Hummingbird Helix 7 problem

[bigcreekdad]

About every other time I start my motor, my Helix 7 shuts off. Just started happening.

 

Anyone experience this, or have any thoughts?

[Terry]

your battery is failing

or your engines starter motor  is drawing too much amps

your fishfinder is made to shut down if the voltage gets too low

a new bigger battery can help, also running a larger wire to the fishfinder can sometimes help. both + and - wires

[bigcreekdad]

Thanks Terry... I need to see the age of my starting battery,

 

[Terry]

you can also try cleaning all connections and battery terminals 

[Old Ironmaker]

3 hours ago, Terry said:

your battery is failing

or your engines starter motor  is drawing too much amps

your fishfinder is made to shut down if the voltage gets too low

a new bigger battery can help, also running a larger wire to the fishfinder can sometimes help. both + and - wires

This, I had a similar problem with my Garmin. The battery was OK but I had a short shutting down the unit. Many units shut down because the wiring is too close to other wiring unrelated and can and will effect the units accuracy. I have 3 sonar units and insulated the wiring of all 3. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by Old Ironmaker

[Garnet]

Most fish finder problems are poor install.

So lets start with should hard wired to starting battery. Yes you will need to shut units off. Main power won't shut units off.

You should have 6 gauge wire from starting battery to a good stainless steel block under your dash. The best way is to soldier ends on 6 gauge , you can compression crib.

Now you run all your finders off this panel. Don't use the super skinny wire, CTC has a bulk spool comes in 2-3 sizes get the thickness. No I'm not going out in garages this morning before daylight.

Get 2 different colours.

Keep in line fuse. Do Not run threw your boat fuse block Do Not take exacter 3 meters of wire and wad up in ball.

Clean those battery contacts.

Most fishfinders are 1 to 5k so spend $200 on good install.  

[AKRISONER]

Battery issue, had the same problem with my 7...battery swap, problem fixed

[JMFJMF]

I had the same problem and as advised by others on this forum, solved it by reconnecting the unit directly to the starter battery with much thicker wires, both + and -. I added the fuse provided with the unit (purchased new) on the wires and of course had to adopt the habit of shutting off the unit directly and not through the boat's main power switch, which is annoying.

Poorly designed product. For its price, one would expect more robust performance in my opinion. None of the units I had previously (3 over 20 years) had such problems.

[BillM]

Only time I've ever had a finder shutoff when starting the motor is when the battery started to go.   Replace battery, problem solved.  

[JMFJMF]

In my case the problem was happening just as much with a new battery. I tried various set ups before I was able to make it work consistently. It seems that the Helix unit cannot tolerate being plugged in otherwise that directly to the battery. I have another older unit at the front of the boat (Humminbird 595) which does not care how it's connected and always works. I do not have the expertise to explain why.

[Garnet]

Everything posted is possible.

Todays fishfinder/gps/down image/side image/satellite are just sensitive little dudes. We want more and more out such a little package.

And I believe Birds are the most sensitive.

Also the size of your motor and the draw it takes to turn over.

A good battery setup for blown 21ft bassboat is 6k just for the batterys. 

[AKRISONER]

8 hours ago, Garnet said:

 

A good battery setup for blown 21ft bassboat is 6k just for the batterys. 

A little overstated unless you are running lithium’s, but it’s close. 

Gotta pay to play!

3 agms, charger, marine wiring, fuses, panel. I just redid my entire boat. It’s only 24 volt and I run my units off of my starting battery. But yup, some days my wallet misses the pull starter and ice fishing lead acid batteries in my old tinner lol

[BillM]

I need to start rigging boats if guys are dropping 6k for batteries      

Edited September 26, 2019 by BillM

[misfish]

10 minutes ago, BillM said:

I need to start rigging boats if guys are dropping 6k for batteries      

I will detail ,while you rig Bill.

[JMFJMF]

Feeding the technology ogres who are viciously striving to bankrupt us all is not my cup of tea. I am scaling back as much as I can towards used, cheaper, proven and easy to use stuff, which, by the way, I enjoy more (also due to nostalgia perhaps). The 3 boats I had I purchased for around 10% of what they cost new, used them 7-8 years every weekend April to November, and resold them for the same price in 24 h with a simple posting on Kijiji, so paying less to play works well for me. Very content with the features they came with, including  batteries & electronics, which have always felt like real luxuries compared to how I learned to fish. Of course some had to be replaced eventually because of the deceitful built in obsolescence (and I sometimes wonder whether we should cave in at all to such racketeering). Well, I have been consistently disappointed by the new products, which, in spite of all the new "bells and whistles" they came with, always resulted in a set back in fact. 

[Garnet]

There's a market for rigging boats. I heard Grant was scaling back.

You better expect to quit fishing. 

Most bassboat guys running 5 battery setups. You don't buy the battery's from Costco. 

Edited September 26, 2019 by Garnet

[KawarthaAngler]

I had this problem with my Helix 7.  I purchased a new starter battery and problem didn't go away.

I had wired the power to the Helix from my dash electronics, just the way the old cheap Canadian Tire fish finder was that came with the boat.  So what I did next was I ran a dedicated wire from the battery to my Helix and the problem went away!  

Edited September 26, 2019 by KawarthaAngler

[misfish]

11 minutes ago, KawarthaAngler said:

So what I did next was I ran a dedicated wire from the battery to my Helix and the problem went away!  

I run my finder the same way on the toon. Direct to the battery.

[JMFJMF]

So it seems that for many of us this fish finder only works connected directly to the battery. Fish Finder is actually a mis-nomer for mine, because, contrary to the previous (and simpler) units I had, this one never seems to locate any fish ... Maybe it's because there aren't any left within my reach (a couple of hours drive around TO).

[JMFJMF]

On 9/25/2019 at 9:52 AM, JMFJMF said:

I had the same problem and as advised by others on this forum, solved it by reconnecting the unit directly to the starter battery with much thicker wires, both + and -. I added the fuse provided with the unit (purchased new) on the wires and of course had to adopt the habit of shutting off the unit directly and not through the boat's main power switch, which is annoying.

Poorly designed product. For its price, one would expect more robust performance in my opinion. None of the units I had previously (3 over 20 years) had such problems.

Don't kill the dream: execute it