TM260 on The Canyon Draggin'

[Kenlahr]

Dropped the Canyon Draggin' off with Jim and Vance at BOE Marine Saturday morning. We are adding the TM260 next to the P66.

Powerful, Yet Sensitive! The new TM260 takes the legendary performance of the B260 to your vessel’s transom. This top-of-the-line broadband transom-mount brings crystal clear imaging to any of today’s fishfinders. The large 200 kHz element and the seven-element 50 kHz array are excellent for bait and game fish separation along with detecting ground fish holding tight to the bottom.

As compared to the P66 the TM260 is:
50 times more sensitive at 50 kHz
13 times more sensitive at 200 kHz

The "Q" at both freq's is 8 which is really good for a under $1K transducer.

The pictures I have been posting were from the P66 in 200kHz mode. It preformed well to between 1000 and 1200 feet. Which exceded AIRMARs performance description of up to 700 feet. I atribute the added performace to the broadband processing by Lowrance. I had the same P66 on an LCX110 and could not pick up fish past about 500 to 600 feet and usually observed a total loss of bottom at 800 feet. We'll be taking the Canyon Draggin' to the deep on Friday if the weather allows. Looking for tuna and Tiles in the deep. If the TM260 performes as I suspect the P66 will be replaced with the structure scan when it comes out.

 

[Kenlahr]

It is not looking like we'll get offshore this weekend due to Danny. We were on the upper Bay today testing the placement of the TM260. Here are a few shots. We won't get to see the full performance here in the bay, but this will answer some of the questions on holding bottom at speed.

The TM260 is big and it is sensitive. When you move to a ducer like this it's not ALL about the power. Its about the sensitivity. My initial observations are that I am going to have to play with this unit to figure it out. it is really sensitive. I was not picking up those horizontal lines with the P66. I didn't have time to figure it out, it could be a few things. Here is the P66 in the same area:

Here is a neat trick from Lowrance. I have the P66 connected to the starboard display and the TM260 connected to the port display. There is a function button on the bottom that allows you to select the transducer you want to look at. When I select the P66 it switches off the TM260 automatically. Thats very helpfull right now as I have both units hanging off the transom.

 

[Kenlahr]

P66

We currently have both the P66 and the TM260 on the transom of the Canyon' Draggin' . We are getting really good performance out of the P66. Here is a shot from our last canyon run:

We are hoping that the TM260 will deliver as advertised, 13x more sensitive at 200 Khz.

 

[jekyl]

Wow Ken that looks like the "Ducks Guts".......

I wondered why my picture at speed (ie. 30knots) is fine with 200khz on the split screen but the 50 hz gets lots of noise at the same speed?

 

[Kenlahr]

Haydn,
The Ducke Guts Eh.. and a no drama cane farmer install thats for sure!
Check out the gain settings. For most of the trials we did we kept the gain in Auto. However, while in auto you can move gain up or down as much as 10%. When set at 0% the sonar is optimized for the selected depth, or if depth is also in auto it is optimized for the actual bottom. I was messing with the gain. I knew there was bait and I was trying to see what adjustments had to be made to be able to detect bait while at speed. I didn't realize until later that the unit also has a DEEP WATER and SHALLOW WATER mode. This setting actually changes how often it "pings" and it was in deep mode. The biggest thing I have to get use to is that the 260 is 13x more sensitive in 200 kHz mode, that means it will detect more stuff ... which includes noise. I think since the water flow over the transducer is different than a through hull with a faring block, I am seeing more noise.
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As for the noise at 50 vs 200 kHz, well there is just more noise at 50 kHz than 200 kHz. Also, to get the same performance at 50 kHz you need either more elements in the array or larger elements. The small transducers are using six to eight elements and shaped beamforms to reduce the noise. Bottom line, you will always see more noise at 50 kHz. The best you can do is figure out all of the gaggets included with the unit to optimize the performance for a gived situation.
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Hurricane Danny is keeping us ashore this weekend, bummer.

 

[TunaT]

1Kw transducer

Kenlahr....looks like another blow out with the front setting off shore and the NE winds blowing not sure you will want to be out there this weekend either. Makes 3 weekends in a row blown out....plenty of whites out around the tips, but haven't heard of much else coming in, a tuna here or there, nothing very steady. Still would love to see that transducer at work around the canyon areas......keep us in the loop