H Bird Depth Guage ?

[Cheers]

I am looking for advise regarding the Humminbird HDR650 depth guage . I have a lorance elite 7 chirp that works great at slow speeds but it wont show bottom at fast speeds . I have spent a year playing with the transducer and have put it in every possible location on the boat with no success , I have come to the conclusion that the processor is just not up to the task ! So along comes an add for the Hbird HDR650 for only $100 and claims that it will work up to 65mph  in depths up to 600 feet (which  is way more than I need) . My concern is can I run the Lowrance  and the Hbird at the same time with out interference ?

Any advise would be appreciated

Cheers.

[delcecchi]

I have a Lowrance 7 Elite, one before chirp, maybe HDI or whatever, tracks bottom up to about 30 mph or maybe a little better.  Tends to lose it over the real soft bottom stuff out in the basin on Vermilion. 

[RebelSS]

This is just off the top of my head, for starters. If they both use the same freq,  (ie; 200/83 KHz) it is possible that you could get cross chatter, or interference. The deeper the boat is running, (depth) the more likely it is that you will get interference. The brand of sonar doesn't matter, it's the frequency that does. I'm not sure what those are running on or at, but if you do get too much interference, you could just turn off one of the graphs, or set one to 83 KHz and the other to 200 KHz, as an example, if you are able to. 

[Cheers]

According to my Lowrance guy they will interfere with each other causing the graph to show clutter and not work . SO

if the graph on the Lowrance dosnt work at high speeds anyway what difference would it make if it showed interference as well as not working ! He claims the digital depth reading should remain true . Sounds like it should work ,will just have to turn off the digital   in order to use the graph for fishing . I am going to call Mr. Hbird and run it past him before buying

[Cheers]

Mrs Hbird claims there should be no issue as they read different frequencies but the web page for each unit show 200 khz SO who knows ?

[RebelSS]

I guess give it a whirl and see what happens....like, what else is there to try anyway? 

[delcecchi]

If it is any help, I have two elite 7s on my boat, one withe the trolling motor and one on the console . There is some noise on the screen when both running but bottom tracks and depth reading is good.

[Cheers]

Still another month of ice to go but I think I will try one and see if it works . Option 2 is give up on Lowrance elite and buy a more expensive better unit . So the experiment boils down to $100 vs $1500 or so . I expect overtime I will end up spending $ for a better units , but I have 2 new elite 7s and have a hard time just walking away from them  as they do work well when they work.

[delcecchi]

Not showing bottom is likely not due to the processor being up to the task.   How deep and how fast are we talking about? 

You could be disappointed if you do go to the expensive unit. 

Like I said, my elite 7 follows the bottom up until over 30, approaching 40, except in 30+ feet with muck or whatever is down there bottom.  The returns just gradually fade out as water gets deeper and bottom gets softer.

  Is that what happens to you? 

[Cheers]

Exactly the same with me. I like to cruise around 34 mph and the depth varies from a few feet to over 100 but usually 50 feet. When I loose the bottom it takes a long time for the unit to recover and find bottom again . If I was cruising  and the bottom changed I could have gone high and dry onto land before it decided to warn me . When I pull up to a reef to look for fish it will take a few minutes to work if it has lost bottom for very long . 

I used to use a Lowrance 334 and it worked well. I can hook the 334 to the transducer for the Elite and the 334 will out performs the Elite , indicating it is not the location of the transducer rather the processor speed of the Elite that is at fault .

i have friends that run Hbirds and Garmens and they don't have the same issues as me , I am running 2 units on 2 separate boats and both act the same .

[Cheers]

Well I am pleased to report that the depth guage works fine . It does cause interference on the elite picture so I installed it with an on/off switch so when I slow down to look for fish I can switch it off . Lake was to rough for a long test and fine tune but seems to be the answer