Can anybody help me please helix 12 g2n di gps

Ok so I just bought a helix 12 g2n di for the bow of the boat. I have tried 5 different transducers, different mounts, traced power wire, grounded the trolling motor, farit rings everything!!! I am still getting interference on my graph, I'm beginning to think my trolling motor is bad and needs a new one to clear this up! The marine dealership also has been trying to get a solution to fix this! For 2 days they have tried everything and called humminbird with no luck! I am getting really upset that no one knows how to fix this issue with the trolling motor and the helix 12 interference! I'm thinking of returning all of this humminbird stuff and going with lowrance graphs! Please help me fix this if anyone on here has knowledge of fixing this I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you

BOAT........... Break Out Another Thousand

Ok thanks for the help, thanks for helping the cause smh

I've never had a bird si unit that didn't get interference out of 4 different boat's & trolling motors.

That's not good! How bout you lowrance guys, you have problems with interference as bad as humminbird?! I'm thinking of switching to lowrance if I do not get it resolved! The cockpit unit runs flawless I have a helix 12 g2n mega si di gps with no issues at all with rfi!

I would drive up to DFW area and see David at Shut up and fish,...

Ok will definitely look into that, thank you sir!

You tried the trolling motor specific transducers? That's what I was going to try next.

Did you move it away from the trolling motor? Moving mine 6" or so got rid of the interference. I've had about 5 HBs on 2 different boats and only one ever gave me a problem. Others had worked next to the trolling motor. This on didn't want to

What TM brand? If it's a Minn Kota, check under the cover for a fuse that is blown. It can cause you issues with electronics yet your Trolling motor still work

what have you tried? What battery are you running the Helix on? I have interference on my bow Bird.. its an 859Ci and I'm running it off of the first battery in my trolling motor 24v string.. if that makes sense. I haven't taken the time to try and fix it. Its a stab in the dark to try and filter the power since I don't know what freq the control is operating at for the trolling motor. The trolling motor is generating the noise that is getting into the Helix either via radiation from the motor itself into the transducer or its corrupting the power to the Helix. My TM is a Motor Guide GW80 you didn't say what you have. The "farit" rings.. actually ferrite cores that are used to create an induction type filter.. but again.. they are frequency dependent.. meaning that a different mix of ferrite works on different frequencies so.. unless you know what freq the interference is.. you don't know which core to use. Finding some body with some RF knowledge would be a good place to start on getting that interference fixed. I know I haven't helped in fixing the problem, but I hope that I may have given you some background on what it is and how to approach fixing it. Good Luck
BD

I run all of my graphs to the cranking battery, and both units have a independent lead running to the battery! I have tried all off the transducers from the tm ones to the transom ones! I now think there is a ground issue, I have to check if I have a ground wire running to the post of the cranking battery to the tm battery. This might solve the issue. Also I have read the mk charging system might be the the culprit! I think connecting the negative cranking battery to the tm battery with 18g wire will solve it I hope!!

I have a mk fortrex 101 tm

Have you tried the Bird specific forums on BBC? They have a lot of technical information over there.

does it stop when you get off the TM?

Yes I have been reading all of their stuff on the bbc! Good info on that page for sure! Thank you

Make sure you test with boat in the water. You may have interference while boat is on the trailer but be gone when you drop it in the water. I spent 2 days battling with this and just got pissed and went fishing. Got it in the water and it was gone. Been that way every since

I have a Fortrex 101 and older Humminbirds front & back. I have the same issues. Seems impossible but the problem is consistently way worse on some lakes than others. On the front 997 with trolling motor on I get consistently minor interference on Fork to consistently heavy interference on Squaw Creek. I guess the salinity of the water affects the amount of interference(best guess I've got). Have heard it's a common problem with the built in transducers but I'm using an add-on external transducer. My fuse under the TM cover is fine(that explanation never makes sense to me but I still wish my fuse had been blown). Very aggravating! Wish I could get mine resolved. Hope you do!

Thanks guys, and I have tested it on the water with the same result interference. I really think it is the old fortrex tm I have on the boat. I am just going to order a new ultrex tm this coming up week!! Got the ok from the wife!! Wahooooo I think this will work I hope lol!

If you are using the US2 on that 101 for your 2D sonar, then quit using it.

I went through this with a 101 a few years back and the only thing that worked was using an external transducer. And we tried every known solution and even tried a few that others had not at the time.

I am using external transducers and have not used the internal one built into the tm.

I am having this same exact issue. It's only when I'm running the TM then some times when I'm not.

Very frustrating to invest over 6k in graphs and have this issue. I've tried everything with no luck. With shield and bracket, without shield and bracket, moving up and down the head. Nothing

Do you have an onboard charger? One thing I just saw was disconnecting your cranking battery (or what battery your graphs are powered with) and trying it and seeing if it gets better. I'll be trying that

Same here Clark, I'm at the point were I dunno what to do! I feel like the TM graph is very important when fishing and I can't get the thing to work right. I'm going to try one more thing, and that is taking off my tm and putting a new one on my boat at the dealership and see if that works before purchasing the fortrex. Will post my findings this coming up week.

Yes I have a mk on board smart 4 bank charger. Another thing I was going to try is grounding the cranking battery to the tm battery.

Have you tried disconnecting the charger from The cranking battery? Interference can bleed through the chargers sometimes

Have you contacted MK?

https://www.humminbird.com/faqDetail.aspx?id=3660

I have an ultrex and get the interference, so getting that won't solve your issue. In fact I get interference when I move the pedal on the ultrex. It has something to do with the DI g2n, bc two guys I've spoken to have the sonar g2n and ultrex with no issue. That's why I thought it was the incorrect transducer causing the interference. I spoke to a guy on BBC and he said Humminbird sent him a new TM ducer at no cost.

I have an ultrex and get the interference, so getting that won't solve your issue. In fact I get interference when I move the pedal on the ultrex. It has something to do with the DI g2n, bc two guys I've spoken to have the sonar g2n and ultrex with no issue. That's why I thought it was the incorrect transducer causing the interference. I spoke to a guy on BBC and he said Humminbird sent him a new TM ducer at no cost.

I'm running a MotorGuide X5i with a Lowrance Hook 7 and would constantaly get interference when I ran the TM. I had the transducer cable zip strapped to the TM power cable from where it plugs into the bow and leads to the TM itself to make the wiring look clean and tidy. After doing so research I found out this is a no no. Separated the wires and the interference went away.

Let me add to the confusion....I have an Ultrex, Lowrance 12T w/SpotLight Scan transducer which includes DownScan, 360 for Ultrex and Helix 9 Chirp GPS G2N. On initial rig up and lake trip everything was great and no interference. I cut the SpotLight transducer when stowing the Ultrex (I'm not the only nor first person to do this). I replaced the SpotLight transducer with a new out of the box transducer. The Helix is working fine, but now my Lowrance 800kHz DownScan has interference when the Ultrex is spinning, no interference when I am not on the TM. The 455kHz is fine in either case. The Helix and 12T are stacked on the bow. I have another 12T and a LMS-520 at the console which work fine.

Long story short, nothing changed except the transducer. Not sure this information will be of any use, but thought I would share.

I'm not sure if others have covered this or not, but first a question. Is the noise only noticed while running the TM or all the time?

• Make sure your transducer cable is not pinched
• you can run a battery cable from your negative cranking battery to I believe your last TM battery in the series to try to reduce noise
• Don't route your transducer cord down the cord/cable length from the foot control to the TM head, instead run it along the TM bracket, then down the TM shaft. I'll attach a picture later.

Hope this helps!

Thanks guys for all of the advice!! I will double check the transducer cable and see how they routed it on tm. Definitely going to ground the cranking battery to the tm battery with 18g wire! Thanks again guys!!

I have not read all the replies but I have a helix 12 and wired it all by itself to the cranking battery. No interference. But before I did that I got interference.

I have it wired to the cranking battery also

XTM9 WIDE DI 20 T transducer is what you should be using

Look up filtering on DC power lines. I have no solution for you but I think you may have a DC noise issue that very few people would be able to figure out.

I finally got word on what is causing interference on my bow graph. There is a brown wire in the tm head that connects to the foot pedal. Unplugged I get no interference and plugged in I do! I was wondering if anyone on here knew what that wire does. I want to cut and plug it! Please let me know what that brown wire does if anyone can please in lighten me! Thank you

i looked up the wiring schematics for your trolling motor.. the brown wire is fused which goes to a indicator light.. I would just pull the fuse instead of cutting it... its a ground wire, I think it is a shield for leakage to ground.

Or it is the negative for the indicator light.

Well come to find out it was a bad transducer, from what I was told! Said they used another transducer and now is working correctly. Will have to wait another week to go out and test it. Marine dealership tested it in a tub they have there, so we shall see! Hope it is fixed crossing my fingers!

Hope it all is fixed now. I know how bad it sucks trying to correct interference.

Yes it is me too, we shall see!

Thanks to all for the info.