Lowrance repair help

[Milton]

I have a Lowrance X102 depth finder with problems. Basically, the unit works OK at slow speeds but loses the bottom at high speed 20 MPH or greater, especially greater than 20' deep. It also has never graphed fish well. Very spotty. I have a Lund 1800 Fisherman. I have tried to reposition the transducer numerous times paying attention to the depth and angle of it. It is positioned about 18" to the right of motor between the rivits.

Is there a place in the Minneapolis area where I can bring the boat in with the unit attached and have them fix my problem? I am wondering if I have a bad unit or transducer.

Just returned from Lake Trout fishing in Canada and wanted to throw the unit overboard because it was bad all week.

[PerchJerker]

If it works at slow speeds but not at fast speeds it is probably not your head unit.

The transducer is a possible culprit, either that it's going bad or that the mounting location is not very good. One thing you can try is tilting the back down slightly and the front up slightly (this is NOT what they show in the book) but what this does is give a smooth flow of water over the face of the transducer and that helps keep the signal at high speeds.

Another possible culprit is electrical interference. It's amazing but sometimes moving power and/or transducer cables as little as an inch will clean up some problems like this. I think the best thing to do is to try to loosen and seperate your wires as much as possible, maybe even running a temporary set of power leads directly to your battery (not tucked up out of sight) to see if that improves how the unit performs. If it does, then go slow and be careful tucking the wires out of sight, to try to avoid the interference.

I don't know of any place you can take the unit to have it tested. Good luck getting it resolved.

[Milton]

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried changing the angle of the transducer several times, going one click at a time and that didn't help. I haven't tried the interference issue because I'm not good at electrical issues and it sounds like trial by error but it might my next option. Beyond that, maybe I'll call the factory and see if they can test the transducer.

Thanks again.

[rtwills]

I had that problem with mine too.I was losing bottom at high and low speeds frequently and getting eratic readings and sometimes it would shut down when i tried to go to menu or zoom .I ended up getting some good wire and wiring direct to the battery instead of using the panel.It has worked great ever since.

[Surface Tension]

Try it again using a its own battery and route the ducer cable away from other electrical wires first. If that doesn't work I'd say the ducer is bad. It might read bottom but it'll do so without clear and crisp definition. Marking targets is impossible. A new ducer will make a night and day difference.

This has become a common problem with LEI ducers.

[moviking]

I have a 332c and I loose the bottom at high speed. It works fine at slow to 1/4 throttle. I think it is because the transducer is positioned wrong, and it is cavitating. Try moving the transducer. I am

[FM_Mike]

Had the same issue on my 102c. Replaced transducer all is working now. Might be a bad transducer yours seems to have the exact same issues I had.

I to tried all the other options. Just a bad transducer.

Mike

[Milton]

Thanks again for all the advice. I spent 1/2 the day today repositioning my transducer (in case of cavitation due to rivits on bottom of boat) and repositioning my transducer cable, moving it away from the main power cable and other wiring. When I get a chance to test it, I'll let you know if it helped. If not, I agree that it must be the transducer.

Milton

[just_jig]

I had the same problem on my 102C. Contacted Lowrance and they sent me a new transducer (under warranty) everthing works great now. Like you I spent lots of time monkeying around trying to figgure out what was wrong.

[rollin]

same problems with lcx 25c. cuts out at stationary(rarely),more so at medium and high speeds. screen lights up with solid colors when it loses bottom. digital will consistently read 2.2 and 2.3. still shows bottom contour correctly sometimes while reading 2.2 / 2.3

here is a list of things i have been told to try

reset unit (see manual- soft reset will keep waypoints etc)

clean connections with rubbing alcohol and blow out with compressor

check position of prongs on connections

angle of transducer

scratches on transducer

hook up different lowrance unit to see if it transducer or cables

turn off all other power that may cause interference

the only thing i haven't tried yet is moving my cables around. bouncing may have caused cables to move and cause interference

hoping to avoid new trandsucer

hopefully will get on water soon to try

any other suggestions?

[snakes]

Take the boat to fishlectronics in columbia heights.