Setting up HDS units

[WaveWacker]

Alright, with some help from others on this site I've got the HDS 10 and 7 all wired up to my toggle switches/battery. Now it's time to "tweak" things.

Looking for any pointers as to what you all have done with settings, etc. to your HDS units. My main fishing is going to be under 50'. Seems like I need to set them to Shallow Water Fishing. What about anything else? Colorline, ping speed, sensitivity, etc. etc.? I assume the shallow water mode sets these to a default but possibly they should be adjusted even more?? With using the Lakemaster chip, will I have to set the chart data to something specific?

Oh, speaking of which, I have the units connected via ethernet. Will one Lakemaster chip put in one of the units be able to be shared with the other or will I have to get two?

Thanks!

[solbes]

I never run with auto sensitivity on my 7 (shallow water mode). I feel that as conditions change, you need to manually change the settings to get the right sonar returns. I typically run 68-82% sensitivity, around 65-78% colorline. Ping speed I leave constant at 12 unless I'm trying to detect fish on plane.

[PerchJerker]

Good info from Solbes.

Probably the most important thing with HDS is to select the right transducer. In your sonar screen press the menu button twice, and the bottom option should be installation. In that menu you can select your transducers. They are probably HST-WSBL but each one should have a silver tag about a foot from the plug, and the silver tag will tell you which transducer it is.

After that, you'll want to be in shallow water mode and probably 200 khz.

You can also adjust the noise rejection settings and the surface clarity settings. I usually have mine on Off or Low.

I usually leave my HDSs on auto sensitivity, but there's an adjustment where you can bump the sensitivity and the colorline up or down 1% at a time. I'm always playing with the sensitivity setting but usually it is only 1-4% up or down, depending on the water I'm fishing (ie. weeds, rocks, algae, plankton, etc). On one of my units the colorline is bumped up a few percent, on the other it's bumped down a few percent. My ping speed is usually on 11 or 12, but I adjust that too depending on the water I'm fishing and the readings I'm getting.

You should not have to make any adjustments for your LM card, and you cannot share map card data between units -- you need a card in each unit, or need to move the card to the unit where you want to see the contours.

[HAppnhook]

Go to [Note From Admin: Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.] and buy a CD on the HDS or take a class from Doc Sampson, informative and he has great mapping technology.

[WaveWacker]

Thanks all. After a few days on the water playing with things I have things all dialed in.

[Sorgy]

I take it you set up your HDS7 on the bow. I was looking at the HDS 7 for the counsil of my rig. I like the oppourtunity to add the side scan and hi def as an afterthought.

I also am looking at the HB 788 but it is a 5" screen and there bigger units don't fit the location as well as the HDS 7.

What do you like about the units so far?

Thanks

Steve

[Ed Carlson]

I'll second the recommendation to look into the Doc Sampson HDS DVD, many hours of great tools on there to dial it in properly. It is a huge tool to setting up a HDS system, and gaining all the tools needed for expanding your skills quickly and painlessly. Doc did a bang up job on the DVD. One can keep going back to it and pick up more all the time as your needs change or you expand the system.

[SilverSog]

Good info from Solbes.

Probably the most important thing with HDS is to select the right transducer. In your sonar screen press the menu button twice, and the bottom option should be installation. In that menu you can select your transducers. They are probably HST-WSBL but each one should have a silver tag about a foot from the plug, and the silver tag will tell you which transducer it is.

After that, you'll want to be in shallow water mode and probably 200 khz.

You can also adjust the noise rejection settings and the surface clarity settings. I usually have mine on Off or Low.

I usually leave my HDSs on auto sensitivity, but there's an adjustment where you can bump the sensitivity and the colorline up or down 1% at a time. I'm always playing with the sensitivity setting but usually it is only 1-4% up or down, depending on the water I'm fishing (ie. weeds, rocks, algae, plankton, etc). On one of my units the colorline is bumped up a few percent, on the other it's bumped down a few percent. My ping speed is usually on 11 or 12, but I adjust that too depending on the water I'm fishing and the readings I'm getting.

You should not have to make any adjustments for your LM card, and you cannot share map card data between units -- you need a card in each unit, or need to move the card to the unit where you want to see the contours.

This makes a lot of sense to me so I navigated to the menu options described above to see if I could find my transducer on the list. I have a new Minnkota Terrova with universal sonar 2 paired with my HDS 5. Does anyone know which transducer to select for this set up?

Thanks!

[Dale Rueber]

From The Minn Kota web site:

"Universal Sonar 2 is a dual beam system operating at 202 kHz and 83 kHz frequency.

Displays that are compatible with US2 will operate at either or both of these frequencies."

I assume you would need to choose one of the options that has both of these frequencies available. I was just looking for this same answer for my HDS7 that I put on my bow and noticed that there is no specific selection for Minn Kota US2.

[SilverSog]

Thanks, Dale. I'm using the "Generic 200/83" k/Hz setting, so I guess I'll stick with that unless someone suggests a better one. Is that what you're using? Thank you for your response.

John

[PerchJerker]

From what I've heard, the generic transducer setting is the best for the MK US2 transducer.