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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | Okay, need some help here before I make a decision. Up until last year, I had a Lowrance LCX-17 on my bow and an LCX-111 on my console. The LCX-17 used the transducer on my Minn Kota bow mount, my LCX-111 used the transducer at the back of the boat, and both shared the GPS LGC-2000 pod. I got a good deal on an additional LCX-111 least year and thought it would be great to have two big screens running and since the LCX-17 and the LCX-111 used the same blue connectors I wouldn't have to run new wires.
The challenge is that when I hooked up the two LCX-111 units, I started getting weird things happening. I would lose depth readings, the screen would read a wildly different depth reading that the graph would show. Tried calling Lowrance but since they don't support non-current units, it was like I was asking for nuclear launch codes. Tried another guy who does Lowrance installations and he indicated that having two big units in the boat won't work due to interference. However, I have seen pictures of boats with two LCX-111 units side by side.
Before I make the decision to sell one unit, has anyone had any similar issues and if so how did they resolve them?
Thanks in advance,
Shane |
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Posts: 719
| I use 2 giant 112c units. They will interfere little, but only when 25-30 ft or more usually. For some reason it is the one on the trolling motor that usually loses definition more than anything else. The one in the seat doesn't usually have any problems. The transducer can also deteriorate on the inside if it been abused too. I've had brand new ones put on by the Lowrance service guys at tournaments and it was like night and day. I also DO NOT use the Lowrance net deal where they try and convince you to wire everything together. They want you to use one reciever. Well if you are out on the big water and that GPS reciever dies out (and they do ALOT-the puck style) then you are screwed. I have the units kept seperate with their own receivers, and I even go as far as to have the units power source wired independent of each other and the boats main power center. I run a seperate wire with seperate fuse right to the battery. That way the only way for them to fail is if the battery dies. Hope this helps...a bit. |
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Posts: 719
| Oh yeah...most graphs are horribly unreliable. I've owned at least 30 of them in my life and broke at least half or more. Not kidding. I had one unit fail 7 times in one year...not kidding about that either. I think my lap top would handle the outdoors better than alot of graphs. I have held on to my big Lowrance 112c's primarily because I was told that specific model only has a 2-3% failure rate. So far that has been true for me. If you want some good advice, this is the guy you need to call. He is the master and used to be Lowrance's on the road tourney support guy.
http://www.itainttv.com/index.php |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | i also had the same issue, but with an lcx 111 and lcx 25c. It only happened when I had the units networked, and like you, had a very difficult time getting answers to this issue. First, un-network them as Bondy mentions, and check your unit to be sure you are not getting the cross signal anymore. What is happening is your front unit is showing the bottom on the sonar screen that it is picking up from its own transducer, but the digital reading from the back unit. Watch your front unit while you are running from spot to spot, it will be showing the digital depth from your rear unit even without the front transducer in the water. You need to get into the menu option where you can adjust the settings on the nmea 2000 networked units and be sure that the front unit is showing the rear 111 in the network but that the rear one doesn't show any data on the front unit, or vice versa depending upon which is master/slave for the configuration. I had the issue about 4 years ago, and have a different front unit now, or I could talk you through it a bit easier. There was a thread on that topic back then, here, as well. |
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