This boat is new to me and has way more technology than I've used before.  I've had it out a handful of times this season and something strange is going on.  

 

I have a solix 10 at the helm connected to transducers at the stern.  As far as I can tell, it works flawlessly.

 

At the bow I have an ultrex 36v with a built in transducer and a megalive transducer on a MK targetlock system.  All this feeds into a Helix 12.  The Helix 12 is a refurbished unit from Russel Marine as the Helix 10 that was up there froze and cracked.  

 

Symptoms: lots of interference and poor signal on 2D.  Side imaging also seems to lack the same level of detail and down imaging shows similar vertical banding as 2D.  The next and most obvious issue is that sometimes only one side of side imaging will display even though it's set to both.  Finally, the trolling motor will disconnect from the network momentarily, fails to respond to commands from the remote and/or moment switches on the foot pedal and occasionally loses spot lock.

 

Hypothesis: it's the trolling motor.  The symptoms go further than the Helix head unit and even when the TM won't respond to the remote, it'll still respond to both head units.  

 

Questions: What part of the TM?  I can see it being anything from wiring to transducer or the brain of the actual TM.  What troubleshooting can I do without Johnson Outdoors or on dry land?  The closest body of water where I can launch is in a cell dead zone.  Does anyone have a good guide to ipilotLink?  Searching for information mostly brings up the newer version of ipilot.  

This is what I would do to troubleshoot.

 

My guess is something is causing the interference.  When you are seeing the interference,  start turning stuff off to see if that makes the interference go away.  First switch off the trolling motor.  Then the other head unit.  Then MEGA live.  My guess is the interference is coming from the trolling motor.

 

If possible,  I would move the Solix up front and see if the symptoms go away.  That would tell you it's the Helix.  

The side imaging single side only is a known issue with some units.  When that happens, it is because one of the two piezo units in the transducer has gone bad (broken wire internally usually).  That means a new transducer.  Are the two sets networked together (solix and helix) and what SI transducer is the Helix using (TM built in?)?

 

The lines look like interference.  In the first/next to last picture it looke like you were motoring along with all that interference and then let off the trolling motor to take the picture.  And there is no interference there.  So that tells me the motor is interfering with whatever transducer is generating that image.

 

If you tell me that the two head units are not networked and that the trolling motor is the transducer for the SI and 2D for the Helix then my suspicion is the transducer in the TM is the culprit.  

If your Solix works 100%, try to connect the Ultrex directly to it and see if you get 2D, DI, SI, but I think it requires a different adapter cable than the Helix. My setup was 2 Helix 10's connected to a MK ethernet hub, with an Ultrex MSI. Similarly, my TM built-in sonar wasn't showing right. I verified both Helix's with my stern transducer, and then connected them directly to the Ultrex and got no sonar. On a whim, I replaced the Ultrex sonar adapter cable for the Helix and everything worked fine.

12 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

If you tell me that the two head units are not networked and that the trolling motor is the transducer for the SI and 2D for the Helix then my suspicion is the transducer in the TM is the culprit.  

You can network a Solix and Helix together but they cannot share sonar data.  The screen shots have to be from the transducer connected to the Helix.  Good catch on the interference stopping in one picture.  Trolling motor is likely the source.

 

2 minutes ago, Junger said:

I think it requires a different adapter cable than the Helix.

I'm pretty sure the cable will connect directly to the Solix.  Only the Helix requires an adapter.

49 minutes ago, Junger said:

If your Solix works 100%, try to connect the Ultrex directly to it and see if you get 2D, DI, SI, but I think it requires a different adapter cable than the Helix. My setup was 2 Helix 10's connected to a MK ethernet hub, with an Ultrex MSI. Similarly, my TM built-in sonar wasn't showing right. I verified both Helix's with my stern transducer, and then connected them directly to the Ultrex and got no sonar. On a whim, I replaced the Ultrex sonar adapter cable for the Helix and everything worked fine.

 

This is also what I would do.  The helix requires an adapter from the ultrex plug, but the solid shouldn't.  He'll just have to take the adapter cable off to plug it in.

 

46 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

You can network a Solix and Helix together but they cannot share sonar data.  The screen shots have to be from the transducer connected to the Helix.  Good catch on the interference stopping in one picture.  Trolling motor is likely the source.

 

Interesting.  I thought that they could but I'll take your word for it.  It would be good to know if they are networked, but if they are independent on the transducers then that helps debug his problems.  

Sometimes these systems can go haywire all because of bad connections throughout wiring harness. Happens a lot in Florida.

 

I try and prevent bad connections at connectors by using an anti-corrosion connection wetting agent. Make sure the product used is safe on plastics.

 

It could be a simple connector fix or, maybe what others have pointed out above. Sometimes just unplugging and replugging connectors a couple times might make a good connection again.

3 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

Interesting.  I thought that they could but I'll take your word for it.  It would be good to know if they are networked, but if they are independent on the transducers then that helps debug his problems.  

I'm a computer geek and I've written some software to parse the sonar recording files from my Solix units.  The recordings from a Helix and Solix are not compatible either but the differences between the two are trivial.  I don't know for sure but I would bet that the same data format used in the recordings are what is sent over the network to other units.  Compatibility between different models is not a high priority for Humminbird.

36 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I'm a computer geek and I've written some software to parse the sonar recording files from my Solix units.  The recordings from a Helix and Solix are not compatible either but the differences between the two are trivial.  I don't know for sure but I would bet that the same data format used in the recordings are what is sent over the network to other units.  Compatibility between different models is not a high priority for Humminbird.

 

I bet it has to do with the processor capability.  The Solix and Apex had the same UI and similar processors while the Helix had far less power, hence the xPlore upgrade and Solix discontinuation.  I bet going forward they harmonize better on the internals between xplore and apex to make it easier on the engineers up front.  

 

42 minutes ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

Sometimes these systems can go haywire all because of bad connections throughout wiring harness. Happens a lot in Florida.

 

I try and prevent bad connections at connectors by using an anti-corrosion connection wetting agent. Make sure the product used is safe on plastics.

 

It could be a simple connector fix or, maybe what others have pointed out above. Sometimes just unplugging and replugging connectors a couple times might make a good connection again.

 

this is a good shout.  A small bottle brush around the connections plus some dielectric grease is always a good thing to do.  

Thank you all for your suggestions.  I will let you know what I discover.  

Johnson Outdoors is sending a replacement control head for the TM.  When I tear it down I will relube the connections and hopefully that'll fix it.