Help W/ HDS 7 transducer placement and dialing it in on 1801

[Captain Frosty]

Hi there - I need a little help with my new hds 7. I installed it myself and followed the directions on transducer placement on boat but it doesnt seem to mark fish very well - or maybe I dont know what to look for. I'm not getting the arcs unless I'm stopped or putting along. And the arcs dont really look like the ones in the book - there more like frowns. But once underway I dont pick up anything that looks like arcs. I did switch it to the fish symbol and that seemed to work a bit better. It has the 50-200 transducer and is set for that. I fish in the ocean in cape cod bay and boston harbor so far - nothing over 100 ft deep. I've set it for general fishing - slow trolling - shallow water - all seem the same - it is on 200khz as well - Any help or pictures of placement is appreciated - A tutorial on how to use it would be great too - This is my first boat.

Thanks Eric

 

[windknotnc]

I anxiously await the response to this one...I will be putting a new depth/fish finder on my 21 and have delayed because I seemed to have the same problems with other units in the past.

 

[Captain Frosty]

i dont know I think I get a lot of cavitation as well...

 

[Grutus]

I went to the Fred Hall Boat and Tackle show in Del Mar and there a guy there Don Iovino Products who gave me a one on one tutorial on the settings for my Lowrance fish finder. I told him that I was fishing in the ocean and not it fresh water Hand written it was 1 1/2 pages long on the settings that I need to make on my gps/fishfinder. Now I could write them out and send them to you and it would take some work but I would do it if you thought it might help. Let me know. I have a 1800cc 1998 boat.

grutus

 

[windknotnc]

How about scanning them and emailing or posting as a picture

 

[Brent]

I dont know if this will help but found this
Sensitivity> auto
Colorline> 80%
Range> 150 ft
Frequency> 83 KHZ
Ping Speed> Max
Sonar Options-Palette>13
Tempeture Graph> off
Depth Line> off
Amplitude Scope> off
Zoom Bars> off
Fish ID> off
Settings-
Sonar-
Noise rejction>low
Surface Clarity> off
Scoll Speed> max
Manual Mode> on
Fishing mode> General Use
at
http://www.hammondsfishing.net/forum/sh ... .php?t=654

 

[johnsw]

I've got an HDS-5 on my 2120, and the definition of the arcs can be affected by the angle of the transducer to the bottom structure. To get a good arc, the beam needs to shoot as near vertical as possible. Problem is that the running angle is different at different speeds. If you're using the transom mount ducer, you may need to tweak the angle a bit to find the best compromise. If you're getting arcs going slow but they change when you go faster, then sounds like the angle might be close. But since the running angle changes when you go faster, it might off just enough to degrade the signal.

The theory behind a fish displaying as an arc is because the transducer shoots a downward signal that is cone shaped. As a fish enters the cone (either by swimming into it or you passing over it), the measurement is longer at the edge of the cone than it is when the fish is at the center of the cone. And as the fish exits the cone center, the distance again increases. This variation is what the finder displays as an arc. The best arcs are the ones passing directly through the center of a vertical cone. Any deviation will distort the arc.