Helix 7 SI Issues

Just bought the unit and had it out Saturday and it worked great. Had a tournament yesterday and noticed that in DI and 2d I had what seemed to be an echo. I would be in 15 FOW and I’d see the bottom on my graph at 15 but then another one at 30 and my digital read out would read 30 FOW. Also when in shallow my depth would read around 18-20 when I was actually in around 3-4 ft. It’s a brand new transducer that has not been dropped or ran into at all. Is this a setting/sensitivity issue? Thanks for the help.

The BBC message board has an ongoing thread with lots of information regarding the digital depth issues with the Helix units. It took some tweaking but I got my Helix 10 to behave most of the time. Total PITA when you are using AutoChart Live – which uses the digital depth reading and you get corrupt data in the file.
barc

Ok. My bad. I’ll dig a little deeper. Thanks.

Which transducer are you using?

I have a Helix 10 on the console and run a mega si and a 2d chirp transducer with a Y cable it works well.

I have a Helix 7 G2N on the bow running through the trolling motor transducer it does what you are describing. I have them networked and switch the 7 to use the back transducer and then it works well.

Hard bottom seems to be worse than soft bottom.

Good luck tracking down what is going on. Let us know what you figure out.

It’s the trolling motor ducer. That doesn’t make me feel good about it. I have a garmin echo map on my console. Was hoping to run that for a little while until I get another helix 7 for the console.

Which trolling motor are you running?

MinnKota Maxxum 24

I just read a thread on Bass Boat Central with many people having the issue. The last post (yesterday) said they did a new update and it seemed to help. So I’ll have to check for that update.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Also when in shallow my depth would read around 18-20 when I was actually in around 3-4 ft.

Friend’s new Helix 10 had similar. Graph wouldn’t show the echo so I read bbc and a bunch more things.

Here’s what I learned outside of the norms like is your ducer still level, etc.

Check surface clutter setting. If you are around 1 on a 1-10 setting increase it significantly and retest. In shallow and hard bottom this can be bad and a nightmare when trying to use auto chart live.

Since we’ve been back from our trip I’ve been able to reproduce the issue on my Onix 8si even with soft bottom. When running a setting of 5 I”m good. When I test at 1 it’s no bueno.

DI echos – to some extent this can be normal on a very hard bottom. I would try adjusting sensitivity and maybe frequency from 455 to 800. I’ve not tested but did see posts like this in my internet travels on the first issue.

I’ve seen the same settings. I’ve actually read turning clutter to 7 was the sweet spot for a lot of guys. And the 800 was where they had the best readings as well. I’m still learning and researching it as there is a TON of people with this issue. I’ll be doing the new update tomorrow morning hopefully and I’ll get out on the water hopefully Thursday or Friday to test it.

Ran flawlessly yesterday during my tournament after updating the May 2018 update. No echo and the depth reading was dead on the whole day even in shallow water.

Jeez how often do you need to update? They got these things trying to do too much IMHO, thats how the marketing dept. likes it. So they are buggy. By contrast ice units like Vexilar do very little but also have very very few problems. I’m all for advances but make sure the engineers gets things really worked out before the marketing dudes get too excited.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Ran flawlessly yesterday during my tournament after updating the May 2018 update. No echo and the depth reading was dead on the whole day even in shallow water.

Appreciate the follow up and congrats on success! Did the settings change for surface clutter? Either by you or because of the update?

patk wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
Ran flawlessly yesterday during my tournament after updating the May 2018 update. No echo and the depth reading was dead on the whole day even in shallow water.

Appreciate the follow up and congrats on success! Did the settings change for surface clutter? Either by you or because of the update?

I did the factory reset before updating as HB recommends. Surface clutter was preset to 5 and I turned it up to 7. I don’t remember if I needed to change it but I think I did just out of habit. Seemed to work well though.

Also, I read the date of the update wrong. It actually isn’t a new update. It’s the one from May 2018. My unit just hadn’t been updated with that version yet.

I have a similar problem with a brand new Helix 10 Gen2 DI unit. Place I bought it from says Hbird knows about the problem and is working on an update that will fix double echoes and doubling depth readings. For now was told to back off on the sensitivity. Nobody tells you this stuff until after you buy it

@bartman – did you see my post about surface clutter settings? Have you tried that? If yes, please report back. I’ll be back in my buddy’s boat in a couple weeks and we want to do some mapping.

Also found out if you run on 800 SI and DI don’t work because they run on 455. Threw me for a loop when my DI and SI wouldn’t come on because I cranked her up to 800. Called HB after that and she set me straight.

HB Customer Service was very aware of the problem and the woman I talked to got my unit working perfectly even before I updated it and knew each setting that needed to be adjusted and walked me through it with ease. I highly suggest calling them if you are having this problem.

Will be getting in the boat tomorrow and will fiddle with the surface clutter settings. Called Hbird and they said they are working on an update to fix this stuff. Waiting for that email letting us know it’s available.

Bart, i would check if you have not already, that you have the most up to date software, looks like it was released in May for yours
https://www.humminbird.com/support/software-updates

https://www.humminbird.com/support/software-updates/HELIX-10-CHIRP-DI-GPS-G2N-v-1-640

Wow great topic. I have Helix12 G2N and this spring gave up trying to map on Mississippi because of this problem. Recently have tried on Mille Lacs and again gave up. Discussed with HB last week and only comment was to reduce sensitivity until there was only a single echo. I run surface clutter on 1 to get rid crap in shallow water, 10′ or less. Will have to give setting of 7 a try.

Customer Service also told me you can shut off the CHIRP in shallow water and it tends to stop it from happening as well. She had me turn my max depth to 40ft as well as I usually don’t fish much past 35 ft. Just more things to try for anyone having the issue.

Costomer Service can be pretty good but unless they changed things recently they are only available M-Fri. during the day.

tim hurley wrote:

Costomer Service can be pretty good but unless they changed things recently they are only available M-Fri. during the day.

That’s a good point. That does suck.

Update: Played with the surface clutter last week on my friend’s Gen 2 Mega unit. 7 or 8 and we got much much better results. Went over the same areas with 5 or lower and then quite a few multiples on depth readings.

We didn’t try in super hard bottom less than 3 feet but this cleared up any issues in over 5 fow.

Conclusion: surface clutter settings may not be the end all be all but we’ve been able to reproduce and fix the 2d depth readings on both an Onix 8si and a Gen 2 Helix 10 Mega si. If you’re having this issue you would be well served to make adjustments.