Lawrance problems on first day out

[CalBlackSheep]

I took my Lowrance elite 5 HDI out on the lake for the first time today and.... After 4 hours of running the finder and trolling motor the screen went white. I still had navigation and overlying data like depth temp and speed. But my down scan and sonar wouldn't show anything but a blank white screen. I thought maybe my battery was too low to keep running everything so I headed in. When I got home I put my battery on the charger and it was only down to 60%. So what gives? Any ideas?

 

[TNtroller]

If you have the FF and TM hooked to only one battery, then you may be getting interference when both are running as it is a common problem if only one power supply is used to power both of these items. Since you say the battery was at 60% when you got home, it is also a possibility/probability that the single battery did not have enough juice left to power both, and newer FF's are power sensitive, so the FF was not getting enough power to operate properly.

Try using a small 12v deer feeder battery to power the FF with a separate power source or a small garden tractor battery and see if the problem occurs again. If it does, then something is wrong with the FF and contact the mfr.

 

[richg99]

Just to agree and add to the above, a battery that shows it is "down to 60%" may be far lower than that, if t were measured under load.

I'd just charge the battery fully, and hook her back up.
richg99

 

[CalBlackSheep]

If you have the FF and TM hooked to only one battery, then you may be getting interference when both are running as it is a common problem if only one power supply is used to power both of these items. Since you say the battery was at 60% when you got home, it is also a possibility/probability that the single battery did not have enough juice left to power both, and newer FF's are power sensitive, so the FF was not getting enough power to operate properly.

Try using a small 12v deer feeder battery to power the FF with a separate power source or a small garden tractor battery and see if the problem occurs again. If it does, then something is wrong with the FF and contact the mfr.

Thank you for the advice! I was only using one battery. So ill try two batteries and see how that works. Hopefully that will also clear up my sonar and down scan picture (when it was working).

 

[bptjr]

Check battery voltage. Lowrance needs minimum of 10.5 volts.

 

[Skiffing]

And if you do have interference you can clamp one of these over your transducer cable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/330632964548?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

[nlester]

And if you do have interference you can clamp one of these over your transducer cable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/330632964548?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

What is it?

 

[TNtroller]

Commonly called a "choke" or filter, which reduces or eliminates electrical interference but is not always a 100% cure.

 

[Skiffing]

As said - not 100% guarantee will eliminate interference - but it very well might. Cheap experiment.

 

[PsychoXP18CC]

also make sure you are running the latest software update. I've always been a fan of Lowrance stuff, but they put these Elite units out too early and the consumer ended up being the R&D department in some ways. I have an Elite 7 that the GPS is all but useless when using a Navionics chip . The processor is so slow I can run off the screen at about 8mph. Lowrance themselves told me the processor was too slow when running a chip, and actually suggested I revert back to base data. Ticks me off they put this unit out with the option to run a good chip but the unit is not capable of doing it.