947 Humminbird bird fishfinder

[SeaArk1]

Put the new 3D Humminbird fish finder on my new boat. Had a problem with it last weekend though. We were putting out some beds for a crappie tournament next month and had some bad readings. We were motoring around trying to find places we were going to put the beds and the monitor says 11FT deep right? WRONG, I just happened to turn around and there we were stirring up mud. Needless to say I wasnt too happy......brand new prop with no new edges anymore. Following the channel in the back of a cove and #'s not jivin with the GPS so we put down the trolling motor to see the differences compared the front unit and back unit. The front fish finder related to GPS perfectly on channel locations and depth changes but the Humminbird on the transom was all over the place. I know it is installed/adjusted wrong as the installer didnt follow the template and the transducer is not straight up and down. This shouldnt cause the problems I am having but still needs to be corrected for correct readings. I havent adjusted it yet to try and get it to read at high MPH because I want it fixed before I go messing with that. The transducer also flips up in the bracket so its reading straight out the back of the boats at speeds over 45 MPH. Has anyone had any experience with any of my problems?? :confused:

[Doctor]

SeaArk1,

Double check your Humminbird and make sure that you don't have the Lower Range set into manual mode, this would lock your finder in to looking at the same depth, had that happen on my Matrix 67 but the Lowrance was running right beside it so I wasn't worried about the depth just took me a while to figure out that I had engaged the lower range button.

My boat runs near that 45 mph mark it took me sometime to get the transducer adjusted to where it wouldn't flip up when I started trimming up the motor, here's a picture of where I have mine set at and I haven't had any problems with it flipping up except when it smacks something. The bracket that is molded into the top of the transducer is even with the bottom of the boat, I also have it angled a bit more than the Lowrance if you look at the side view, I was using my Lowrance to dial in the Humminbird, some of the humps that I was marking were only partial views so I used the Lowrance to get the correct angle on the Humminbird so that they both read the same.............Doc

[Doctor]

SeaArk1,

Also doublecheck the tightness of the pivot bolts for the transducer if those get loose then the head will pivot under pressure from the water pushing against it.........Doc

[bluecat69]

SeaArk1,
Have you downloaded the latest updates from humminbirds website? I was having simular problems but once I downloaded the updates and installed them I never had a problem again.
Mike

[SeaArk1]

No I havent.....exactly how do you do that?

I am heading over to their website now to take a look

THANKS

[bluecat69]

SeaArk1,
Did you figure it out? I know I had to buy a memory card and card reader to hook up to the computer. I down loaded all the necessary programs and such then put it in the depth finder and it updated everything. I still trying to figure out all the features on this thing but I love it so far. It was kind of expensive but what the heck, its only money and I can't take it to my grave.
Good luck.
Mike

[SeaArk1]

Mike,

I didn’t have my serial number with me at work so I had to get it this weekend and I just got on the website today. I got to the updates but I don’t have the MMC/SD reader/writer, a formatted card, or the HumminbirdPC. Where did you get this stuff? Is it a pretty easy process if I purchase all the needed equipment? I appreciate your input on this……I am pretty discouraged on this high dollar unit that won’t read worth a crap in shallow water. I emailed the Humminbird expressing my disappointments and the equipment that I have tore up with my unit not reading correctly in shallow water but I have not heard anything back yet.

What exactly does your unit do in shallow water? Mine seems to have real problems in less than 10 ft of water. So after you installed the update you haven’t had any problems, huh?:confused:

Thanks,
Matt

[Jamey]

I got to the updates but I don’t have the MMC/SD reader/writer, a formatted card, or the HumminbirdPC. Where did you get this stuff? Is it a pretty easy process if I purchase all the needed equipment?

Sorry I can't help you on the Hummingbird specifics, but you can buy MMC/SD cards just about anywhere these days (since digital photography has really boomed during the last few years). You could probably pick up a cheap low capacity (16meg) card in the camera section at Wallyworld for ~15$ or so (just a guess-timate).

[ShilohRed]

Humminbirds website has the HumminbirdPC for you to download. You register your unit. And then download the updates to your pc and then to the SD card. Stick the SD or MMD card in the unit. It will update on its own.
My 987c works in 1ft and have not had any problems.
Pete

Mike,

I didn’t have my serial number with me at work so I had to get it this weekend and I just got on the website today. I got to the updates but I don’t have the MMC/SD reader/writer, a formatted card, or the HumminbirdPC. Where did you get this stuff? Is it a pretty easy process if I purchase all the needed equipment? I appreciate your input on this……I am pretty discouraged on this high dollar unit that won’t read worth a crap in shallow water. I emailed the Humminbird expressing my disappointments and the equipment that I have tore up with my unit not reading correctly in shallow water but I have not heard anything back yet.

What exactly does your unit do in shallow water? Mine seems to have real problems in less than 10 ft of water. So after you installed the update you haven’t had any problems, huh?:confused:

Thanks,
Matt

[SeaArk1]

Thanks for all the information guys......I had to spend about 50 bucks to get all the stuff to download the update but I got-r-dun. Havent been out in shallow water yet but we are going snaggin on sat so I should know if it fixed it or not.

Still pretty disappointed about havin to do this on such an expensive fishfinder.

[ShilohRed]

Thanks for all the information guys......I had to spend about 50 bucks to get all the stuff to download the update but I got-r-dun. Havent been out in shallow water yet but we are going snaggin on sat so I should know if it fixed it or not.

Still pretty disappointed about havin to do this on such an expensive fishfinder.

I look at it this way. Sure glad it can be updated. A lot of the others never get better. These will keep on getting better with every update. That is one big reason I went with my 987c Si. It can always be updated. And make better.
Pete

[trnsmsn]

Good Evening I have A Matrix 27 Is It A Unit That Can Be Updated, By Using The Downloads ?:rolleyes:

[ShilohRed]

Good Evening I have A Matrix 27 Is It A Unit That Can Be Updated, By Using The Downloads ?:rolleyes:

Does it have a card slot?
If so go to the web site and see .
Pete