Quad beam or dual beam, US2 sucks

[Nosebleed]

I have a 788ci bird sonar on the front of my rig. I've used the US2 in the terrova101 for the last 2 years with poor results. I spent most of the time fighting interference. The ground fuse in the terrova blew twice, so I am never confident that it's good anymore. Humminbird sent me a new power cord with a filter of some kind on it. That worked well for a while (2weeks) but after a couple trips and shortly after that all my interference came back. On top of that I know the US2 has never given me very good info. I could dropshot a 5 1/2" shad and have trouble seeing it..... I'm fairly convinced I would get more accurate results and possibly less interference with an external ducer.

So.... Those of you with quadbeam experience is it worth it? Do you use it over standard 2d? If it's 18' away on the front of the boat, will it interfere with my 998 transom SI?

[Shellback]

A different transducer might not solve your interference problems. There's a lot of information regarding interference out there if you do some searching. I know some problems have been solved by tying the trolling motor batteries ground together with the starting battery ground.

[rnnonmt]

Originally Posted by Shellback

A different transducer might not solve your interference problems. There's a lot of information regarding interference out there if you do some searching. I know some problems have been solved by tying the trolling motor batteries ground together with the starting battery ground.

+1 on Shellback.

I battled interference while using the US2 with a Lowrance unit and 597CI HD DI. With the HB I did the filtered power cable, ferrite ring/choke, grounded the terrova shaft, separate stand alone motorcycle batt for power and was never able to reduce the interference to my liking. I should have taken pictures of the temporary frankenstein I created while troubleshooting. I eventually started over with an 998 at the console and 898 at the bow networked together using the SI ducer on the transom. I dont guide or compete so this was a simple solution. My only regret at this point was not installing a 2nd ducer on the transom for 2d only and splitting the signal. OH well. Not a terrible project to add the 2nd ducer....Arizona winters are warm. Take care. Good luck

[ut-lund]

Originally Posted by rnnonmt

+1 on Shellback.

I battled interference while using the US2 with a Lowrance unit and 597CI HD DI. With the HB I did the filtered power cable, ferrite ring/choke, grounded the terrova shaft, separate stand alone motorcycle batt for power and was never able to reduce the interference to my liking. I should have taken pictures of the temporary frankenstein I created while troubleshooting. I eventually started over with an 998 at the console and 898 at the bow networked together using the SI ducer on the transom. I dont guide or compete so this was a simple solution. My only regret at this point was not installing a 2nd ducer on the transom for 2d only and splitting the signal. OH well. Not a terrible project to add the 2nd ducer....Arizona winters are warm. Take care. Good luck

This is what I did too, but I split the 2D and SI and love the setup. The 2D transducer is a high speed skimmer model that allows me to get some "reasonable" data on plane. I followed the setup they outline on walleye workshop and could not happier.

[Jason Halfen]

There is absolutely nothing fundamentally wrong with the US2 transducer. All of the 2D sonar images in this article were collected using the US2 in my Terrova, connected to a Humminbird 858c. If I can see a jig in 25 feet of water, and see fish come up and hit (or change their mind!) with regularity, then the transducer is working as designed.

http://www.jasonhalfenoutdoors.com/D...mVertical.html

Chasing down the ultimate source of the interference is going to be a more productive and satisfying pursuit than changing transducers. My guess is that you are experiencing RF interference caused by the maximizer in your Terrova. One way to confirm is to crank your prop speed up to 10 (100%).....the maximizer is not engaged at that setting, and your sonar should be 100% noise free.

I recently came across a really nice video that Brian at BBG Marine had on his Facebook page. It describes a very simple fix that eliminates the problems associated with maximizer RF interference. Here's a link to that video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8N...ature=youtu.be

Hope those resources help!

[Franco Cialone]

i had an interference problem with my 597, called HB and they sent me a new power cord with a built-in choke and a ferrite ring. These two items eliminated all my interference with my bow mount fishfinder,and my Fortrex with US2.

[h8go4s]

Another source on sonar noise:

http://www.biggeorgiaspots.com/boats...html?showall=1

Good read gopher dude

[Walleye2112]

Agreed--very informative article.

[Nosebleed]

Originally Posted by Jason Halfen

There is absolutely nothing fundamentally wrong with the US2 transducer. All of the 2D sonar images in this article were collected using the US2 in my Terrova, connected to a Humminbird 858c. If I can see a jig in 25 feet of water, and see fish come up and hit (or change their mind!) with regularity, then the transducer is working as designed.

http://www.jasonhalfenoutdoors.com/D...mVertical.html

Chasing down the ultimate source of the interference is going to be a more productive and satisfying pursuit than changing transducers. My guess is that you are experiencing RF interference caused by the maximizer in your Terrova. One way to confirm is to crank your prop speed up to 10 (100%).....the maximizer is not engaged at that setting, and your sonar should be 100% noise free.

I recently came across a really nice video that Brian at BBG Marine had on his Facebook page. It describes a very simple fix that eliminates the problems associated with maximizer RF interference. Here's a link to that video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8N...ature=youtu.be

Hope those resources help!

Well thanks for the advice I suppose if the US2 works for you it will work for me.. Today I ran a ground wire from the skeg of the terrova to the neg side of my graph. We will see if that does the trick

thanks again