your not alone, unfortunatly....mine does the same thing from time to time....

Alittle different topic than software. My 520c was dropping out ( turning itself off) when I cranked my motor. I found my cranking battery had two bad cells and replaced it. Still got the same issue. Any ideas?

A battery with more cranking amps.......I know you don't want to hear that you need another battery, but that's what I learned.

I had the same problem, bought a higher cranking amp battery and my unit never restarts on crank now.

What is your ping speed set at? Are you in shallow water when it starts doing it?

I am somewhat happy with the HDS 5 now that I got the settings right but the learning curve will take awhile. I was wondering if anyone knows if Lowrance has or will have an emulator on their site so I could practice without wasting time on the water? Thanks BP

The other thing is, there is instructions on how to use it but nothing on how to intepret what you are seeing on the screen, anyone know of a good reference on knowing what is what on the screen?

You could have a bad connection somewhere on your unit's power wire, could be in a splice or a dirty/corroded in-line fuse/holder. Check/Clean all your connections.

Lowrance changed the menus and the navigation of the units so much that it has been a little hard for us to learn something with this much new stuff. As far as an emulator on their web site goes, I'm sure it will show up but may be down the priority list a little with so much new product out in the marketplace to keep up with.

I had an opportunity to film with Jarrett Edwards Outdoors the debut of the Structure Scan that plugs into the HDS units and should be out sometime late this year, November possibly. Jarrett Edwards Outdoors airs on the World Fishing Network on Dish TV and a couple other outdoor/fishing networks. The name of the show is Lowrance Lessons, look for it to be on the first part of August.

As far as how to intepret what you are seeing on the screen go to a clear water lake and when you launch your boat, if you are on a cement launch ramp then turn the unit on and drive over that hard surface and you will get the best reading as to what a hard bottom looks like on the color screen. Next, go along the shoreline where you can see the bottom and drive over trees, bushes, rocks, etc. where you can see for sure what is on the bottom and then look on your screen and see how it draws the structure on the unit. It will draw this picture the same for the same structure every time. Make sure you go right over the top of the cover and then off to the side of the cover and at different angles and see how the picture differs with each pass. Then the next time you go over cover/sturcture when the water is too deep or dirty to see the bottom you will have a better idea what your unit is trying to tell you.

BTW, you won't have this problem with Structure Scan. This is by far the most realistic picture I have ever seen from a transducer. A tree looks just like a tree not a bunch of arches stacked on top of each other with some bounce-back interference mixed up in the middle of the arches.

Hope this helps,
Ken Sauret

Thank you VERY much Mr Ken Sauret for taking the time to come to the TFF and help us out!! We welcome your knowledge !!!

thanks again buddy! I owe ya one!

I have a LCX 110 and it keeps reading 60 foot and every once and while it reads 1 foot it just blink on and off. I replaced the transducer still does it? Sometimes it works just fine. It drives me nuts when to flips out.

no side imaging is done by a single tranducer that scans each side of the boat and directly below the boat at the same time. you can view it on ethernet networking then structure scan. there is a video explaining how it works

Xgenex,

Check the software that is in the LCX 110c. If it doesn't say 2.1.0 then you have an older version of software and Lowrance has upgraded the software. The new version is available free from Lowrance. Go to Lowrance.com and go to downloads then click on product updates find the LCX 110c on the list and choose it and download it to an SD card, then with the unit off insert the chip into the card slot and turn the unit on. The unit will automatically recognize the chip and update itself.

You can also do a soft reset to factory settings. To do this start with the unit off. Hold down the pages button and hit the power button. Keep holding down the pages button until the map of the USA shows up. When you do this reset you will not loose any waypoints, trails or icons you have placed in the unit. You will have to redo any special settings you had and your overlay data for each screen you use but this may place a setting for depth back to factory settings and help you with your issue.

im completly green to fishing using a boat and fish finder, need help to adjust my settings and trying to know how to find ledges and humps that may hold fish, basically i just sit there on water and see fish using my fish id, and think wow theres a butt load there and they are not biting .....maybe i just suck at fishing but i also have the hds5... any help would make me fatter

rnglenn,

Welcome to a great sport that you will never master but like most of us, enjoy the learning process which never ends.

First I would recommend unselecting the fish ID option on your fishfinder. Anything in the water between your boat and the bottom will show up as a "fish" whether it is floating debris, weeds, air bubbles, etc. Then rethink the name of the electronic unit on your boat. Let's not call it a fish finder but a depth finder. Most of the fishermen you will talk to seldom see arches or lines on the screen that indicate a fish, drop down to it and catch it. This happens but not the majority of the time. Usually we look at the bottom contour and pay attention to when there is an irregularity to it. Either a drop or rise in bottom depth may indicate a ledge and ledges hold fish.

Also think about what the screen is showing you. Basically it is showing you the bottom right below the boat. Then you cast out away from the boat which you can't see on the screen.

You will use a depth finder for just that most of the time. When you catch fish from a certian depth that is the start of a pattern. So you will use your depth finder to stay in that depth range as you continue to fish. When you find a drop off, rock pile, hump, tree, weeds or something else that may hold fish that is a bonus.

As for how to interpret what the screen is showing you, go to a lake with clear water, the deeper the better. Then look for some of the structure I mentioned above. Drive your boat over the structure from different angles, over the top, off to the side, etc. Look at the way the screen depicts the structure and when you can't see the bottom and go over such structure you will recognize it and know what is on the bottom. It's a learning curve and most of us are still learning.

I hope this helps.

I just posted this link on another thread and then saw this topic about Lowrance software issues. I don't think anyone has mentioned this video from Lowrance yet so here's a link that shows how to perform the software update in an easy step by step process - how to update your lowrance hds fish finder

I have questions on HDS-8. Just received it Sat. Installed it,had to try it. It seems when I'm on pad it is very distorted. Why? Or is it just me. I had a LCX-27c. I didn't have that problem. When I'm on the trolling motor.Pristine..... Great detail.
Thank You.