Having issues getting my HDS12 to read the transducer. I believe it's set up properly and have been "advised" by the well known company that hooked all my stuff up that it could be a bad ethernet cable. Looking on Amazon there is the gray one (like I have now) called the Lowrance ethernet and a black one called the Lowrance ethernet crossover cable. What's the difference? Other than $30...of course. I guess I should change my handle from Fivebites to fishing numbskull.

I realized you had issues when you stated the first word of your sentence. Lowrance ! LOL



wassup five bites? Those Roberts bass are just gettin fired up. When you coming up?

bwaa haa ha...hater! I may be up next week for a day or two for work. Nice looking fish brother! Water looks really dirty. Dirty or just stained?

Stained

You want the grey Ethernet cable. It is somewhat known that the Ethernet cables deteriorate kinda quickly.

Which transducer can't you "read"? 200kHz, or StructureScan? If you are using an HDS12, are you using the internal StructureScan? ...and is the StructureScan transducer connected direct to the HDS12, or do you have a StructureScan "box"? I ask because there are many configurations in which the Ethernet cable has nothing to do with reading sonar. With the limited info, I can't jump to "it's the Ethernet cable" just yet.... and I'm fairly good at diagnosing issues.

Has this ever worked? If it hasn't, maybe the issue is with the "well-known company that advised you" (and I have no idea who that is, so not a stab in any particular direction).

Lord have mercy, it sure does make a person scratch their head, doesn’t it????

I really didn't want to go that direction but I get the feeling that's the issue. Ordered the gray one today. Get it in about a week. We'll see. To answer some of your questions it won't pick up any transducer. I have three units on the boat. 2 HDS9's and the HDS12. All linked together. The console HDS9 is the "mother unit" for a lack of better terminology. The other 9 works off the trolling motor transducer. The 12 picks up all the waypoints fine from both units. It just can't find or recognize the transducer it shares with the one it's supposed to. The "company" has tried to fix it twice, but with no success. They're in Dallas and I'm in Austin so taking it back again is a waste of time and money. They have told me it needs to updated, but from what i've read that probably won't solve the issue and seems to create more problems than it solves. Frustrated!

Five, you want the sonar to share? Have you turned the “network sonar” option to ON?

The proper term for that primary HDS 9 at the console would be "Master Unit.") You apparently have transducers connected to the Master Unit but none on the HDS 12? As Grout-Scout says, you need the "network sonar" option setting set to "ON" for that HDS 9. This tells the unit to broadcast the sonar data onto the Ethernet network, which you probably aren't doing. This is why you'd have no sonar data displayed on those other units. On the Master HDS 9 I bet you see sonar data - the Sonar setting for "Source" is correctly set at "This Unit". On the HDS 12, the Sonar setting for Source should be "Network" but it isn't. Here is where the coin toss comes in on why your system isn't doing what you wish it was doing.

1) Network Sonar setting on Master HDS 9 = OFF when it must be ON, or...
2) HDS 12 sonar source is set to "this unit" (instead of "network"), resulting in no sonar display since there is no transducer connected to the HDS 12.

When it starts working, you can keep the cable that's coming as a spare.

Thanks Grout and Flippin! If that's the case then I'm really P.O.'d at the installer! I'll get out in the garage and test it out today. If it's working correctly even if it doesn't show the bottom being in the garage it should read the temperature. Headed out for the day tomorrow and it would be nice to have the side and down scan working on the bigger unit for sure. Thanks again. By the way, just so I'm clear, this had NOTHING to do with updates of the HDS12 correct?

A bad ethernet cable does seem like a good possibility, but you definitely need to make sure you're set up for networked sonar as said above. I'm pretty sure mine is bad, I lose connection from my bow to console intermittently and wiggling the cable sometimes fixes it. I think I bent the cable too sharply near the connector, I need to drill a new hole in my DekIt mount so the cable comes straight up to the connector on the unit.

I have not looked at HDS12 updates lately. I have my own boat in my OR for update of electronics and batteries. I was going to do an update on mine right before it goes back to the water.

As for temperature, you need to make sure THAT is configured correctly also. I can't tell you the number of times I've encountered people who were reading the temperature from a source other than what they wanted. Got a 200 kHz transducer in your bilge? Be sure you aren't reading temperature from that, for instance. I have a temp probe mounted under the hull step at the transom, read via NMEA 2000, so I had to be sure to set up THAT source to get what I wanted.

Lo and behold I got it going without a new cable! Imagine that. Thanks guys!! What a dumbarse that hooked this [censored] up. I paid them and had to drive it back up to
Dallas a 2nd time and he still f'd it up. So simple. Both temp and sonar now working. However, the 12 will only read when the "master" unit is on. Otherwise it doesn't see the bottom or give temp. Whattya say boys?

Yeah, the master unit has to be ON for transducer sharing to work. Standby will stop sonar too.