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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I thought it was worthy of a new thread. I have been a long time Lowrance customer. I have had a bit more trouble with the more recent units than the ones produced 10-15 years ago, and thuslly have had to deal a bit more with customer service the past couple years. Last year, I was able to seemlessly upgrade a unit that failed, with fees. It took a couple months to get done, but I was satisfied. My LCX 27 started to act up this week, so I called today, and got a service tech within 5 minutes. I explained my issue, went through a check list and it was determined my unit needed to be sent in. He checked, and my warranty had just expired. Since I got my unit so late in the year and didn't use it until this summer, they extended my warranty and for a small fee, are sending my HDS 7 unit upgrade. I should have this unit before leaving on my trip next week, and am extremely pleased with the level of support given me by Lowrance today.
Any tips on running this HDS unit?? |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | HDS was an upgrade from my LCX 25C. Had a 6 month warranty. $50 for the new one $50 for them to load maps if I want it.
Just got off the phone with a guy who owns a hds unit, said my icons will all be converted to waypoints. Hoping my lcx 111 has enough room to hold everything converted to waypoints, or i might have to do some finagling. Also hoping my lakemaster chips that I just bought(09 versions) work in this unit. Anyone have experience with that, or will the map set in the unit be simlar to the lakemaster chips? |
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Posts: 90
| Your older Lakemaster chip will run in the new HDS units. Its the new 2010 Lakemaster chip that have does not work in some of the older Lowrance units. The mapping in the HDS is basically the same that is preprogrammed into your Lcx 111 so you will want a mapping card. |
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Posts: 280
| I've been having issues with my 522c iGPS and the warranty just expired in May. Based on your experience I thought I'd see what they can do for me. They want $350 as a flat rate repair fee! No Thanks!
Did you have to do anything to get your warranty extended?? |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I got the unit brand new last fall, but too late to use it in 2009. It was an upgrade from my last unit so it only came with a 6 month warranty, that expired before I ever got to use the unit. I had to pay $570 if memory serves me correctly to replace my lcx 25c that went down just out of warranty last fall.
Unit showed up today. Hoping my 2009 mapping chips work in it. Also looks like it might convert everything to waypoints. Hoping my lcx 111 has room for everything once I start trading data. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Has anyone run one of the HDS 5 or 7 units on Minn Kotas universal sonar with good results? Do I need to select a certain transducer in the menu? |
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Posts: 313
Location: Bemidji, Lake Vermilion | I recently had a good experience with Lowrance, had my HDS5 from last year fill up with water. Got through to CM service in only 5 min the first morning I called (right at 8:30am), got my return number. I shipped my water filled unit very late on a Tuesday afternoon, they had it and had my new unit shipping that same Friday. I did complain as I forgot to take the caps off the back but followed all their other rules and shipped without the knobs or bracket or cover, they shipped me the caps then also, only took a few days and all done on email, didn't even have to call them. Granted, the first unit should not have filled with water (from a garden variety rainstorm) and I've had some terrible experiences with them before, but I'd call this one overall very good.
Reef - I have had a little trouble with it connected to the Minnkota US2, it really doesn't like to pick up bottom well in shallow weedy bottom if I have just turned it on in one of those locations, it picks up great out a little deeper, and once it picks up it works great even up in the slop. Would have to look at it, but I did have to change the transducer selection to get it to read when I initially hooked it up, maybe some HST - WBSL or something along those lines. |
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| thanks mr. johnson. I turned the unit on for the first time last night, hooking it up to my US transducer. I chose the 83/200(per recomendation) and I could hear the transducer clicking, but I get no temperature reading as I did with my old unit. I tried other transducer options(such as generic 200, and 50/200), with similar results, no temp. Also, when I turned the unit on, it asked that I hook up all external network devices and click ok. There was nothing in the the quite incomplete instruction manual about this. I did not have my network cable along, so did not hook this up and clicked cancel. That said, my gps kept reading no fix and did not show any satellites. Could this initial network connection screen be my issue with both transducer temp and position lock? I'd think with internal gps, it would've found itself immediately, unilaterally.
Thanks.
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| Also, have been told that I can network this unit with my LCX 111. Again, there is nothing on the website or instruction manual telling so/otherwise. I'll give it a try. If anyone has tried to network an HDS with an LCX, let me know if there is anything I should know before doing so. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Couple of things...yes, you can net work an LCX with HDS. I've not done it myself, but know those that have. The only thing that won't jive is if you decide to add LSS, it won't be compatible with the LCX.
As far as tips for HDS, think of it kinda like Vista vs Windows XP. Everything is still there, but it's in different places and called different things. If you're used to the LCX menus and options, the HDS is a whole-nother system. Everything is still there, like selecting map data to select your Navionics card, but it's not in the same place or on the same menu as it was on the LCX. So get used to the menus before you're on the water, get your settings where you'd like them and all that because the menus are different. The other thing you'll need to get used to is the "lag" in the HDS. It's basically a little computer sitting on your boat, so just like your computer at home, when you click on something or open a file, sometimes it has to "think" about it before it does it. HDS is similar. You'll hit "PAGES" to switch from chart to sonar or structure or whatever and it'll take a few seconds before it loads into the pages menu, and then a few seconds for each selection. Not a huge deal, but frustrating at times.
I like HDS, but it's got it's bugs like any system. Sometimes the depth soundings won't load on my chart after I zoom or come back from a sonar or structure page. I then have to shut it off and restart it to get them to load. Sometimes they load on their own. Sometimes not. Zooms can also be slow. You'll hit it.....hit it.....hit it....hit it....hold it down....hold it down...hit it.....then it'll zoom. Then it'll go from a half mile zoom straight to 100'. You just gotta give HDS time to work and do it's thing. And when it does, it's awesome. The sonar is amazing. I don't know how it'll look on the US, but on it's own ducer, it's incredible. LSS has changed the way I fish and where I fish. It's awesome and worth the upgrade.
I had a problem with my 8 reading an 09 Premium card...just would not do it. Went through three units before I tried the Plat + and got it to work. But I'd zoom in, and it'd lock up and reboot. I think I had a thread on it here when it happened. It was back in November if you want to look for it. But just one more glitch to the HDS. And I see it, and everything I mentioned above as small issues with and overall excellent system. Took me a while to get used to it all after my LCX's (still run a 27C on the bow) working so well, but like I say, once you get used to it and know how to work with them, they are awesome units. |
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| thanks. Understood on the menus. i am already getting acquainted with them. I also see how long it takes fpr things to load etc. I won't be using LSS for now, so will just be using it as a split screen sonar/chart as I did with the 27. I will be running Lakemaster maps with the unit hopefully, as Lakemaster has the lakes I fish, in high def.
Fly, do you have experience with getting temp to show up from the transducer you are using? there are a few threads on this issue on the bass boat boards, but none of them address the universal sonar. Seems some folks are having trouble getting temp to show up. Again, i'll try a few things tonight. I just don't want to start hitting buttons and trying other options blindly. again, this is where the instruction manual is severely lacking, though I have heard improvements are being made, which is nice. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Sorry, can't help on the temp. I'm running a conventional Lowrance ducer on my HDS, and have my US running into my 27C. Not had a problem. If you're looking at BBC, you've seen the same threads I have. Lowrance does have a Facebook page, and they're pretty good about answering easy, "yes/no" or "do this" questions on there. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | frogged around last night till wee hours. Got the temp to read from the US2 after setting the data sourcing, whew. Also installed the lakemaster card and it does read, albeit not quite as clearly as on my 27 or 111. I transferred all of my waypoints to the new unit and have it set to waypoint share now, which is nice. It labors quite slowly between screens, pages and updating the chart as you said, but anyone who gets a new unit will have to live with that. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | And you'll find you won't be able to dim the screen as far down as you did your LCX. That's a bugger, but you work around it. Glad you got it working and all seems well. They're great units if you take the great with the so-so aspects of it. |
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