Humminbird 409690-1 PiranhaMax 197C DI Color Fish Finder with Down-Imaging (Grey)

Latest update: I'm on my second unit. The transducer had to been bad on the first one. This one seems to working fairly well. These Fish finder are pretty neat when they work. The biggest problem I'm seeing it the soft screen that scratches up even with a fine coasta cleaning cloth and it fogs up. But other then that it's fair enough for a front mount fish finder on a small boat, even a kayak just don't get it wet or it's done for. Buy a cover to keep over it when not in use.First review: Ummm... Well... It's okay. Using it as my bow mounted fish finder, on my smaller Jon boat, looks good on a ram mount. I don't think the transducer is working on my trolling motor. It works great one min, then the next it goes froms 3ft to 300ft then 0ft. The temp seems to be spot on and has pretty clear read out it sees the fish just fine and sees the bottom and everything on it just fine didn't have any prob there. Only prob Is..., it's not keeping depth really well but... Like I said before maybe because it's transducer is on a trolling motor mount, and maybe it was the shallow grassy area I was floating around in. Maybe! I'm going to give it a full season before I judge to harshly. So far it's just okay. Not happy it's not keeping depth. Oh it's depth alarm, starts at 3ft. I'm on a small boat that can float in a foot of water. Would like to be able to set it at 1ft. But that's not a option. ALSO!!! OMG!! Do NOT!! Even touch the screen!!!! I got some water spots on the screen along with lint. So using my clean cotton tshirt i was wearing, to wiped the screen and it left scratches and swirl marks !! BAD!!! Swirl Marks!! Absolutely ridiculous!!! Can't even see the screen for the swirl marks. I don't know if I can deal with this.Update: I've contacted Humminbird about the units depth problems. They where not very helpful! They wanted to put the blame on how I had it hooked from the trolling motors power supply. So I got a small 12v humminbird battery and that didn't help anything! They wanted to blame how I had it setup so while on the phone with them out on the lake they walked me thru all the settings, that didn't help! They blamed how it was mounted on my trolling motor on there own trolling motor mount, might I add!! So I rear mounted it! Didn't help! They blamed me for having more then one Humminbird fishfinder running at one time!!! So... I unplugged the other console unit! And guess what!!! Yea, that didn't fix it either!!! Does Kevin VanDam go thru this BS??! He has TWO units running at once! I guess that's why he has the 2,000 dollar units running on his boats. Anyway it's on it's way back I'm going to try another NEW Unit! If I get the same problems I'm going to get a refund and I'm going to Lowrance!!! About over the Bird!

I bought this for my kayak. Having recently moved from Florida (where I typically fished more shallow coastal waters) to N. Virginia (where I'm now fishing deeper lakes), I felt that a fishfinder would do me some good and help finding structure or even fish. My previous experience with fishfinders was with a Humminbird Fishin Buddy 120 in my canoe and kayak (which I still own, but left down at my Florida home). Overall, I'm rather disappointed in the Humminbird PiranhaMax 197C DI, and actually find the Humminbird Fishin Buddy 120 to be far more useful.First of all, even though I mounted the transducer to my kayak by way of a deployable Scotty transducer arm mount (and not through the hull), the depth was wrong more often than right, and this was at both the deep and shallow end. My anchor line is accurately marked for every foot, and even in 25-30 feet of water, the 197C DI would report a frequently inaccurate depth. When I could visually see that I was in 2-3 feet of water, the 197C DI would frequently report that I was in 6-11 feet of water. If it cannot even tell me basic information like depth, how can I rely on it to find structure or even fish?Cable management is a bit ridiculous. The transducer cable is ridiculously long (even for a regular boat, but definitely for a kayak), whereas the power cable is ridiculously short (even for a kayak, but definitely for a larger boat).Now, here's the reason why (at least for me) the Humminbird Fishin Buddy 120 is superior -- side scanning. The 197C DI does not have this feature (which admittedly I knew when I bought it), but the cheaper, "lesser featured" Fishin Buddy 120 not only has side scanning, but it's directional, meaning that you can rotate the whole device in its mount to point the side scanning in the direction you want. I didn't really think about it until I started testing/using the 197C DI, but what exactly is the point in knowing what's under you when you're only able to view it in a rather narrow band straight down? I'm not ice fishing through a small hole -- I'm cast fishing, so the benefit of directional side scanning is obvious. I really don't understand why any fishfinder wouldn't have a side scanning feature, especially when the "budget" rather low-end, all-in-one model like the Fishin Buddy 120 has it.So, the end to this story? I returned the 197C DI. Next time I'm down at my Florida house, I'm probably going to ship my Fishin Buddy 120 up here to my Virginia house and just use it. It will show me depth, structure, and fish -- both blow me and up to 120 feet around me in 360° direction. Plus, I don't have to worry about routing cables/wires, having the transducer separate from the display unit, etc. Definitely a classic case of newer tech not being better tech.

I use the 197CDI for my 14' John boat and it works as advertised. As with any unit, time on the water is required to understand its full capability. However, with this unit, there are no extra bells and wistles so it's pretty straight forward. For $150 it was a great buy for what it offers.

Have not installed on my project boat. However I've owned several sonars by all the major consumer level companies and Humminbird has almost always performed well so I'll give it 5 stars. My last unit, very similar but made by Garmin, had confusing instructions, menus that were not intuitive, an alarm beeper too weak to hear (not adjustable) and a transducer that bathes my outboard with spray at cruising speed. This Humminbird has gotta be better than that!

Unit display is good. Very visible in daylight. Followed transducer mounting location instructions which resulted in a huge rooster tail. I'm in the process of trying different side to side and vertical locations. Still playing with the features and the default settings.

I purchased this unit to replace an earlier generation of Hummingbird. This was the same form factor including the power connection. The in-dash installation was easy and everything works extremely well. The screen is easy to read during the day and seems to be accurate. I would suggest thi purchase to anyone who needs an entry-level fish finder or are just curious about lake temperatures and depths...

It does not include everything. I received mine with two mounts for the base and none for the transducer but I received the bolts and other hardware for it but no transducer mounting bracket that really sucks now I have to buy one when it should of came with it. Thanks a lot hummingbird way to mess up your packaging.

It does what I want it to do for a low end product. Meets my expectations.

Use it all the time works great

Works well but would be nice if held the bearings of the setting as need to reset everytime

Great!

My Humming bird was much more dificult to install than I ever imagend and doesn't work as well as my old one.