TZT2 Shallow Water Performance

[haneyrm]

I'm having trouble with my TZT2 showing a depth reading in water less than 6' deep. I just get dashes instead of a number.

I'm using the Furuno 525t-ltd (B60) transducer and everything is new.

I have the machine set to high frequency. When I'm sitting still at the dock, it will not read depth. If I'm moving slowly, it will lose the bottom at around 5'. Anything shallower and I get dashes. I replaced a Garmin 740/B112 combo that would read reliably down to 1.5'.

I live in SW Florida and most of the inshore waters are 6' or less in depth so I hope this is just a setting or something simple.

Any ideas?

 

[Snips]

Haneyrm,
The Bottom Level setting controls the threshold for what the sounder considers the bottom. Normally it should be set around -20. Please take a look at what it is currently set at.

Snips

 

[haneyrm]

Thanks. I'll take a look and see where it's set.

 

[haneyrm]

No matter what I do, I cannot get the machine to read the bottom in shallow water. If I'm moving slowly and the bottom is clean sand, I can see the bottom down to 5'. Below that and it loses the bottom and I just get dashes. Sitting still, it will not read the bottom in depths less than 10' or so regardless of bottom composition.

If there is grass on the bottom, it's even worse.

Any ideas? I messed with it yesterday for several hours and there's been no improvement. I really need it to read in shallow water. Most of the water around here is less than 6' deep.

Thanks.

 

[Snips]

Haneyrm,
If your Bottom Level is set at -20 on both HF and LF, please post a screen shot for me.

Snips

 

[haneyrm]

Will do. Do you want a screenshot of the setup screen or a screenshot of the sounder screen. The sounder screen is blank. The only thing showing is the depth scale on the right side of the screen.

Thanks.

 

[Snips]

Haneyrm,
What I would like to see is a screen shot of what both LF/HF look like in shallow water.
If you are in 5ft please have the screen showing a deeper scale, say 15-20ft. Since you really need this shallow water performance I am wondering if decreasing the TX power may help, have you tried that?

Snips

 

[haneyrm]

Finally got out this afternoon and got some pictures. I put the machine in full auto mode using the auto Fishing setting and was able to get the machine to read down to about 4' as long as the boat was idling. Stopped, it would not read that low. This was on LF. On HF, it will not read anything in shallow water.

The screen also looks very pixelated for some reason. Not really sure why.

Here are screenshots of the full sounder screen and of the set-up screens.

Thanks for the help.

 

[haneyrm]

Remaining pictures.

 

[Snips]

Haneyrm,
Try taking the TX Rate from AUTO to Manual 20.

Snips

 

[haneyrm]

Still not reading the depth in shallow water. Bumping up the transmit rate seems to have helped a little but it's just not reliably reading under 5' and has never really given a reading less than 4'.

Below is a picture of what the screen looks like sitting still in about 4' of water. :sorry

The second picture is what a school of tarpon looks like in Captiva Pass. :jump

Any other ideas? I really need this thing to read the bottom in shallow water.

Thanks.

 

[Snips]

Haneyrm,
In the first screen shot do you have the sounder in the Auto Range mode, which is causing all those lines? The second screen shot is pretty nice, I hope you caught a few of them.

Snips

 

[Snips]

Haneyrm,
Since we don't have a vessel handy that I can take into really shallow water I did the next best thing I could think of. I used a transducer and hung it over the side. This way I could raise and lower it. I had the TZT-15 in a manual range and found it was 95% reliable to around 2ft. Sometimes I could get to read to 1.7ft. I found it will show the bottom less than 2ft but the digital readout is erratic.

Snips

 

[haneyrm]

Hmmm. What am I missing here? The transducer is a brand new Furuno 525T-LTD (B60) and it is facing the correct direction. The arrow is pointing towards the keel or centerline of the boat.

Do you think it would be a good idea for me to get a second transducer and try the same thing you did? I would need to return it if it didn't work though. That's the only way I can think to isolate the problem to either the transducer or the machine.

Any other ideas? Was on a friends boat this weekend with a new Garmin 7612 XSV and it was reading a perfectly clear bottom in 1.8' of water sitting at the ramp. It really frustrated me to see that.

Thanks.

 

[Snips]

Haneyrm,
You could try another transducer and do the same test I did. I would interested to see what it looked like if you took it out of the Auto Range mode.

Snips

 

[haneyrm]

The shots with all of the vertical lines were in auto range mode. If I swap over to manual, it definitely cleans up the screen but still will not give me a depth reading. Even though the bottom is pretty clearly defined, it will not post a depth reading. This makes it hard to deal with when using the chart since I need to see the depth readout on the chart screen.

What would be stopping the machine from giving a depth reading if the bottom is clearly defined on the sonar screen?

 

[Capt David]

Haneyrm,
Since we don't have a vessel handy that I can take into really shallow water I did the next best thing I could think of. I used a transducer and hung it over the side. This way I could raise and lower it. I had the TZT-15 in a manual range and found it was 95% reliable to around 2ft. Sometimes I could get to read to 1.7ft. I found it will show the bottom less than 2ft but the digital readout is erratic.

Snips

Snips in the photo you have a depth of approx 28 feet. How exactly can you change that to show about 10 feet so you can see more of the area on the screen versus just an inch or two?

Thanks you!

 

[Snips]

Capt. David,
The smallest depth scale that I was able to go was 7.5ft. Just as you can pinch to increase the range you can expand to decrease it.

Snips

 

[Capt David]

Thanks I cant get less than 16 feet for some reason.

 

[Snips]

Capt. David,
My apologizes, 16ft is shallowest with a transducer connected.

Snips