Boat lanes chip

I recently purchased the boat lanes chip for Fork, LOP, Rayburn from boatlanes.com. I got the Lowrance version. I’m looking for help with the installation on the live unit. I have followed the instructions for the Lowrance units on their website and can only get the hazards to show and no actual boat lane trails. Has anyone had trouble with this on live units? Any suggestions on what to try? I have looked for a way to contact boatlanes.com, but only find a Facebook page that I have reached out to with no luck. Thanks for any help.

Check your trails in your list and see if the track style is set to a very thin line and a light color. If it is, try changing it to a darker color and thicker line. I believe the file for Garmin units have the same issue but I'm not sure if it is true for the Lowrance version.

my garmins loaded and went to solid lines automatically, can't change color is my only gripe.

I bet it's an issue with your trail settings. I know on my humminbirds there are multiple settings that have to be changed to make the trails show up properly. Have you tried calling them? They have always been very responsive to my request for help. Even after normal work hours.

903-312-0609
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Lance can set you straight

Check Chart Setup:
Power-->Settings-->Chart, see if Waypoints, Routes, Trails are all ON.

Check if trails were imported:
Home-->Waypoints-->Trails Tab, see if trails present and each trails Display Box is ON
If trails are not present, then read below.

In a nutshell if you are importing trails to multiple networked Lowrance HDS units:
ONLY POWER ON 1 UNIT AT A TIME AND IMPORT. DO EACH UNIT INDIVIDUALLY.

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HERE'S THE COMPLEX ANSWER:

Rule#1: Waypoints, Routes and Trails are maintained in a UDB database on each unit. With multiple units you have multiple databases and when the multiple units are ethernet-connected you have ONE MASTER UDB and multiple SLAVE UDB's. The MASTER maintains waypoints between all units. Trails are not maintained or transferred between units.

Rule#2: The MASTER UDB is the 1st unit to be powered on. All the remaining network-units become SLAVE UDB's. If the MASTER is powered-off or rebooted, the SLAVE's will negotiate a new single MASTER.

Rule#3: ALL WAYPOINTS, ROUTES AND TRAILS ARE IMPORTED ONLY TO THE MASTER UNIT'S UDB.


So following the above rules:
The Simple Import:
You import your SD-card into the MASTER. The USR or GPX data-file data is imported into the MASTER's UDB. The MASTER transfers waypoints, but not trails to all the SLAVES. So the SLAVES have none of the imported trails.

The Misunderstood Import:
You import your SD-card into a SLAVE. The USR or GPX data-file is transferred to the MASTER unit(rule#3). The MASTER unit imports transferred data-file into the MASTER's UDB. The MASTER transfers waypoints, but not trails to all the SLAVES. So the SLAVES have none of the imported trails. Thus the SLAVE unit you are using "appears" to only have imported waypoints.

Import Consideration #1(Importing Trails):
Trails do not transfer from MASTER to any SLAVE. Trails can only be imported onto a MASTER, hence common practice is to only power-on a single unit and perform the import. Do this individually on each unit where you want the trails.

Import Consideration #2:
USR version 5 and after introduced data UID(Unique Identifiers) for waypoints and trails. UID's better identify data. Better prevent duplicates.

Import Consideration #3:
USR version 5 and after because of UID's often import faster especially when merging with existing data. Merging can painfully slow down an import.

Import Consideration #4:
Importing GPX file data into existing data is notorious for creating duplicate waypoints.

Some Opinions on Lowrance Trails:
Some say trails, some say tracks. Lowrance absolutely has better trails than HB and Garmin. Trails can be used for boat-runs, road-beds, creeks and etc. I'm not a route fan because of all the extra waypoints.

Lowrance trails support track-segmentation. Garmin does not. HB Solix has very dangerous bug, other HB products are spotty.
Lowrance trails use much fewer track-points, thus much more efficient.
Lowrance trails always display at all zoom-levels even if the 2 track-points are miles apart. HB does not. I don't know about Garmin.

Reefmaster Waypoint Manager for Lowrance:
The best waypoint manager.
Waypoint, Trails and Routes Editor, Sonar Viewer for Lowrance