Lowrance HDS7 gen3 issue

[millzee]

Hi, I'm hoping someone might be able to assist with an issue I'm having on my sounder. I'm getting lines in the top portion of the screen on the sonar, they also sho up on the left side of the sidescan and the sidescan left side also has a lot of bright speckled dots. I've tried resetting the sounder to factory setting and going through the set up process again and it hasn't helped. I've also tried different angles on the totalscan and changed every sounder setting I can find and they just don't go away, not even with high surface clarity and max noise reduction. With the boat in water, electric motor and main engine up, these lines still appear, any ideas???

[patrol50]

look i am not at all sure what that is - but best guess - when you get lines of interference could be electrical interference due to power cables next to sonar cabling so maybe could try reroute the power or sonar cabling - it could possibly be air bubbles on the transducer so check if any hull defect in front of transducer or if transducer located a bit deep - other than that may need a trip to lowrance for the transducer and or the head unit for service checkiing that both working ok - others may have some better ideas

cheers

[millzee]

Cheers, I'll check the cables tomorrow, they should be fine but it's worth a look. I might take it back to the place I got it installed from, it's only 2 months old, only hassle is it's a 4 hour drive.

[Andy56]

Sounds a lot like interference to me. Remember in the day when we bought after market car radios and had that annoying interference? We put resisters in the leads, capacitors around the distributor and all sorts of wonderful remedies.
What else you have onboard? what type of motor?

[col]

Has the sounder been in contact with any water


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[millzee]

The sounder hasn't been wet but that shouldn't matter should it, they are water resistant/proof. I'll play around with the electronics to see what the installer has done with the wires. The boat has a bit on it, a humminbird up front, a motor guide elecy, the usual lights and pumps that I've wired all into 2x 120aH agm batteries that charge through a Redarc charger. I'm not sure where the lowrance power is connected, I'll have to fiddle around and check it out and rewire it to see if it'll make any difference.

[scottar]

Is this new or has always happened since the set was fitted? Turn everything else off - preferably one at a time and see if the noise goes away. If it doesn't, see if you can borrow a transducer to plug in and try or if you can find someone with the same unit try your head unit on their boat (assuming if it's a new unit that your retailer is a non technical dealer and has no test facilities)

[patrol50]

Is this new or has always happened since the set was fitted? Turn everything else off - preferably one at a time and see if the noise goes away. If it doesn't, see if you can borrow a transducer to plug in and try or if you can find someone with the same unit try your head unit on their boat (assuming if it's a new unit that your retailer is a non technical dealer and has no test facilities)

" this "

and both my hds units (a 7 gen 2 T and 9 gen 3) have independent suitably sized power cables running back to a buss bar at the batteries and isolated as much as possible from other power wires and the sounder connections etc - initially the first one installed by a tech was powered from a common point under the dash that also powers the vhf, lights ,nema 2000 system , 2 x bilge pumps , etc and i did get some interference and voltage drop so changed it to independent power sources - worth checking !
cheers

ps and they are water resistant - but not water proof imho - so mine have berley pro fish finder visors fitted to them - makes it a bit hard to get the sun covers off at times but helps keep the salt spray off them

[millzee]

I've just found the lowrance power connection coming off the switch pannel in the console so I've rewired the power straight to the two auxiliary batteries. I can't say if it's fixed or not yet as I'll need to get it in the water in the morning for further testing, I really hope that's all it was.

[millzee]

Unfortunatly after yesterdays re-wiring the sounder is still displaying lines in the top portions of the screen in every setting and display type, not happy. Here's some pic's with the settings if it helps anyone to recognise the issue and help me out.












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[TheRealPoMo]

Where's the xducer ? If its mounted against the inside of the hull that's probably the issue. Try a transom mount. If it is already a transom mount then I have no idea.

[scottar]

I have seen transducers that aren't quite right produce similar results - in theory caused by "ringing" Had a quick look for an example - best I could find with a quick search. You need to try another transducer

https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~manduchi...sonics2010.pdf

[millzee]

Yeah it's transom mounted so that rules that out. I'll have a read up on that, cheers. I'm messaging Lowrance through FB, it seems very hard to contact them otherwise, might have to waste time on the phone tomorrow.

[patrol50]

sorry the rewiring did not help out - but it often ends up being a process of elimination and the transducer may well be the issue - give lowrance a call on 1300 628 426 and and email them down the pics as or when you talk to them - if you get a good knowledgeable guy they can be pretty helpful but it can depend on the person you get

cheers

[patrol50]

howd you go millzee re contact with lowrance and a fix for the lines - any joy yet
cheers