Dragonfly update v12.09 still locking on downrigger

[Jim_MI]

I was delighted to see that firmware versions 12.08 and 12.09 had supposedly fixed all the problems that the Dragonfly's were having when trying to distinguish downrigger weights, suspended organics, etc from the true bottom. So last week I updated my firmware and headed out in my kayak to test it out for the first time.

I am happy to report that the DF did a MUCH better job of locking onto the bottom and reporting accurate depths when travelling over baitfish or invertebrate hatches. However, when I deployed my small (3-lb?) downrigger weight it failed - again!

I am attaching a screen dump showing my downrigger at 30 ft in about 190 feet of water, over a mostly sand and rock bottom. The DF5Pro is reporting the depth at 30 ft, right where the downrigger is. Very disappointing. I tried manually adjusting the depth and zooming and that sort of thing, and somewhere along the way it corrected itself. But intermittently it still flipped between the downrigger and the true bottom when displaying depth.

Are others still finding this problem? Are there any further updates in the pipeline to remedy this?

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Jim,

This is the first such report received in conjunction with Dragonfly displays which have been updated with v12.09 Dragonfly software. Raymarine has not yet announced any further software updates for the Dragonfly displays. That said, the Raymarine MFDs may very well report the depth of downrigger [censored], large concentrations of suspended organics, etc. which produce strong sonar returns. Should this occur and the Dragonfly display then automatically adjust the range to one matching that of the strong sonar return, then manual range adjustment will be required. However, after manually configuring the range to include to permit the bottom to be plotted or a more shallow depth, then the configured range should persist within the display's settings (i.e. the Dragonfly display should not revert to auto ranging). However, it is indeed possible that the Depth databox will report the depth of suspended organics, etc. which produce strong sonar returns.

[Jim_MI]

Chuck -
I guess that is what was happening since my screen dump shows the bottom at 190+ ft and the depth is displayed as 30 ft. As I say, the issue self-corrected at some point while I was fiddling with various settings, so I don't recall if the zoom function worked or not. This was a major problem with the older firmware - if the downrigger was interpreted as the bottom, then manually setting a depth only worked if you did not use zoom, since zooming only looked at the water column above the downrigger regardless of what depth was manually set. Do you know if the 12.09 lets you manually zoom above the depth you manually set, or does it also default to a zoom window above what it thinks is the depth (ie - close-up of the water column above the downrigger).
Jim

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Jim,

V12.09 indeed lets you manually zoom above the depth you manually set.