|
|
Posts: 43
| I bought a boat with a Lowrance 520 LMS locator. Recently I bought a Lowrance HDS 8 Gen 2 with structure scan. I moved my 520 to the bow and mounted the new unit at the helm and want to connect to the HDS 8 via an Ethernet cable and link the 2 together.
What advantages will this give me and what should I expect when the 2 are linked together? Do I still need to connect the GPS puck to the 520? Do I need a lake map chip in the 520? Any help would be appreciated. |
|
| |
|
Location: 31 | I'm not that familiar with the 520, and therefore do not know if it will look up via Ethernet. They should be able to network via NMEA though, and that's the same cable that the 520 GPS antenna uses too so you may want to consider networking that way depending on your configuration.
The advantage of networking is that they will be able to share waypoints (not the icons from the 520). I'm pretty sure both units have to be on to share trails so that is a mute point, the 520 will not share the mapping software with the HDS.
If you decide not to hook up the separate 520 antenna, the GPS will not work unless the HDS is on and everything is functioning properly. I recommend hooking up the antenna for that reason, and in case the HDS goes down.
Your best bet before you buy anything is to call a Lowrance tech.
Edited by Jerry Newman 9/29/2013 10:26 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 5874
| You can power the antenna on NMEA 2000 separately from the HDS or the 520. Make sure the NMEA 2000 bus power is switched, whichever way you do it.
The 520 does not have Ethernet, so that is not an option to link to the HDS.
Edited by Shep 9/30/2013 9:01 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 43
| The 520 LMS unit that I have does have the yellow ethernet jack on the backside of the unit. I was told if the unit has a yellow jack, you can connect them via an Ethernet cable. |
|
| |
|
Location: 31 | I'm not sure if the 520 GPS would function using the HDS antenna via Ethernet?
However, you can definitely network the GPS and waypoint sharing using the NMEA 2000, and that's a simple install too. I recommend to just go ahead and hook it up with the NMEA 2000 so you have the 520 GPS as a back-up, and to be able to operate the 520 without having to turn the HDS unit on.
Honestly, I was a little disappointed with the networking capabilities with my Lowrance HDS to older unit when I networked them because it does not get you that much further down the road versus just using a SD card to transfer the data manually.
HDS networked to HDS, different story though.
Hope this helps, good luck!
Edited by Jerry Newman 9/30/2013 4:38 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 373
Location: Maine Township, MN | You should be able to share waypoints through ethernet. You will need a chip in each unit to see contours on both. To share the puck, you'll need a NEMA network. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 43
| Thanks for the input guys. I will test it out this weekend. I'm heading down to lake Shelbyville for an IMTT tournament.
I contacted Lowrance tech support and they said I could link them together with a NMEA 2000 cable and yes they will share the internal antenna from the HDS 8 and yes they can share GPS waypoints. They said I need a NMEA 2000 starter kit and gave me a part #. Back to the store. <*((((((((>< |
|
| |
|
Location: 31 | No problem I understand firsthand how frustrating integrating the different generations can be. I recommend that you hook up the 520 antenna as a back-up, or at least carry that antenna with you in the boat just in case. There's a tee in the starter kit but you would also need to buy the adapter for a blue collared GPS antenna. It's always good to have redundancy and having a backup GPS antenna is the equivalent of having a spare prop to me.
I was thinking about something else, you can't simply save the waypoints/icons from an older LCX unit to an SD card and then transfer them directly to an HDS and vise versa. No problem if you want to transfer from LCX to LCX, or HDS to HDS though.
To transfer between the two different generations requires reformatting online with software. The best way to transfer information on the water is turning on the bow unit and running a trail, or overlaying the old waypoints at the helm with new ones that will transfer to the bow unit via the NMEA network, the overlay can be done before hitting the water.
Further, when I networked my units I thought that waypoints would automatically transfer to the other unit via the NMEA when they were loaded in one unit with an SD card… nope, the only way to transfer previous waypoints/icons is through an SD card at each unit across the board, and these different generations really complicates things.
Edited by Jerry Newman 10/8/2013 9:45 AM
|
|
| |
