[HarvMcNasty]

Hey guys, I have a HDS5 Gen1 with a transducer that shoots through the hull of the boat. What is the best way to make this thing more accurate and efficient. It seems to lag or have large vertical blocks running through the screen while im moving at almost any speed. I cant even be in idle with it messing up. I have to be stopped for a minimum of a few minutes for it to start graphing. This makes it very hard to take time and graph a lake and find a few spots I want to concentrate on. Like finding submerged structure and what not or even schools of shad. They will not show up! Im just wondering if maybe the previous owner had it setup differently than what I need it for. If this helps any, the water is a maximum of 55' deep with it mostly at the 1'-25' range with water clarity between 3'-5'. Any help getting this thing at maximum efficiency would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Jake

 

[Jig Man]

It would help to know what your settings are right now.

 

[HarvMcNasty]

You are absolutley right. However im at work right now and cant provide that info for awhile. I didnt know if there was a universally good setting to have on the unit with a through the hull transducer. I was hoping to get some advice or certain settings and then bump that information i received on here against what im running on my unit. Sorry for the lack of info at the time.

 

[Jig Man]

Those vertical blocks are it changing depth range. That is normal if you are going from shallow to deep or deep to shallow.

You can set upper and lower limits to minimize this.

I like to up my sens to where it gets clutter than back off a bit.

Which color pallet are you using.

 

[todd driscoll]

Based on your description of current performance, I'd suspect that the ducer mount is not quite correct causing poor performance. However, here are some 2D sonar settings to get you started:

First, make sure you have the current software (4.1.36.68). Check your version at Menu, Menu, System, About. Recent updates have focused on enhancing sonar returns. Sonar Auto mode works very well. Keep the unit in 200 kHz. Under sonar settings, select Shallow Water (for our purposes this is water < 60 feet deep) and set scroll speed to normal. Also, under Installation select your appropriate transducer. Under Sonar Menu, I run Ping Speed at Max. Colorline I like at 85. For shallow water, especially around grass, I prefer color palette 1. For deep water or with lakes void of grass, I like palette 13. This palette was called bottom color tracking in the older units, helps separate fish from the bottom/cover, and also shows hard bottoms/shell beds better.

 

[HarvMcNasty]

That is the exact answer i was looking for. Thank you so much! I bought the boat and all the electronics on it from a man that was 80 years old. Im pretty sure he has never updated the unit before and I know for a fact that I never have. Me not being very computer literate how do I go about updating the unit? Also is there anything I can do to make sure the transducer is correctly mounted?

 

[Jig Man]

To update the unit go to Lowrance.com and down load the update to a blank sd card. There will be exact instructions on the download site for the update.

 

[HarvMcNasty]

Well after a long battle of trying to figure out why the update files would not upload to my unit I actually read the instructions and I had to save the file, then open it it. Then move the three individual files to my SD card. After that it was smoothe as butter. That thing was way over due for an update. So currently Im running the new software update and the settings are adjusted as specified from Todd. Thank you Todd Driscoll, and Jig Man for the MUCH NEEDED AND OVERDUE help. Hopefully i can get the boat on the water this Sunday and see if it works out a lot better. Again Thank you for the help.

 

[Oldfart9999]

Harv, let us know how you made out, you got some great advice.
Rodney

 

[HarvMcNasty]

Once again I would like to say thanks for the help. I took the boat out yesterday and my graph was like a night and day difference. I could see things on the bottom the I never thought I could. It finally works now while my big motor is running and I can start marking some target areas. The software update seems to make it faster now and it seems as though it got rid of a lot of interference.. or something of that order. But yes very pleased with my Lowrance now. Thanks guys. Looks like I need to do some research and learn how to find fish on it now!