Anyone install a FF on a slidetrax sideboard?

I have a humminbird 581 HD DI that I plan to install on a slidetrax sideboard with transducer deployment arm on my Tarpon 120. I am looking for any tips I can get to help make this go smoothly. I am trying to decide if I need or want to drill the one inch hole to pass the wires through the sideboard. How did you set yours up. Thanks ken

What kind of kayak?

Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120.

I'm not sure what the plug looks like for the 581 HD DI, but if it is like other Humminbirds I've owned. But hopefully it has the transducer and power cable connected seperatly to the head unit?  If that's the case, i'm not sure why you would need to drill a 1" hole for the power cable, since you can feed the wire end through a much smaller hole, and leave the power plug on deck.

But if that is not the case, and you just want to try out your FF without drilling any holes, I would just use a 10AA battery holder (to save space) and find a spot for it out of the way on deck so you can try it out.  Maybe in the mesh pocket?  Or another thing you can consider at least trying an in-hull temporary mount, like the 'duct seal' method.   I've used my Lowrance 4-DSI with pretty decent results that way. 

I went ahead and drilled the one inch hole in the side board before I mounted it. Now I see there is no room for the wires between the sideboard and the yak. I guess that tells me I don't run the wires under the sideboard. 

Now I am having problems attaching the transducer to the deployment arm. The humminbird instructions don't show how to attach it to a tda. The tda instructions only tell you how to attach the tda to the sideboard. There is a bolt that mounts the transducer to the tda. It goes through a hole about an inch from the bottom of the tda. If I try to simply slide the transducer onto the bolt, that last inch of the arm is in the way of sliding the transducer all the way on. It needs spacer washers which don't really come in the parts bag. There are the plastic pieces that go on each side of the transducer that allows it to be lock at an specific angle when the teeth engage the traditional transom mounting bracket. To use them as spacers they both have to be on the same side and don't look right. Did anyone else have this problem?

I have attached a photo showing the problem.

Thanks ken

We cut he end off on my buddy's a couple years ago to clear it. For the FF mount on the HB you can run the wire out the back and not the bottom. There are 4-5 little notches you can cut out to run each wire through. Wen you look at the mount you will see what I mean.

Ok thanks. I guess I need to alter the fit. I saw the cut outs, I just wasn't sure which was best, under or over the sideboard. Ken

I took it out on the local pond to test it out and the GPS doesn't work. 

More detail on what did not work. Did not show on screen?No speed? What was the problem?

No GPS function worked. I put it into diagnostics mode and the GPS screen showed no sattalites. When ever I pressed a GPS function button it said "no GPS fix".

Sometimes it takes a few minutes for mine to read the sats after turning on.  Every time you turn it off then back on it needs to re establish communication with sats. Is it new or used? Where did you get it. 

New from hodges marine. It should show sattalites on the screen. It was on long enough to acquire at least some sattalites. Unless there is a startup process I didn't do to set the time and tell it where it is so it knows where to look for sattalites. That is what must be done for my old handheld GPS. The directions don't mention doing anything like that.

If it was the first time on, and not in simulator mode, it can take up to 20 minutes or so to initiate.

I have an old Magellan Meridian Gold handheld GPS. On a first time startup or after moving in more than a couple hundred miles while off it takes longer to startup. It has a process where you enter in the time and the location to help it figure out where the sattalites are in the sky. I am reasonably sure I had it on long enough. I can't be completely sure because you have to turn it off and on to enter or exit the diagnostic screen. You would think there would be some mention about first time startup in the manual. Ken