Hey everyone, went to use my front finder today and noticed that my mega imaging downscan wasn't working.  I couldn't see anything at all on it...just a black screen.  I called the humminbird customer service and she recommended me switch to HW+MSI but that didn't do anything.  I switched it back to mega (under sonar) but just got these images

Any ideas what is going on?  I also noticed that my depth was way off.  I checked with my navionics app and with my other helix 7....it was showing about +15-25ft off at some points.  This unit and sensor are only a few months old and they were working fine I believe. Thanks

My helix 7 di used to get a hiccup occasionally. The depth would go crazy and the down imaging would look strange.

I had to cycle the power to my graph to reset it. 6 months ago i hit a tree with the trolling motor and crushed the transducer. It has never done it with the new transducer

Swap the head units out. Doing this you’ll be able to narrow it down to either transducer or head unit. That’ll get you started. 

1 hour ago, 12poundbass said:

Swap the head units out. Doing this you’ll be able to narrow it down to either transducer or head unit. That’ll get you started. 

Unfortunately the console unit is not easily removed. 

51 minutes ago, clemsondds said:

Unfortunately the console unit is not easily removed. 

Well that sucks. I’m guessing the console unit is flush mounted? Can you get underneath the console and unplug the transducer and swap them out to try that route? 

I have no experience with Helix but if this happened with my Solix, the first thing I would suspect as the cause would be low voltage.  Your front unit will have slightly lower voltage than your console unit due to the length of the wiring.

You can set your low voltage alarm to about 10v, should stay above that.  These units do use a lot of power.

 

I would suspect transducer aim or defect.  One thing that you might try also is to reset to factory defaults.

On 2/4/2020 at 9:50 AM, Tennessee Boy said:

I have no experience with Helix but if this happened with my Solix, the first thing I would suspect as the cause would be low voltage.  Your front unit will have slightly lower voltage than your console unit due to the length of the wiring.

You might be right. I've been having issues with my crank battery (which is what this is connected to). I'll try to figure out a way to test it...or just get a new battery ha

11 hours ago, clemsondds said:

You might be right. I've been having issues with my crank battery (which is what this is connected to). I'll try to figure out a way to test it...or just get a new battery ha

Next time it happens,  turn the unit off then start your motor.  With the motor idling,  turn the unit on again.  The alternator should boost your voltage a little.  If the problem goes away,  it was probably due to low voltage.  I haven't heard of this being an issue with Helix but Solix are notorious for having all kinds of strange problems when the voltage get low.