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View Full Version : ds500x DRIVING ME INSANE



tae4551
01-12-2007, 10:05 AM
i'm as lost as can be when using this little puppy. my old navman man i could read anything tell exactly what was down there. i tried everything in manual to try and inturprite it better. but to no avail. we took 2 boats out yesterday and ran over the same ground to compare images. where the other was showing snapper and a large ball of bait i was showing what looked to be 75ft of bait that went on 100 or so meters. i have read the entire sticky thread above and still no idea. since installing it in the boat i have been flat out catching a fish. anyone use one or understand it better then me.
any suggestions at all would be a great help as i would like to be able to understand it instead of throwing it like i am tempted to do.
cheers
todd

image of what was meant to be bait and snapper and no way showing from 150 to almost 75


http://www.taeproductions.com/ds2.jpg

tae4551
01-12-2007, 10:07 AM
image about 60 meters further down.http://www.taeproductions.com/ds1.jpg

seamonkey
01-12-2007, 12:01 PM
tae

I'd say people would pay money for a sounding like that!

Pic 1 - thats a huge sounding of bait fish.

Pic 2 there are your snapper!

Looks like the boat was fairly static over the fish and the were pretty much just hanging there which is why they are more blob like than arches.

I think you are seeing far more than you did with the old navman and you should too with the Ds500 and thats whats throwing you.

I'm not familiar with the Raymarine but there should be a colour erase type function that will reduce the showing of the weak signals...ie all the blue stuff. That might help you get used to things.

Get a book from Kmart called depth sounder secrets by Mike Huckstepp..best $15 you will spend. Theres also a DVD.

As to the fishing thats one for the fishing forum but your looking at fish there fella!

SM

bayfisher
01-12-2007, 12:14 PM
Is your transducer mounted properly (ie not facing at an angle back or not popped up). Sometimes mine pops up and it looks like i am in much deeper water and doesn't sound properly. I have a ds500x and can distinguish just about anything including snapper and bait balls, coffee rock etc. I run mine in zoom 2x or 3x for better clarity of what is on the bottom. The top pic looks like a huge amount of bait on the bottom the second like fish under the bait. If your not moving then they will appear as blobs not arches mind you I get very clear arches if their are decent fish about. I also run mine with the standard light blue background it seems to work best for me.

Cheers Chris

tae4551
01-12-2007, 01:31 PM
i have lowered the colour again which is the same as threshold on the navman which i used to run at zero. doesn't help that much. i couldn't raise a fish on the second show. i have read that book back to front. i was drifting around a knot its still roughly the same image if i was doing 6. maybe i am just to used to the readings on the navman. be interested to know what settings people are running there's on maual. the first image was taken while using manual settings the second is fully auto. i haven't seen one arch yet on it. makes me wonder if the transducer angle is correct

bayfisher
01-12-2007, 04:08 PM
I 90% of the time run mine on auto fishing, 200Khz, 3x zoom. You should definitely see arches or something very close to arches with these settings. Check you transducer angle is it flat or slightly tilted so that it sounds ahead of the boat?

Cheers Chris

revs57
02-12-2007, 06:55 AM
G'day Tae,

I have had a Raymarine ds500x for 4 years and run it in auto fishing all the time. I've messed with the pop up menu's to try and get distinction between bait and structure at times, but its too messy. As Bay Fisher said, arches show but only on the horses...they come up as red blobs. Sea Monkey called it in the first post. I would agree with his assessment.

You can distinguish once you get the feel of it - the digital technology gives you so much more info to interpret. I to run mine in a split screen configuration with 3x or 4x zoom feature in one and normal in the other. I've been happy with the performance of mine - always seem to be able to "see" what's down there well enough to catch a feed

Good luck with it

Rhys

seamonkey
02-12-2007, 08:08 AM
tae

Were you running max chart speed when you took those pics?

SM

tae4551
02-12-2007, 10:48 AM
no scroll speed on it if thats what you mean but i believe i was running it at a ping rate of 5 when those pics where taken. i was playing around a fair bit. transducer angle looks fairly flat slight incline to the rear. on comparing photo's from the other boat from the same show it might just take a bit more getting use to on seeing so much more detail. i did drop the colour gain down to 25% last night and managed to find snapper in about 30ft of water which wasn't that hard to tell because lack of bait present. fish came up as more of a tear drop shape. blue through to green on the outside. red in the middle. others came up as semi arches more blue green and yellow and they cruising around the 6 to 15ft range.we put 15 in the boat in just under an hour. hopefully that will give me a better insight into what i am looking for now in the deeper water. in the second pic there is snapper in amongst the bait new that straight away as soon as i saw the pics from the other boat. i will put the other pics up from the other boat so people can compare the to.
cheers
Todd

seamonkey
02-12-2007, 11:35 AM
Todd

Scroll speed which is the same as chart speed I think has the effect of "stretching" the image thru time. By running it fast even if the boat is still will make those blobs appear more arch like giving you more chance to weigh them up.. You can over do it and "stretch" to the point you just get a straight-ish line.

Something else to play with!

Sm

tae4551
02-12-2007, 11:40 AM
SM
the only option i have for scroll speed is on or paused.

bayfisher
02-12-2007, 06:29 PM
SM
the only option i have for scroll speed is on or paused.

Are you sure? Im sure mine has scroll speed :-/ . Will have a look tomorrow on mine. Oh and as you said before most snapper appear as blobs with a half arch behind (like a tear drop). Also the transducer should be dead flat or slightly declined (lower) at the rear.

Cheers Chris

notsa
29-12-2007, 09:17 PM
I have a ds600x and it does not have scroll speed and I run it in auto all the time , it`s great.