. If i lower it more i may have to grind the corner of the stainless bracket.

Cheers all.

[aussie123]

I will call my wholesaler tomorrow and see if they can get a P66 to suit a Lowrance.

They do not sell Lowrance themselves but do deal with Airmar so hopefully I can get a price.

[reef_raider]

could definately be angled down a bit, i have a hds 5 but with the 50/200 tdcr and it works at the boats top speed, have also seen these working on a mates bass boat at over 80km/h... you could if you wanted to upgrade to the 50/200 for about $250

[Bri The Pom]

could definately be angled down a bit, i have a hds 5 but with the 50/200 tdcr and it works at the boats top speed, have also seen these working on a mates bass boat at over 80km/h... you could if you wanted to upgrade to the 50/200 for about $250

I had that option when i bought the unit to get that transducer, but i only fish in 40 mtrs of water max, so the 83/200 should be fine,lowrance states it should still find bottom over 30 knots.

Look what im getting at 5knots

[Seiran]

Have you got it on the correct side of the boat in regards to prop spin direction?

[e-fish-n-sea]

i have the same sounder and i had the same problem i lowered it down in the water which cured it but gave me a huge rooster tail[looked like a jet ski]I manufactured a plate to stop it and it protects it from being hit

[Bri The Pom]

i have the same sounder and i had the same problem i lowered it down in the water which cured it but gave me a huge rooster tail[looked like a jet ski]I manufactured a plate to stop it and it protects it from being hit

Even lower than ive got it in the photo, I wondered if it needed to be lower.

[e-fish-n-sea]

mine is 1/2inch below the hull it gives me a good pic at speed

[straddiebrad]

mate when your at full pelt do you get any pray coming from it,i too think you should tilt it down a bit more,mine did the same thing.try setting the tranny to about 80 degrees you seem to have it above 90.brad

[Bri The Pom]

Well, after another trip out to solve the problem, it seems to be electrical interference from the motor. The transducer cable is cable tied to the loom the full length of the boat. When the boat is at rest the picture is good as soon as the engine is on and moving the picture goes.

So ive re run the cable down the other side of the boat and covered it all with split conduit. I will also lower the transducer and alter the angle before the next trip.

This photo is stationary,throttle on,motor off,motor on.

[dhess]

So in the photo are you stationary the entire time just revving in neutral?

Its good practice to run the tranny cable on the opposite side of all the other electricals but wouldn't have thought it to be much of an issue as every transducer cable I have seen is shielded.

[aussie123]

There is definitely a lot of interference there which shouldn't be there as the wiring these days are all shielded.

It can be coming in from the power wires as well so that may need eliminating as well if moving the tranny wires does not fix the issue.

You are running the gain a touch too high as well in that pic.

Switch the unit to manual and adjust the settings properly and see how you go.

Now back to the tranny adjustment.

The quickest and easiest way to get the tranny right is to set it at the deepest setting that it can go.

Go for a test run and then start adjusting the tilt angle.Go for a quick run after each adjustment and keep doing that until the image is perfect.

Don't worry about how deep it is or any rooster tail at this stage.

Once you have a perfect picture then start raising the tranny a fraction at a time and again go for a quick run to check the picture.

Keep doing this until you start losing picture quality again.

Once set if you still have a rooster tail you will need to fit a shield cover over the tranny.

If you try to adjust the angle while the tranny is set too shallow you will be there forever and will never get it to work.

[aussie123]

I finally had my wholesaler get back to me on the Airmar P66 price.

I have sent you a pm.

Thanks Bri

[Bri The Pom]

I finally had my wholesaler get back to me on the Airmar P66 price.

I have sent you a pm.

Thanks Bri

Thanks mate, i'll check it.

[Bri The Pom]

So in the photo are you stationary the entire time just revving in neutral?

Its good practice to run the tranny cable on the opposite side of all the other electricals but wouldn't have thought it to be much of an issue as every transducer cable I have seen is shielded.

Boat is stationary then motor on and moving forward then switch engine off then start engine but stationary.

[mick fillet]

hey Bri,mate you got duel batterys hey? maybe its like it is wired to the crank battery and not the house(2nd) batt.if sounder is already wired up to the house battery isolate the house batt from the cranking batt and see if it eliminates interferance from the engine.

[dunney]

Mate a 300w tranny should be more than enough to sort u out in40m of water. Even 80m of water isn't considered deep by the yanks standard.

Have u looked into adjusting your noise filter and possibly reducing the sensitivity a bit? I wouldn't suspect that having it on the cranking battery would be doing it but weird things happen.

Also triple check your connections. A mate of mine had a similar problem and it was either water in a connection or a dodgy connection

[Bri The Pom]

So i have redirected the transducer cable down the opposite side and covered it in split conduit and i lowered the tranny as well.

Went out this morning to try it again,seems pretty good stationary, as you can see by the video it still looses the depth and at slow speed, i filmed this on the 5m because you can see the tacho.

All the connections are fine.

I only have one battery and this is now wired direct to the battery with an inline filter installed.

I did notice the interference has gone when ticking over and stationary.

Any thoughts, were running out of ideas.

[aussie123]

That's not looking too bad there Bri.

You will always get some interference while starting the motor or traveling.

The bottom picture looks ok too.

All you can do now is start adjusting the angle of the tranny to try and get a better picture at speed.

Adjusting the noise settings can also reduce a bit of that screen clutter.

I think the angle of your tranny is the secret here,keep playing with it until you get the best possible picture.

I use a P66 on my tinny and I get to flat out at 45kmh and still have a great piccy.

It took a bit of mucking around but its pretty much perfect for me now.

You may be getting some dirty water across the tranny at certain speeds as well causing the picture to break up.

Realistically if that was my boat I would have mounted the tranny below your thru hull fitting,the deeper and closer to the keel line the cleaner the water and better the image.

[dhess]

Mate a 300w tranny should be more than enough to sort u out in40m of water. Even 80m of water isn't considered deep by the yanks standard.

Have u looked into adjusting your noise filter and possibly reducing the sensitivity a bit? I wouldn't suspect that having it on the cranking battery would be doing it but weird things happen.

Also triple check your connections. A mate of mine had a similar problem and it was either water in a connection or a dodgy connection

Sure that POS tranny will give you a reading in 40m or 80m but only when you are at troll speed in 40m or drift speed at 80m, otherwise forget about it. I have experienced the performance (or lack of performance) with that model transducer on my old setup and at least two other peoples setups. Get the 600w transducer and your problems will be solved imediately.

On my curent setup 600w is only just adequate in 80m anything over 20kph and you will not get all of the detail. A friend with the same sounder as me running a 1kw transducer gets perfect readings in well over 100m at over 50kph.

Its not only power in watts RMS, the higher end transducers have multiple elements and are way more sensitive.

e.g. an Airmar TM260 1kw tranny is 50 times as sensitive at 50kHz and 13 times more sensitive at 200kHz than a P66 which is already far superior to the transdcuer you have.

[aussie123]

Mate a 300w tranny should be more than enough to sort u out in40m of water. Even 80m of water isn't considered deep by the yanks standard.

Have u looked into adjusting your noise filter and possibly reducing the sensitivity a bit? I wouldn't suspect that having it on the cranking battery would be doing it but weird things happen.

Also triple check your connections. A mate of mine had a similar problem and it was either water in a connection or a dodgy connection

Sure that POS tranny will give you a reading in 40m or 80m but only when you are at troll speed in 40m or drift speed at 80m, otherwise forget about it. I have experienced the performance (or lack of performance) with that model transducer on my old setup and at least two other peoples setups. Get the 600w transducer and your problems will be solved imediately.

On my curent setup 600w is only just adequate in 80m anything over 20kph and you will not get all of the detail. A friend with the same sounder as me running a 1kw transducer gets perfect readings in well over 100m at over 50kph.

Its not only power in watts RMS, the higher end transducers have multiple elements and are way more sensitive.

e.g. an Airmar TM260 1kw tranny is 50 times as sensitive at 50kHz and 13 times more sensitive at 200kHz than a P66 which is already far superior to the transdcuer you have.

Now I have a good solution for you both.

Sell your P66 to Bri and I will get you a sweet 1KW for the right price.

[dhess]

Im keen but wrong plug for Bri

[aussie123]

Im keen but wrong plug for Bri

I think you can get the plugs changed easy enough

[Bri The Pom]

Im keen but wrong plug for Bri

I think you can get the plugs changed easy enough

Getting the plug changed will that reduce the quality of the picture in any way.

Your right Lance,very close now so i'll start adjusting the angle.But as you can see by the video that transducer should perform better than that in that depth and those speeds.

[dhess]

You can get an adapter plug so quality won't be affected as long there is a good connection. Copper is copper is copper. Having said that a wiring harness is probably as much as a P66 with the correct plug.

Just watched that last video and have to say that performance is really bad. IN 5m you should be able to pickup bottom at speed with even the weakest transducer that is even installed semicorrectly. I would be willing to bet that the transducer is a dud. It can and does happen.

[Bri The Pom]

I had an email of lowrance telling me to change a few setting and send photos of tranni position, ive also sent them that video, see what they say.

[Bri The Pom]

Well, Me again,

Had the email from lowrance telling me this and that,change this and that, finally took the boat out this morning to check if it works,but sadly No, so filmed it again to send back to lowrance and lets see what they say.

When i have both units on sonar its only really the one playing up badly - strange.

If your bored have a watch.
/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxGikrpiCKU&feature=plcp

[aussie123]

Are they both running off the same tranny.

If so you may have a problem in what ever junction/splitter setup that you are running

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