# Help with FCV-600 sounder



## mt0264 (May 8, 2010)

I have it on the boat and not sure how to use it for the best results. short of mounting my humbingbird beside it to see what the heck I am reading I dont know what elese to do I havent ever seen fish or structure on it


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## alm (Aug 23, 2008)

WWW.furunousa.com I would good to the menu and reset the finder then go to some type of struckture and see how it looks going slow over it. If it reads good going slow and bad going fast then your transducers not running in clean water(its getting air bubbles across it) if that dont work call furuno tech support. good luck.


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## mt0264 (May 8, 2010)

Thanks. will do. I am reading the manual on it now


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## Fishermon (Oct 19, 2007)

*600l*

send me an e mail... I have some tips in how to use it. The manual on the furuno website is a plus, you can print it and have it handy. BTW I set mine to a white screen, that way I see much better . I use mine on manual mode 95% of the time. Set it to 200mhz to a low gain number (like a 2) if you are over 100ft of water you can adjust accordingly. Also your range should be at least double the water you are fishing..like if you are over 70' I set the range to 120 or so... Once I found structure i go to bottom zoom/normal display and you can see whats under there...man i love this machine...saves me a lot of time. send me an email I can send you some stuff I found from other users. :thumbsup:


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

> I use mine on manual mode 95% of the time.


That is harder to do with a 600L, as you have to jump thru menues. That is a 350watt unit.

The 620 is far superior to that 600.

620 is 600watts, has knobs to make it easy to run in manual mode and shows better in the bright sun.


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## Fishermon (Oct 19, 2007)

Ofcourse there are better bottom machines out there technology has come a long ways in recent years, but a 600 is all i got X shark , it really don't bother me, pushing a button here and there actaully i love to play to see what I learn next. The new unit ones, for what i heard, are tuned to run on auto mode due to better accuracy on all scenarios..gotta use what cha have u know. Maybe next time. :thumbup:


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

> The new unit ones, for what i heard, are tuned to run on auto mode due to better accuracy on all scenarios.


Nope....That was one of the things that Furuno took from the 582 and applied that to the 620 & 585. The 582,620 & 585 all have knobs to adjust depth, Freq and Gain.

In auto mode it uses filters to filter out interference. While the newer stuff does work pretty good. Tweaking it with the click of a knob makes it fast and easy. I can teach you to control my 582 units in about 2min. In manual your bypassing the filters. Filters .....filter out info.

your not going to teach anyone to do the same thing with jumping thru menu's.

But I hear ya on use what you have.


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## Fishermon (Oct 19, 2007)

x shark what advice you would give to 600L users, like i say im still learnig how to use mine..I assume you may have a tip or two, i think there is even a setting that the manual don't talk about....If i'll find it I ll post it...thanks in advance .


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## markw4321 (Oct 4, 2007)

Since you state you have never seen fish or the bottom. First things first..

You need to make sure your unit and transducer are actually putting a signal out and working. 

While on trailer hook electronics up. turn on unit need to check both the 50 and 200hz frequency. You should hear rapid clicking noice on both frequencies that is your signal being transmitted if you do not hear a faint clicking from the transducer you have a problem. Do not do this for very long. Recommend 2 people one outside next to transducer listeing for clicking one inside operating unit this will minimize time you have unit on out of the water.
My 2
Cents.
Mark


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## JoeyWelch (Sep 25, 2009)

Is it bad to turn them on out of the water? I've never heard this.


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## markw4321 (Oct 4, 2007)

jlw1972 said:


> Is it bad to turn them on out of the water? I've never heard this.


could just be an old wives tale I heard. Thinking logically a lot of people glue them inside the hull for an in hull mount with no water...


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

I haven't had a problem with leaving on a low powered unit.....but I sure don't do it with my Airnar B-260 1000watt X-ducer.


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## mt0264 (May 8, 2010)

wow thanks for all the input i have been without internet out here in the middle of the gulf for a day or two (very bad weather 12-15 ft seas ands 60 mph wind gust ya very bad) but the tuna did show their faces two night ago lots of them eating flying fish by the hundreads all i could get hooked up was a huge baricuda LOL it pulled the line thats all that counts to get my fix LOL I have heard the tranducer fire. and do run it on at least 120ft or so I will try the other setting. I was told when I bought the boat it would make coffie if you could figure out how to set it up LOL I know its not the top of the line by no strech but it is mine and paid for so got to figure out how to use it I might have to mount the bass boat fish finder beside it till i get it figured out LOL again thanks for all the input guys


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## Fishermon (Oct 19, 2007)

*random tips*

mt0264 here ya go man. This will keep ya busy.
These are reandom tips, not necc. is order but i think it'll help some. good luck

""<<The 600L has a feature that is not in the manual, it will detect fish better. When bottom fishing set the range scale to match the relief size, 5' relief 10' scale, 10' relief 20 scale, etc. Got my first three scales set to 10, 20 ,30. Now use your shift key to shift down until you see the bottom. Now the machine is looking at only the bottom on the whole screen, not a split screen. What a difference this makes. Hope this helps.

Mr.T
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I am running a 600L **** a transom mount Airmar P66 transducer. The setup is pretty new and it holds bottom at nearly all speed fairly well.
Where I have a problem is that I always lose the first 5' of the water column **** a strong return. I have played **** the TVG setting and the manual gain but have not had much luck.
When fishing in anything under 30 or 40' the 5' of loss is significant. Is this just the nature of the beast or are there any suggestions on how to tune it to get better shallow water behavior?
Thanks,
Joe.
Those units will mark better in shallow water if you go to a reduced manual setting ,turn the gain down till you get the desired results but up enough to not miss a fish mark. 

Sounds like your peaking yer transducer,,,That's what I do,,,You get the double bottom read,,,That means yer signal is as strong as it will go.
I don't know yer skill level **** bottom finders and I don't know yer unit but I do know how to mash buttons to get what I want!!!!This is what I do;
Too much power will fill the screen **** clutter---Too little power will not show you the thermocline-bait shoals or be able to determine a grouper next to a rock...

First step to peak yer machine is to turn of the automatic function--GO MANUAL!!!!
Understand this--once you peak your transducer for a depth you only have about a 20% window before you have to peak it again----this operation is peaked for a specific depth----ya ever notice guys talkin 'bout fishin a certain depth all day--these guys tweak their machine for that depth,,,once ya start running just use the auto mode

Second Step set the machine depth for triple the depth yer at. If yer at 40 feet set it for 120..then turn up the gain---first you will see the bottom since the transducer is pointed straight at it -----turn up the gain more till ya see a second echo--That is the beam shooting to the ocean floor then back to the surface and back to the ocean floor and back to the transducer-

Once ya got a strong second echo reading ya can switch the depth back to yer current depth ...Now yer transducer is peaked for that depth...If ya change depths allot --which you shouldn't --I don't recamend this.


I really have no luck in shallow water getting a usable signal. The best that I get is 3' of "clutter" or "ring" along the surface. Airmar tells me that I should expect that performance **** a standard transducer.

Auto mode blows...it only seems useful if under way, otherwise I use manual settings and have been getting better.

Any other suggestions or disputing my 3-5' of clutter at the top of the screen appreciated.

Joe. "">>

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## Fishermon (Oct 19, 2007)

Any other suggestions or disputing my 3-5' of clutter at the top of the screen appreciated.

Joe. 

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somewhere in the furuno literature it will tell you that the unit is not very good in shallow water- not certain on the 600 but on the 582 it has a noise limiter that you can adjust up as was previously said, try that and turn your gain to the lowest setting and the other thing is that you are getting air under your p-66 either from prop wash, underwater fitting, barnacle in front of it, face is not low enough in relation to the bottom of the boat (installation). etc. That will cause the clutter as well. Mine will go down to about 3 ft and thats it but much shallower than that and i am bumping bottom !!! Those are all the things I can think of,Good luck- let us know if you figure it out. 


try that and turn your gain to the lowest setting and the other thing is that you are getting air under your p-66 either from prop wash, underwater fitting, barnacle in front of it, face is not low enough in relation to the bottom of the boat (installation). etc. That will cause the clutter as well. 

That was really my first guess (possibly install related) however everything checks out good for the install.
Does the following information dismiss it as being installation related:
I get the same results **** the outboard out of the water and the boat sitting, tied up at a dock in 5' of water **** close to no water current?

Under those conditions I still get 3-5' of the topwater being a solid return. If I am lucky I could see a 1' window of true return between the surface clutter and the true bottom. It doesn't sounds given that case that I could be getting air or turbulence beneath the transducer.

Do you agree that the above test dismisses an air issue?
Thanks,
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## Fishermon (Oct 19, 2007)

hey joe, definitely not air then- i looked at furunos web site and according to the specs you have 6 noise reduction settings on the 600l. try this- set your gain first by going to 2X the scale you normally/plan on using like ahi said. example- 1f you are planning on fishing 20 ft set the scale to 40 ft,50ft etc and turn your gain up until you see a faint return under the bottom (ghost bottom mark) now set you machine back to the correct depth setting and leave the gain alone( if it is a little too much clutter you can turn the gain back a tad/ but not much. your machine is now optimized to see whatever you want to see. Now go into your noise reduction settingsand try nr-1 first then nr-2 until you get a satisfactory image on your top of the water column. after you start doing this then you might have to come back and tweak your gain a little but you will(should) see an instant clearing up of the clutter on top. try it and see- craig 

have had the 600 for 3 years now, I too don't quite understand a lot of it but I do know that when I run it on total automatic it works as well as any of the fishfinders out there. It takes awhile to learn how to read it, you just have to take time on the water to learn it. It doesn't work well in direct sunlight until you adjust the brill and hue, but the bottom lock works as well as any fishfinder I have had. It just takes time to learn to identify the species on the unit. Anythin with an air bladder will show blue dots in the bright red that is fish. WSB show up as long blue marks and squid show up as little blue dots, barracuda show up as long skinny red marks and tuna show up as giant red blocks when On zoom down to about 200 ft. Halibut are a little more difficult as they look a lot like rock fish on the bottom, they don't show flat but a bnig red cloud when you are in shallow water. That's about it, good luck. 
Kammel Driver out
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first of all you must expect in perth that you wont read solid fish arches. in fact if your in say 40mtr of water you wont read much at all unless you zoom in. 
i know exactly what you are talking about. ive had my sounder for four years and only now have i been fishing with some success. Only because i have been interpreting my picture correctly. 
one of the best tips i can give you is reset to factory settings. the settings wont be too far off someone who sets manually. your should be in the right direction then 
also make sure you dont have any fish filters on small med large. you might be hiding the fish yourself 

just because there are no arches doent mearn there are no fish. most bottom fish are hiding in there holes. Dont expect too much from your pic.
also your simulation is exactly that a simulation. dont get fooled into thinking your picture will be the same as the simulation. the simulation is lamens terms. your picture will be far more complicated and cluttered. its how you interpret your screen 




I have this unit in my boat and very happy with it.

1. Use 200KHz for your fishing unless really deep. I have fished the ***** aggs in 112m of water and still used 200. Picked up the ***** schools easily.
Fish will be picked up easily, mainly in greens and yellows.

2. You are using the 10m range and 5.6m depth will only give you that window. That rubbish at the top of the screen is interference and you will notice it will get smaller as you select a larger scale.
Once in deeper water, say 30m, use your SHIFT button to narrow down to the bottom. Use this function with BOTTOM LOCK set to 5m and you will see great fish when you go over them.

3. As for the ray, there was no sounding as rays don`t have air bladders I think (thats what gives you fish soundings.)

4. Your GAIN needs to be tweeked. Greater gain for deeper water. I have mine on about 3.5 for anything under 15m. 30m I use about 4.5-5.
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Use 200khz as mentioned, more definition, smaller footprint but better!

Surface clutter issue, check your manual re TVG settings! 

Make sure your "clutter control" isnt set too high ie restrict echo info (see manual)!

Always use manual "everything" to get the best out of the unit, not auto!
The first thing to do for sunlight viewing is to make the background color White.


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## Fishermon (Oct 19, 2007)

The first thing to do for sunlight viewing is to make the background color White.
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Furuno FCV 600L

Furuno FCV 600L
Furunoâ€™s 600L is a dual-frequency fishfinder rated at 350 watts. Data is displayed on a 5.6-inch 16-color LCD screen. Input voltages can vary from 12 to 24 volts DC. Itâ€™s packed with features, including A-Scope (which shows whatâ€™s directly under the transducer in real time), Bottom Lock, Variable Zoom, Range Shift, and eight adjustable ranges. Water Temperature and Speed are also available depending on the transducer selected. 

The control panel has 14 pushbuttons, plus a cursor pad and a power button. We especially like the three sets of paired buttons marked for range, shift and gain adjustments. With one button designated to increase the parameter and another to decrease it. The set-up allows the user to quickly adjust these three controls. Weâ€™d prefer a knob for gain control, but at least with a pair of switches youâ€™re not pushing buttons all day to tweak the gain. 

Other pushbuttons pull up an onscreen menu and require further input from the user for the final settings. An example is the â€œBrillâ€� button. Pressing it brings up the onscreen menu. Via the cursor pad, the user can now select from 10 tone and eight brightness settings. 

One quirky thing we noticed: At one setting below maximum brightness, we witnessed a slight flickering on the screen. It disappeared at brightness levels one to two notches lower. 

The Furuno outperformed all others during our deep-water testing and showed as much or more detail than all others in our mid-water tests. Shallow water performance was rated excellent. 

Bottom Line: Excellent performance puts the Furuno at the top of our list. We really like the crisp action of the pushbuttons and the paired sets allow easy access to several functions. Its screen does need to be a bit brighter for daylight viewing, in our opinion.
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Turn the gain up to just shy of a triple echo. YOu have to set the unit to 3X your depth and increase the gain until you just see that 3rd echo or bottom reading.

Go back to your appropriate depth reading and you should see an improvement.

I would shut off the automatic operation, go manual with gain adjusted as described above. Put it in the normal mode, set the range at 15'or 30' and use the -shift button to shift down displaying the bottom 15 or 30 feet of water column on the full screen. Try 200 khz and 50 khz use what works best. Never fished for Cod, if they hang higher in the water column set the range higher or -shift less. I have no problem marking fish at this depth. I only use the automatic mode when running to and from spots.
Good Luck
Ray 
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Grumpy,
We've owned one 3 seasons plus this year and haven't noticed this, but today......seeing I was not getting much in the way of fish I tried to duplicate the missing numbers and found this...
We always use manual controls. When the depth of the water exceeds the range setting that you are in the numbers do indeed disaappear until you,
1. change to a range where that depth will show up i.e. 35 feet deep but range set at 30, change to 40 or a higher number that is deeper than 35'
2. Once in shallower water where the range you've selected can show that depth the numbers magically reappear. 
Hope this helps as I've seen this a couple times and it drove me crazy trying to figure out what caused it. 



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What B&M said...the unit will not register depth if the shift range is wrong. Try pushing "shift" up or down until the depth appears.
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man my 600 works flawlessly on auto mode...im lost on all this tweaking talk...all i do is turn up the sensitivity depending on the depth and clarity of water im in....never take mine out of auto mode .......marks fish and bottom perfectly to 200 ft in the water i fish....unbelievable target seperation...nodoubt....


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## mt0264 (May 8, 2010)

over load over load lol I need to be in the boat and on the water to try all this out thanks again for the info I am not sure about relief size, 5' relief 10' scale, 10' relief 20 scale, etc. Got my first three scales set to 10, 20 ,30. I dont recall ever running across that and cant find it in the book 
but from the review sounds like a good one to figure out


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

Well


> Got my first three scales set to 10, 20 ,30.


Scale #1 should be 0 to 15ft
Scale #2 should be 0 to 30ft

The highest scale on my boats is 0 to 400ft, as I don't get that deep.

This narrows the scale down and uses as much of the screen as possible. Instead of only using half of it. IE 60ft depth, but the screen has to be set to say 200ft.

Thats just the start and are adjustable.....I'm pretty sure? I know they are on the 582,620 & 585.

This stuff is 10 times easier to show you than write about it + you will learn it faster.


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## mt0264 (May 8, 2010)

so when would you like to go fishing LOL I will be back in town on the 11Nov and if weather is good fishing the 12th


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