Fix Fish Finder Power Cycle and Interference Issues (EASY)

Tons of people contact me for help with their Humminbird fish finders each year. It’s a common problem. They’re not getting good performance from their fish finder, are having problems with it not working correctly or even worse, having frustrating power cycle issues and they turn for outside help.

Having such a large number of people coming to me for advice on their fish finders gives me a great opportunity to see what the most common issues are.

My experience has been that Humminbird Solix and Helix units that are installed correctly work exactly as they’re supposed to and are problem free. Almost 100% of the issues I encounter when helping anglers are due to bad installations or failure to read instructions and learn how to operate the fish finder.

The Fish Finder POWER Problem Is BIG

In the past two weeks I’ve had my hands on four different boats locally. They all belonged to anglers that were experiencing issues with their fish finders. Two had power cycle problems (when you crank the outboard the fish finder shuts off) and two had interference problems and other random issues where things just weren’t working like they were supposed to.

All four of these boats had bad fish finder installations causing the problems. These boat owners all paid someone to install their electronics for them and it was not done correctly. Just because you’ve paid someone to install electronics for you doesn’t mean it’s been done the right way to give you the best images and problem free performance.

The larger fish finder units anglers use today, especially when running 10, 12 and 15 inch screens use a lot of power and they’re sensitive to voltage drops. This is a common cause of power cycle issues as well as other performance problems.

There’s an easy fix though, install them the right way, according to the manufacturer recommendations and you’ll get problem free performance in most cases.

How To Wire a Fish Finder The Right Way

The solution is simple, you need good clean power to avoid voltage drops and interference. This in turn will give you good images and problem free performance.

Tools and Materials Needed

Wire Fish Finders Direct To Battery

Wire the fish finder direct to the battery (either the cranking battery or an auxiliary battery). Don’t take shortcuts and run the fish finder power wire into a block or switch panel. Wire your fish finder the right way and extend the Humminbird power wire directly to the battery using the correct type and gauge wire.** This will help with eliminating interference and preventing voltage drops which cause performance and power cycle issues.

**Refer to your Humminbird Helix and Solix install manuals for the correct gauge wire and fuse.

When extending the power wire:

Solder all connections and cover with heat shrink tubing or use solder shrink connections.
Don’t use crimp connectors or twist connectors.
Use a marine inline fuse with the correct gauge fuse (again, solder connections).
Use marine grade terminal rings at the battery end, crimped and covered with heat shrink.
Add battery terminal clamps to the battery post so you can separate fish finder wires from other connections at the battery keeping house connections and fish finder connections separate.

Correct Gauge Wire

Use the correct gauge wire for the installation is equally important as wiring direct to battery. If you’re not using the correct size and gauge wire you’ll often experience voltage drops and in turn can have performance issues or power cycle problems.

Refer to the Humminbird Solix and Helix install manuals to find the correct gauge wire for the length of the run in your installation.

Always use marine grade shielded duplex wire.

.
.Here’s The Video

Simple Solutions For Better Fish Finder Performance

If you’ll follow these tips and assure your fish finder is installed the right way, direct to battery with good clean power in most cases it will resolve power cycle, voltage drop and interference issues. On occasion you may still experience interference issues. I’ll be back in the future with more tips and tricks on how to troubleshoot more in depth interference issues.