Humminbird 788ci

[bschmitty83]

Question for you "bird" users out there. Bought a new 788ci for the bow and have been having a few issues with the sonar. I'm getting a very weak return for the bottom even when I know it's hard and not mucky. I've played with the sensitivity and surface clutter settings, but I'm still not getting that typical hard bottom red line with a secondary return. The ducer is the 200khz/83khz dual beam plus and is mounted to the bottom of the trolling motor. I also am getting vertical lines on the screen that show up on a pretty regular basis. Any ideas or some other information I should add to clarify what the problems are? Thanks in advance.

[Dale Rueber]

The vertical lines are probably being caused by your other Sonar. Try turning off the other sonar to see if they go away. The other sonar interference can also contribute to not being able to see the bottom very well if the bow unit sensitivity is auto adjusting. It may be adjusting the sensitivity too low trying to compensate for the interference. I'm not a bird owner so I may be off base on the second part.

Another thing to verify is your transducer angle. Make sure that when the trolling motor is deployed, the transducer is pointing straight down.

[Ed Carlson]

Could be electronic field interference, Ground feedback interference, or cross talk interference from the transom unit...if the real unit is on.

Cross Talk Interference: Try turning the rear sonar off and see if that is the culprit...easy test. Adjusting the rear sonar to a single bean like the 50 Khz may eliminate it too, or by adjusting the ping/pulse rate.

Field interference: This is another creature, and is best addressed with a mount that allows for space between the ducer and the trolling motor housing...a mount like a "Rig Rite" mount. The added space/clearance helps to break the field effect. A piece of thick rubber between the puck and the motor housing may do it, but the best defense for this problem is space.

Ground feedback interference: If you are grounding the power on the sonar unit to the same power source as the trolling motor, this too may allow ground interference to pester the graph. Moving the power to another circuit will eliminate this problem, or by adding a ground isolator to the line up front.

[Dave S]

My dad has the 768 with same issues. It's a new unit and worked fine the day of the install. Now we're getting the same vertical lines and no bottom signal. There's no other sonars on the boat and we tried to turn on anything in the boat to see if there was any effect to the performance of the Bird. Nothing. We turned off the dual cone angle and tried each separately with no change.

Any other ideas out there? Could there be a bad run of dual cone transducers?

[kenais]

I have a similar problem with my new 788ci. It worked fine the first few times and then all of a sudden it wouldn't read the bottom and the screen turned mostly white. I could turn the sensitivity up and see it, then it would go red and start reading the bottom normally, then back to not reading the bottom.

I called Humminbird and they said to send it in, not exactly convenient to be without a finder right now. I haven't sent it in yet since I can get by with just the Lakemaster for muskie right now.

[PierBridge]

Well well well the mighty Bird may have some issues.

I'd call Bird and tell them there are a few of you with the same type of problems.

[whitebassman]

Got that on the bow, with a 998c SI on console, and no issues here. Not that that is any help!

[harvey lee]

I also have that unit on the bow and a 998 with no issues.

I am sure Bird will take care of you and typically they are very fast.

New units will have some issues but HB will address them.

[Northlander]

Well well well the mighty Bird may have some issues.

I'd call Bird and tell them there are a few of you with the same type of problems.

Pier anything electrical will have issues. Heck I have issues with socks.

[PierBridge]

I know and as Bird sells more of their great units they'll have more problems its just way the it is in the electronic world... I'm sure they'll take care of the problem tho...

[harvey lee]

That's why I changed to a HB Pier. If there are any issues, they are addressed properly.

[Dave S]

A little update on our Humminbird 768. I took my sons 788ci to see if we had the same issue. According to H-Bird, the connections are the same.

The 788ci had the same issue of the vertical lines. Although we could turn off/on the unit and about 25% of the time it would show us a good bottom signal. Without the boat moving, it would just disappear.

The transducer was mounted per the directions provided by H-Bird. I suspect the transducer is the issue and it will be sent in to see if it's a defective part.

Has anyone else gotten a definitive answer as to what the issue is?

[Dave S]

Just an update of the vertical line issue.

We received the new transducer the other day. I went out to the lake to get it mounted up and hoped for the best. After routing the cable through the boat and putting everything back together for an hour and a half, we took the boat out on the water to find the display was perfect. No vertical lines as we had before.

H-Bird customer service came through.

[Ed Carlson]

Great to hear they stood up for the issue. Just as important as the product, is the way they stand by it.

Thanks for the feedback and fallow up on the issue.

[kenais]

I got mine back last week too. Turn around time from the day I shipped was 7 working days, most of which was shipping time.

Turns out it was a bad transducer (sounds like a bad batch) and it is working again.

They also cautioned that the unit should be reset to the default setting before installing any of the software updates.

[harvey lee]

Time and time again I hear stories about Bird's great CS.

Thats great that they stand behind their products.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

788ci is on my list for next year, unless they come out with something better for the same $$.

I was thinking of an HDS unit, but I think I will go bird.

[Agent Andy]

I just purchased a new 788. What is the difference between that and the 788ci??? Should I return it and get the ci model??

[Dave S]

788ci is on my list for next year, unless they come out with something better for the same $$.

I was thinking of an HDS unit, but I think I will go bird.

My son has the 788ci and that color display is the stuff. Very easy to read with any sun angle. Much better than the 768 that isn't color.

[kg2]

"i" just means "internal" receiver for the GPS (rather than having an external puck receiver). Some people believe they get better signal reception with the external receiver. Also, if you are mounting the 788 in-dash, then definitely keep the external GPS puck.

Oh, and everyone should make sure they have the latest software installed. I just updated all 3 of my SI units last Friday.

[Nick Kuhn]

kg2 is correct. As long as you have room for the GPS puck keep that model. The internal antenna model has a little weaker signal strength, which in some situations might increase the position error.

Ditto on updating as well. The latest update for my 798ci really improved shallow water performance, especially on the down imaging (which is not available for the 788).

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Interesting that all of the HDS units have internal antennas now.

[PerchJerker]

Interesting that all of the HDS units have internal antennas now.

In technical terms, the antenna in the HDS is a "built-in" antenna, not an "internal" antenna. It is located on the top/front of the units so you can mount them in-dash if you want and still get good reception.

With the lowrance network you can add an external gps receiver. Then you can set the unit to automatically use whichever gps data is getting the best signal, the built-in antenna in the HDS or the external antenna on the network ...... or you can set it to only use the gps data from one of the antennas.

[Ed Carlson]

PerchJerker...can they run both at the same time...to max signal reception?

Thanks,

[PerchJerker]

PerchJerker...can they run both at the same time...to max signal reception?

Thanks,

The antennas run at the same time but they don't work together ---- each one works independently and the network automatically uses the one that is giving the best signal ie. lowest position error.

I had an HDS on my console (full windshield) and puck near my transom, and it seemed 50/50 as to which antenna it would use. Now I also have an HDS in my bow and it usually uses that antenna (it has the best view of the sky with the least amount of obstructions around it).

[Ed Carlson]

Thanks for the info...good to know.