Furuno gurus, please help

[U4REEL]

Gday guys, always b
Had lowrances and recently bought a hds10 but wasn't overly happy compared to what I've seen on friends boats who had the furuno.

So bought a fcv587 matched to a m260 mix and match (have lowrance and furuno cables)

Tested it out today for the first time. In 40 meters it seemed like I needed a lot of gain to get a decent pic on hf. The full screen picture seems to show the bottom quite thin as well. And the only fish shows I saw was a bait school that I saw on the surface and showed up mint on the sounder. Went to a guaranteed spot in 40 meters and saw no fish sign, just a good indication of the Lump even with the gain at 8-10. Straight away we caught fish on this lump no thanks to the sounder.

A quick run out to 75-80 meters saw me wild, the sounder would lose bottom and start being a retard even at full gain. As a test I plugged the standard girlie lowrance transducer into the hds and had a perfect pic.

I have selected 1kw in the settings tvg is at medium, boat is a 5.2 kc

Been reading about shift. Will this help me? Shift seems like lowrance upper and lower limits?

Where did I go wrong?

[rosco1974]

mate use the shift feature will help you out big time . totally transforms the unit.. my 585 is on a 2400kc and reads fine.

[U4REEL]

Cheers Rosco, I'll suss out this shift feature. What tranny are you running in the 2400?

[MyWay]

On my 587 I always just run auto and was awesome
no problem At full speed and also was reading in 390m with 600w transducer

[Aussie123]

I don't know if the shift selection is the issue here.
You should not be losing bottom like that so sounds more like an incorrect transducer setup issue.

[shandos]

I agree with Aussie123. More likely a tranducer placement issue.You should get a killer picture at 80m. If it is an in hull tranducer make sure it is not placed over any ply reinforcement in the fibreglass.

[U4REEL]

Trams placement could be an issue, i'll be honest I didn't test location first I replicated where Ian or dean placed their m260 on the Kc 5.2. It's in the starboard side on the very outside of the stringer, snugg up against the stringer. So from searching the big www I'm gonna try

Make sure it still has fluid
Hang the ducer over the side and compare image on the same ground.
Check angles of the cut box

How imperative is it that the transducer angle is level forward and back? Obviously the boat has different angles at speed,rest,idle?

How much gain should I need in say 40 60 80 120 meters? As an idea in 40 meters at a gain of 3.5 ish I had a faint bottom tracking line.

Pics will be taken on next outing to compare also

[rosco1974]

I run a 600w transom mount tranny...what speed where you loosin bottom mate,i know I loose bottom when at speed offshore,but I mostly run around the 28knts between marks

[Back In Black]

You slowing down Rosco???

Tony

[U4REEL]

Was holding bottom in the 40s to around 20-25 knots not the greatest picture though

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/9...0519081916.jpg

Pic attached shows location will get the level out again shortly. Tried fitting more fluid but was full.

[rosco1974]

nah tony the weather doesnt help much these days...

[wave dancer]

Sounds like the girlie lowrance shits all over the furuno if you had a perfect picture as you said lol. As MyWay said you should be getting a good reading in those sort of depths using it in auto. I run lowrance and garmin and both give a clear bottom reading in auto at 200m with a 600w transducer. Might be worth a quick call to the local marine electronic store who supply and fit. If in Brissie call Trymax Marine they are always helpful. (07) 3245 3633 8am-5pm Mon - Fri.

Cheers Mick.

[Vitamin Sea]

Hi, I have a 585 with a in hull M260 (like yours) in the Haines, great setup, can see to school prawns mateing in 150 metres no problem.

Gain needs to be really no more than 10% of water depth, the shift function with a smaller range will assist in discrimination but you don't NEED to use it, you should still see evrything in auto or manual mode.

As Mick has suggested above I to believe that something is wrong with your setup, eg leads/matching box, whatever, talk to Taylors or Trymax, see how you go, they should be able to suggest what is wrong.

Also be aware that you will not get the bottom discrimination mode that is on the newer 587 (rocks, gravel, etc) using the M260 IH, they requite a thru hull or a transom mount transducer.

Your other setting seem fine to me.

Cheers

VS

[Smithy]

I have my TVG on high most times but run my gain on Auto Fishing. The only thing I have to do is play with the calibration settings for HF and LF +20 to -20 to get similar gain levels on the two frequencies on split screen. On the shelf I am LF only and then I usually go to +20 on the LF and run manual gain but probably only need 3.5 or so.