My side scan has been acting oddly. I've only seen it work well once so far on one lake. Last time I was at a small pond it was doing this. Really odd jagged lines, one side really bright and the other really dark.

 

 

How is the unit powered?

The left side looks like you are parallel to a dropoff which doesn't get direct sonar pulses except just under the boat where it is brighter. Sonar cannot "see" around stuff. 

In this screenshot there is a creek channel on the right side and being so shallow, the Imaging pulses cannot record the bottom of the creek.

25 minutes ago, Wayne P. said:

How is the unit powered?

The left side looks like you are parallel to a dropoff which doesn't get direct sonar pulses except just under the boat where it is brighter. Sonar cannot "see" around stuff. 

In this screenshot there is a creek channel on the right side and being so shallow, the Imaging pulses cannot record the bottom of the creek.

Thanks for weighing in, Wayne.

The unit is powered off of a small dedicated battery in the battery box with my trolling motor battery. Nothing else is connected to it.

The comment about a drop off might be true- I don't remember exactly where this was in that pond. The pond is very shallow- deepest part is about 10' and that's only a small portion.

Also, the sudden dark line on the left side (circled on the attached image) is my trolling motor. No matter how much I try and change position it still blocks the transducer. Do you think that's also why the left side is consistently reading darker?

 

Certainly you did not attach the transducer to the trolling motor shaft with the motor blocking the left side SI pulse???????????????????

The transducer should be on the BOTTOM of the trolling motor so the SI pulses can "see" left and right all the way to the water's surface.

 

16 minutes ago, Wayne P. said:

Certainly you did not attach the transducer to the trolling motor shaft with the motor blocking the left side SI pulse???????????????????

The transducer should be on the BOTTOM of the trolling motor so the SI pulses can "see" left and right all the way to the water's surface.

Oh no, it's a standard transom mount transducer. The shaft of the TM is just 16' or so to the left and I can't get it to where it doesn't block the side imaging.

Do the TM transducers work well? I would have thought the wash from the prop would mess it up. The small brown fuzzy line on the left side of that picture, near the top of the water, is prop wash.

OK, see if I understand what you have. You have the transducer on the transom and are using a transom mounted trolling motor, not a bow mount trolling motor like I was guessing. If not where is the trolling motor?

The trolling motor shaft will not block the image like you have, the motor itself will.  

You mean 16" not 16', right?

I have SI transducers on my transom and bow trolling motor.

BTW, this is from the 798ci SI Combo I had with the HDSI transducer on my bow trolling motor as in the previous picture.

Just now, Wayne P. said:

OK, see if I understand what you have. You have the transducer on the transom and are using a transom mounted trolling motor, not a bow mount trolling motor like I was guessing. If not where is the trolling motor?

The trolling motor shaft will not block the image like you have, the motor itself will.  

You mean 16" not 16', right?

I have SI transducers on my transom and bow trolling motor.

BTW, this is from the 798ci SI Combo I had with the HDSI transducer on my bow trolling motor as in the previous picture.

Sorry for not making it clear. I should explain the whole boat setup. It's a 1236 Tracker Jon boat. I have a 55 lb. Minn Kota trolling motor mounted on the transom as my only propulsion system. It's typically mounted as far to the left as possible (which winds up being about 6" off center or so). I have a Humminbird SI transducer mounted to the transom on the right side. Picture shows it in the deployed position.

Is there any solution to the motor blocking the transducer? And do you have any idea why it was reading so oddly in that shot? I've attached another shot- is this a normal view or is something wrong there also? It's another small pond.

Thanks for the help- I'm really new to fishing electronics in general.

BTW I did indeed mean 16".

The solution is to put the transducer close to the trolling motor and tilt the motor away from the transom so the SI pulse is not blocked by the motor and can "see" past it.

Otherwise attach the transducer to the bottom of the trolling motor so the SI pulses cannot see the motor.

No way you can get "prop wash" unless you operate the motor in reverse with the transducer close to it.

The green image is weeds.

1 hour ago, Wayne P. said:

The solution is to put the transducer close to the trolling motor and tilt the motor away from the transom so the SI pulse is not blocked by the motor and can "see" past it.

Otherwise attach the transducer to the bottom of the trolling motor so the SI pulses cannot see the motor.

No way you can get "prop wash" unless you operate the motor in reverse with the transducer close to it.

OK, thanks. I guess I'll give that a try and see if it helps. Being a trolling motor it might be a bit of a challenge to get it tilted but we'll see.

Did you have any ideas on why the original picture had such jagged, weird lines and such?

No, that is why I asked about the power source. Looks like a low power issue.

 

 

Just now, Wayne P. said:

No, that is why I asked about the power source. Looks like a low power issue.

 

 

Well, I haven't charged that battery in a while- that very well may be the case. I'll look into it- thanks a lot for all the help.

No disrespect but those images look sub par to others I have seen from a Helix 5. Is frequency adjustable on those? They may like a lil faster speed.

Also can the numbers be made transparent backround so you get more screen area?

5 minutes ago, William Rossi said:

No disrespect but those images look sub par to others I have seen from a Helix 5. Is frequency adjustable on those? They may like a lil faster speed.

Also can the numbers be made transparent backround so you get more screen area?

The subject matter does not make very distinguishable images ( weeds ).

The Helix 5 SI GPS has a single Imaging frequency--455 kHz.

It has an adjustable screen scroll speed to get sharp images from 0 to about 12 mph.

With current software, Depth, Temp, and Speed can be overlayed on the screen for all views or just the full screen SI view. Digital can be completely turned off.

The data boxes are semi-transparent when the 2D or DI view is displayed