DFF3D orientated by heading or vessel?

[DeepSouthTX]

I have been looking through the manual but maybe I am missing it. Where we fish its windy. And when you are drifting the boats always seem to be side to the wind. So you are moving 1 to 3 knts either port or starbord direction if that makes sense. When motoring with the dff3d in forward obviously the "little ships" orientation is correct on the screen. What about drifting in the above scenario. Is the little ships bow pointed in the direction of your heading? Or does the transducer always have the heading pinned to the bow, so the "little ship" on the screen is always the correct orientation of the vessel? (guessing this) -- I get that the beam is more of a blade and not a oval or circle. So that would mean whatever is showing on the port side of the screen is off the port side of the boat. But that would also mean that without forward movement then your not going to get much coverage... Which, in a scenario where I am drifting in a stbd direction would mean I that a wreck would show up on the stbd side then move to the port side, correct? Hope thats not too confusing. Trying to wrap my head around this and not make any assumptions. Any feedback from experienced users would be welcomed. Thank you

 

[kicker]

There is a bow marker or proper way to install the DFF3D transducers. That is a great question though because all the boats I been on with a DFF3D, we always went forward when checking and testing.

The design of the DFF3D is intended more for going over targets or structure in a forward and aft position but if you wanted to go over a target and you were drifting from port or starboard, I think the triple/single beam sounder view would be your best option, as if it appeared on the starboard beam angle, it would then start to appear in the middle and port view or vice versa as you went over a target.

I think we might need someone else's 3 cents on this... @Snips, Johnny, or C-Bass?

 

[Quitsa]

Couldn't you look at the three axis speed with the lateral vector from the current from the internal motion sensor like an SCX20?

 

[kicker]

DeepSouthTX,

You are referring to the boat icon origination on the DFF3D history screen or the plotter screen?