Sounder loosing bottom out deep

[Larkin]

Gday raiders, Wondering if anyone can help.

On a couple of occasions out in water over 120m the sounder on chirp will loose bottom and looks like bottom is upside down on the top of the screen.

I’m guessing it’s a depth thing as it only happens out wide.

Should I be changing to a lower frequency out wide? Could this be the cause?

im using a Garmin GT56 UHD transducer.

and secondly, when in DownVu I can’t see anything on the factory settings (looks dark and no clear marks). Does anyone have any settings they could share to get the best view

[Smobaby]

You are possibly at max depth for that transducer, definitely lower the frequency on both 2d and downvu also up the contrast and brightness around 60to70percent downvu .you’ll have to fine tune to suit conditions I find green palette best for downvu  und is only good in shallow depths otherwise a more powerful transducer gt51 

[zmk1962]

I’m n addition to above also check the simple stuff- ie that you have not accidentally left the unit manually set at a depth or zoomed into a depth range.
If it’s in Auto depth and you’ve lost bottom then lower frequency will give you better depth reading for sure. 
cheers Zoran

[Larkin]

11 hours ago, Smobaby said:

You are possibly at max depth for that transducer, definitely lower the frequency on both 2d and downvu also up the contrast and brightness around 60to70percent downvu .you’ll have to fine tune to suit conditions I find green palette best for downvu  und is only good in shallow depths otherwise a more powerful transducer gt51 

Thanks smobaby! 

Next time I head out wide I’ll try a lower frequency. I read/heard somewhere that I should pick different frequencies for each sonar - not sure if this is true or not.

I’ll definitely try out those settings/palate as a start and fine tune from there. Been testing DownVu in 20-40m, was expecting more detail, but I think I need to spend a day on the water playing with it.

Up to what depth would it be worth using DownVu? 

 

11 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

I’m n addition to above also check the simple stuff- ie that you have not accidentally left the unit manually set at a depth or zoomed into a depth range.
If it’s in Auto depth and you’ve lost bottom then lower frequency will give you better depth reading for sure. 
cheers Zoran

thanks Zoran - I keep pressing the auto depth, but it does nothing, and then I start pressing all the buttons and start touching the screen (zooming it in) and stuff it up even further. Lol 

I think its probably just the frequency it’s set at as I haven’t tried adjusting this while it’s happening - and it only happens when I’m out over 110m or more.

 

[riveRecon]

The thing I found causing this on my one was the angle of the transducer. Parallel and slightly kicked up sometimes would lose the bottom. A slight angle down into the water solved my problem. I must have been getting air bubbles or something at the previous angles.

[Larkin]

17 minutes ago, riveRecon said:

The thing I found causing this on my one was the angle of the transducer. Parallel and slightly kicked up sometimes would lose the bottom. A slight angle down into the water solved my problem. I must have been getting air bubbles or something at the previous angles.

Thank riverecon, I’ll check that too mate - I know it has a bit of adjustment on the mounting plate to refine the angle.

[XD351]

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/echomapplus/EN-US/GUID-4E013683-0EFE-4465-A1ED-5DCF1238651B-homepage.html
 

ok first one is a video to show you how to turn off/on the transducer so you can run the unit out of the water - do this first .

once the unit is up and running run the sonar you are having problems with and the touch menu >sonar settings > advanced and  check the bottom search limit setting - make sure this is deeper than where you fish . Also in that sonar setting section is where you will find the manual / auto / bottom lock and zoom function, I run either auto range or  bottom lock as I fish on the bottom mostly . I made the mistake of watching some American guys tutorial on settings and ended up with a screwed up sounder - I restored to factory default and then chose the units I wanted it to show and pretty much left it alone. The new sounders do a pretty good job on auto for most applications. 
I found the little range icon box  on the top of the screen wouldn’t set the unit into auto range , if I set it there it would change back to what was set in the menu function as explained above. Also in the menu you can change what that little box does ie from range to brightness ( gain ) etc to suit your needs.

Each type of sonar has its own menu settings so you have to run the type of sonar you want to change things in then select menu > sonar settings etc . 
don’t forget to turn the transducer back on when finished- tap power button and select from onscreen list .

one thing I did do is change the start sounder on power up to off - all this means is that when I turn the main power on the sounder stays off until I press the button on the sounder unit itself - good if you remove you sounder head unit all the time . 

[Larkin]

2 hours ago, XD351 said:

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/echomapplus/EN-US/GUID-4E013683-0EFE-4465-A1ED-5DCF1238651B-homepage.html
 

ok first one is a video to show you how to turn off/on the transducer so you can run the unit out of the water - do this first .

once the unit is up and running run the sonar you are having problems with and the touch menu >sonar settings > advanced and  check the bottom search limit setting - make sure this is deeper than where you fish . Also in that sonar setting section is where you will find the manual / auto / bottom lock and zoom function, I run either auto range or  bottom lock as I fish on the bottom mostly . I made the mistake of watching some American guys tutorial on settings and ended up with a screwed up sounder - I restored to factory default and then chose the units I wanted it to show and pretty much left it alone. The new sounders do a pretty good job on auto for most applications. 
I found the little range icon box  on the top of the screen wouldn’t set the unit into auto range , if I set it there it would change back to what was set in the menu function as explained above. Also in the menu you can change what that little box does ie from range to brightness ( gain ) etc to suit your needs.

Each type of sonar has its own menu settings so you have to run the type of sonar you want to change things in then select menu > sonar settings etc . 
don’t forget to turn the transducer back on when finished- tap power button and select from onscreen list .

one thing I did do is change the start sounder on power up to off - all this means is that when I turn the main power on the sounder stays off until I press the button on the sounder unit itself - good if you remove you sounder head unit all the time . 

@XD351 mate your a legend! 
I will have a look at what the bottom limit is set to. 👍👍

[XD351]

The great thing with being able to turn the transducer off is you can play with the settings at leisure at home . I’m not sure but I think you can run it in simulator mode and test your settings- you might have to do some google work to check this though !