# Hummingbird 899ci HD SI Combo



## kfi (Nov 11, 2013)

Just got the go ahead from the wife to pull the trigger on this unit. Should be arriving later this week. Any tips/pointers on install and initial setup? In particular, any tips on side imaging?

Figure I'll be playing with this thing more than fishing first few times out.

Good luck out there all and be safe.


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## Bucks4life (Jul 30, 2014)

kfi said:


> Just got the go ahead from the wife to pull the trigger on this unit. Should be arriving later this week. Any tips/pointers on install and initial setup? In particular, any tips on side imaging?
> 
> Figure I'll be playing with this thing more than fishing first few times out.
> 
> Good luck out there all and be safe.



I know nothing about the 899ci, but I did do a lot of reading over the winter on Side Imaging. There's a lot of good information out there, you just have to poke around. I did a quick search of this forum and found a few posts... See link below.

Link


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## Chris090981 (Apr 7, 2015)

Yea if your mounting it yourself there's a carbon 3x10 piece you can mount that's only 2 holes so you can mount multiple accessories without 10 holes in the boat .


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## Chris090981 (Apr 7, 2015)

Any questions feel free to message me .


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## kfi (Nov 11, 2013)

Got the delivery yesterday. God willing will install myself. Actually doesn't look too bad. Got the head unit bracket mounted. Will have easy access to power. Looks like the hardest part will be fishing transducer wire thru to console. Hope to give it a test run this weekend. 

Once I have this thing up and running I'll lose the poor fish finder excuse and have to come up with something different&#128512;


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## Diemandave (May 1, 2015)

I have the 898cSI, mounted on a ram mount on a 16' Lund. Ended up going with dual transducers (left & right) due to the outboard being in the way of getting a clear shot. 

Here's some initial set-up settings that I found back when I first hooked mine up:

You will get the best images by keeping the boat on a straight path. You should stay between 3-5 miles per hour and have your chart speed set to 3-6 (will vary with speed).

SI Range -Unless you are needing to scan large areas, keep the SI Range to around 3 to 4 times the depth. You will get better images this way and if you are using the 800khz, it should really be around 2.5 times the depth.

Switchfire - Clear (less than 10') Max - (In Deeper Water)
SI Sensitivity - Up 1 or 2 notches from default (Will very accoring to bottom hardness)
Contrast - 10 (anywhere from 9-11 looks good)
Sharp - Off or Low (really gets grainy above low)
Down Imaging Width: Narrow for more detail under the boat and in the water column.
Wide for more detail out to the sides and on the bottom.
Turn 83khz off for faster processing and recording.


You will also want to mess around with your readouts on the display and see what you like where!

Keep recordings to around 30-45 minutes (or less) so the file size doesn't get too big. They will be easier to work with. It is recommended you get the SanDisk Extreme III SD cards. They have a fast read/write speed and helps on performance.

Make a few recordings and play them back. You can pause them and adjust the settings to see what looks best for the next time out. This is a great training tool for learning the settings and understand how each one affects the SI image.


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