Humminbird Update Availible Now

[Grimpuppy]

Check your Humminbird accounts. New updates are ready for download.

2/23/2009 12:00:00 AM - v4.510 Supports the XM NavWeather accessory. Adds new 2D sonar processing techniques, including the ablity to turn off TVG. Adds SI Image Enhancement features. Supports operation of the CannonLink accessory across an InterLink accessory. Modifies the Depth Offset menu item to shift the sonar image, not just the digital depth. Expands Water Type selections to include deep and shallow salt water. Adds Waypoint Decluttering control. Adds Demonstration mode menu item to disable point-of-sale mode when using a transducer with no thermistor. Reduces interbeam interference. Fixes the color of shoreline construction on Navionics charts. Resolves MMC (not SD) access problems.

[SkipEye]

I just got off the yahoo forum and did not see this posted yet as available. COOL!

What hasn't been talked about much is the SI Enhancement part of the upgrade. Heard some comments from field testers (and HB employees) as "WOW".

I think for both 2D and SI the units will really pick up those bottom-hugging fish (our friend the Catfish) and make them pop after the software upgrade!

WOO HOO!!!!!!! Can't wait to give it a trial run!!!!!:smile2:

[blackwaterkatz]

Thanks, Jay. I have already loaded mine into the bird. Now to get on the water. :0a22:

[Catfish_Commando]

Thanks Jay... You are quick :)

HB needs to hire you as a field rep :wink:

[dominoman]

Got mine downloaded and installed yesterday, now if I can get back to the water and see what it does. Thanks to Jay for the quick post

[Pip]

Has anybody given the new updates a test run yet? Would be interested in seeing if the updates will live up to the chatter about improving the 2D. I'm kind of a skeptic if the updates will make that much of a difference, but I'll be glad if I'm wrong on this one.


I'm planning on downloading them today, will give them a test run next weekend.

[stephens]

i used mine and it has improved the pictures and downlooking sonar on mine.

[brew1961]

Jay, Thanks for the info!

[blackwaterkatz]

i used mine and it has improved the pictures and downlooking sonar on mine.

John, do you happen to have any screen shots? Thanks

[Grimpuppy]

I haven't decided if I am taking mine out this weekend yet. If I do, I will gets lots of screen shots.

[stephens]

i dont know how to get them transfered from the card to the boc. john

[SkipEye]

Here are some pics of the SI Enhance feature that I got from a forum elsewhere.

The first pic is SI Enhance OFF (standard operation or the 'original' setup)

The second pic is SI Enhance ON -HIGH (There is also a LOW and Medium setting available).

I think it makes a big difference.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w224/Darryl076/SI_Enhance_Off.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w224/Darryl076/SI_Enhance_On_High.jpg

[Fishking]

Here are some pics of the SI Enhance feature that I got from a forum elsewhere.

The first pic is SI Enhance OFF (standard operation or the 'original' setup)

The second pic is SI Enhance ON -HIGH (There is also a LOW and Medium setting available).

I think it makes a big difference.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w224/Darryl076/SI_Enhance_Off.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w224/Darryl076/SI_Enhance_On_High.jpg



Not so fast, before you make a judgement I would check it out for yourself on the water. The HB pics are from January and are probally the pick of the litter. You might want to keep the sharpness on off or low. Any setting higher than that....forget it. Especially on the river.

[SkipEye]

Well that might be true, don't know yet. Won't bother posting the 2D shots because they are probably pick of the litter too. Nice to see what it might be 'capable' of.:roll_eyes:

Not sure why you think 'sharpness' would be a problem on the river, I don't think that has squat to do with sensitivity or gain so why would sediment affect this setting? I don't know....if you do....enlighten us please?

[blackwaterkatz]

I still haven't had a chance to get on the water with mine, but have played around with the simulator and it looks pretty promising; can't wait to try it on the water, but will likely be the coming weekend.

[ShilohRed]

Not so fast, before you make a judgement I would check it out for yourself on the water. The HB pics are from January and are probally the pick of the litter. You might want to keep the sharpness on off or low. Any setting higher than that....forget it. Especially on the river.

Why would the river make a difference? Mine has always worked as good in the river as the lake?
I was like you 3 years ago when I got my unit. Shoot I know the shots are the best ones or worked on. But from day one. Mine were as good as what they always posted. Lots of them were better.
I only wish Humminbird would not forget the ones that bought the first units (987c-SI) while the newer units get the updates. I know mine may not take the SI updates. but would like the 2-d updates at least.
Pete

[Pip]

Got mine loaded up today. Will be hitting the water friday and saturday. I'll see about getting some snapshots to post.. Just sitting in the driveway after loading it up, I can tell a slight difference on 2D already. Should be interesting if it lives up to what I been hearing.

[Fishking]

Well that might be true, don't know yet. Won't bother posting the 2D shots because they are probably pick of the litter too. Nice to see what it might be 'capable' of.:roll_eyes:

Not sure why you think 'sharpness' would be a problem on the river, I don't think that has squat to do with sensitivity or gain so why would sediment affect this setting? I don't know....if you do....enlighten us please?


Who said anything about Sediment? Have you run the update in simulator mode yet? Compare that to when you finally put your boat on the river sometime. On the LOZ yesterday the SI ran like a champ, but there was zero current. I don't really fish to much slack water, so I try to relate any examples to fishing in current. With the new update I find that they changed a few things the have a direct affect on using the unit in a swift current. Something that it did not do before when using ver. 4.180. e.g. surface clutter setting seems to have a bigger impact than before. I''ll try to post some snapshot examples if I have any. I don't know if I took any with the new update before I redid most of the settings.

[SkipEye]

I mentioned sediment because thats exactly what affects your quality of returns on the river. Current has nothing to do with it except for the fact that it is what is stirring up and carrying the suspended particles.

I guess I should clarify sediment as the sediment that is suspended in the water on the river, churned up and along by the CURRENT.

[blackwaterkatz]

I finally got on the water today and tried out the updated software. I have to say there is a marked improvement on the down sonar, but I'm going to have to learn how to set the side imaging, not. It was difficult to read the screen at times, and I kept playing with the settings; just need some more time on the water, I think. I didn't get but a couple of screen shots, will have to wait and post them later on when I have time to upload them to the pc. Overall impression is that progress has been made, but some fine tuning of the software may need to take place, too.

[biga]

i have read so many posts onsome of the humminbird sites about people having trouble after installing the updates that i am kind of scared to install mine... :confused2:

[Grimpuppy]

Well I forgot to take a memory card with me today for some screen shots. But here is my opinion of the update.

The SI update just plain sucks. They have ruined the best thing they had going. No matter what I tried the screen was so dark it was unreadable. Turning the contrast all the way up let you see something on the screen but what you can see is worthless. Basically my SI doesn't work at all now.

Now the 2D part. It is worthless in anything under 15 foot of water now. With the surface clutter turned all the way down, I still have 10 foot of surface clutter. All my nice fish arches are now real narrow, small and pointy. They are like 1 pixel in width. In 25 foot of water if I set upper depth at 15 ft and lower at 25 ft then it looks OK. I have no luck getting any arches without zooming in so you are looking at only 10 foot of water. I was able to mark fish and get some pretty descent arches, but it was a lot of constantly adjusting the view to see them. Not fun when going up or down drop offs and constantly changing zoom area. The only time it worked great was when I was anchored. Then I got great arches. I guess I need to stop all the time and see what swims by rather than driving around looking for them. On top of this, the screen is full of clutter anytime I am moving with the outboard. It is like trying to find fish in a snow storm.

Now the GPS. I do not know what they updated in it but the way points now suck. If I hit mark, it says it created a way point. But it doesn't show up on the screen. After you travel a 100 feet away from the way point then it shows up and you can go back to it. So you mark it, keep going until it finally shows up on the screen (which you have to zoom out to see if you are zoomed all the way in following a contoure line) then you turn around and go back to it. It doesn't make any sense.

The next time I go out I will have a memory card with the previous update on it. If it doesn't work any better, it is getting reloaded like it was before.

[biga]

this is what is scaring me right here!!! i have heard many of the things u are saying but then i have heard its the greatest thing since the wheel!! ???? :confused2: i aint messing with mine for a while!!

[Grimpuppy]

Give it a try. You can always reload the old software back in. I am going to try and reload the new software again and see if it just didn't load right.

[biga]

what do i have to do to reload the old software? can you still download it from humminbird?

[Grimpuppy]

As long as you didn't delete it from your account you can download it again. If you did delete it, PM me your Email and I will send it to you. You can just put it on a blank SD card, put it in your unit and turn it on. When it ask if you want to install just say yes.

[Pip]

After getting out on the water for 2 days this weekend. At best I have mixed feelings with the software update 4.510. i really didn't have any problems with the GPS. the sidescan seemed to be improved with the amount of detail that i'm seeing vs the older version. Far as the 2D view, they have a lot of room for improvement still. Not even close, in my opinion.

[Mr.T]

I installed the new update to my 997 this weekend for the KC Catfish tournament in Warsaw, MO on Lake of the Ozarks.

Didn't notice any difference in 2D sonar at all, still works great just as it always has. The "Enhanced" side imaging feature is worthless and I turned it off - the sharpening feature makes the screen too grainy and doesn't help; I left the contrast and brightness values at their defaults.

Certainly didn't notice the kind of problems Grimpuppy has mentioned so whatever he's up against apparently isn't a universal issue for everyone who upgrades.

The upgrade procedure advises you to do a factory reset of all settings before installing, but I didn't do that. All my settings were retained and everything seemed to work just fine.

[GaryF]

I've had my updated 797 on the water a couple of times. What I've noted so far:

2D - No change until you turn TVG off, the ability to do so being the main point of the update. With TVG off, I had to turn sensitivity and surface clutter way down. In that configuration it was almost back to normal, but I didn't see any big advantage over TVG On

SI - The SI Enhance didn't seem to do anything helpful.


Bottom line, there are more settings to play with, and nothing lost from doing the update. I'll keep experimenting in different water depths and conditions, the shallow, dirty, oxygen rich water of the river may not have been the ideal test environment.

[blackwaterkatz]

Well I forgot to take a memory card with me today for some screen shots. But here is my opinion of the update.

The SI update just plain sucks. They have ruined the best thing they had going. No matter what I tried the screen was so dark it was unreadable. Turning the contrast all the way up let you see something on the screen but what you can see is worthless. Basically my SI doesn't work at all now.

Now the 2D part. It is worthless in anything under 15 foot of water now. With the surface clutter turned all the way down, I still have 10 foot of surface clutter. All my nice fish arches are now real narrow, small and pointy. They are like 1 pixel in width. In 25 foot of water if I set upper depth at 15 ft and lower at 25 ft then it looks OK. I have no luck getting any arches without zooming in so you are looking at only 10 foot of water. I was able to mark fish and get some pretty descent arches, but it was a lot of constantly adjusting the view to see them. Not fun when going up or down drop offs and constantly changing zoom area. The only time it worked great was when I was anchored. Then I got great arches. I guess I need to stop all the time and see what swims by rather than driving around looking for them. On top of this, the screen is full of clutter anytime I am moving with the outboard. It is like trying to find fish in a snow storm.

Now the GPS. I do not know what they updated in it but the way points now suck. If I hit mark, it says it created a way point. But it doesn't show up on the screen. After you travel a 100 feet away from the way point then it shows up and you can go back to it. So you mark it, keep going until it finally shows up on the screen (which you have to zoom out to see if you are zoomed all the way in following a contoure line) then you turn around and go back to it. It doesn't make any sense.

The next time I go out I will have a memory card with the previous update on it. If it doesn't work any better, it is getting reloaded like it was before.

Jay, have you had a chance to get any screen shots yet? I haven't been on the water in almost two weeks. I had seen some of your pre-update shots that you posted back in Feb. I think, and they were really good.

[Grimpuppy]

I havn't been able to get back on the water. I had Guards last weekend. I will be on the water this weekend to get some screen shots.

[Pip]

Well I ran into my first glitch with the new update. i've had the 997 out several times since updating. Everything seems to be working fine. Went out saturday and turned it on, and the 2D was going haywire. 100% clutter, no matter where i set the sensitivity. just to back up a bit, a couple weeks ago when i left the water everthing was working good. Didn't adjust anything or play with anything, only shut things down like I normally do.

The 2D seems to be the only problem at this point. Side imaging and GPS is still working fine. the odd thing about it is it took a while for this to happen. Another odd things is, i've talked to a couple people that read some reviews that this has happened to others also. I got to think there is still some bugs to be worked out with the update.

Called humminbird Monday about it. Was told there might possibly be a patch or 2 in the near future coming out for the update to fix some minor bugs. Will have to wait and see what comes out of it.

[great pappy cat]

ditto mike mine was flakeing tuff.. just like yours on the 2d, Then all of a sudden its fine again??:confused2: Aparently, Im not the only one with problems. I hope humminbird resolves this:sad2:

[Pip]

I took some snapshots of the side imaging since the update, not sure how to post them in the thread here,( as it gave me an invalid file error) but i put them in an album on my profile. the smaller snapshots don't allow the detail, but I did get some interesting shots of a sunken boat and some other shots of structure. I don't have a before shots of the sunken boat, but there is a significant difference in the detail after the upgrade.

[cheapNdisgusting]

I took some snapshots of the side imaging since the update, not sure how to post them in the thread here,( as it gave me an invalid file error) but i put them in an album on my profile. the smaller snapshots don't allow the detail, but I did get some interesting shots of a sunken boat and some other shots of structure. I don't have a before shots of the sunken boat, but there is a significant difference in the detail after the upgrade.
You probably were trying to post a picture that had already been posted in another thread. When that happens to me, I go back to the picture in my computer and change it's name and then post it under the new name. (or so I overheard). Also, sometimes we get in a hurry and don't wait while on the attachment screen for the file to completely before closing the window.

Now, I've only used my 997 once since the update and the only thing I noticed that was different was the 2D screen shots were clearer. That was only for four hours tho. I'll try it again when the river gets back to normal.

[cheapNdisgusting]

But when I read that some of you are, I remembered what I had read about on a humminbird chat line.

I download from Humminbird's update directly to my computer (which is NOT a laptop) and then "save" it directly to plug-in SD card reader. Then transfer the SD card into the 997.

There was a lot of discussion about using older lap-tops and buying the $24 cable set from humm. This cable set operates on 2 9V batteries (like in a smoke detector) and does NOT have enough power to properly load a 997 and 1197. They were made for everything under the 900 series. I don't have any personal experience with this but it sounds like it might be a problem for some.

[Grimpuppy]

I finally got mine working right last weekend. Actually it works awesome now and I officially like the update. SI works now like before and doesn't seem to be any different and SI enhance doesn't seem to be of any real use. I had good luck with 2d before, but now it is like wow. I didn't get any screen shots because I have a 797 and what a pain to change out the SD card so I can take screen shots. I reloaded the old software and then the new software 2 more times before it seems it took OK. Very important for my unit to restore factory defaults before the update. That seems to be what did the trick. I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to reset everything but it was worth it. I will try and not be lazy next time out and swap the card and get some screen shots.

[Grimpuppy]

I took some snapshots of the side imaging since the update, not sure how to post them in the thread here,( as it gave me an invalid file error) but i put them in an album on my profile. the smaller snapshots don't allow the detail, but I did get some interesting shots of a sunken boat and some other shots of structure. I don't have a before shots of the sunken boat, but there is a significant difference in the detail after the upgrade.

Mike - It appears that you have a dual file extension on your SI pictures. That is why you can not post them on a thread. Look at the end of your file. It is "user28279_pic10069_1240672049.png.jpg". Delete the .png out of the file name and just use .jpg at the end. It should look like this user28279_pic10069_1240672049.jpg and that will allow you to post them on the forums.

[Pip]

Thanks Jay, I was wondering why it was telling me invalid file when I tried to post the pitures to my post. that would explain it. Wasn't even paying attention.