Lowrance 522c ticking me off

[Cicada]

This is the third summer with this unit. The first year everything was fine. It ran like it should have. Late last summer it started acting up. It would lose the bottom and flash .8 to 1.4 feet no matter what depth I am in. This spring I installed the new software for the thing. This weekend it would do the same thing. I found that if I ran up on some rocks or hard bottom and gave it a few minutes, it would figure itself out and I would regain the bottom. This might work for 15 minutes or over an hour. I did find that if I unchecked the auto rangefinder and set it for some depth deeper than I am in I could get a bottom reading, but those stupid .8 to 1.4 would keep flashing. 1. I have the depthfinder mounted near the transom and run my trolling motor from the bow making it guesswork on my depth. B. I shouldn't have to put up with this garbage on a $700.00 unit. Has anyone else had this problem? Solutions? Can a tranducer work some of the time and then confuse the machine other times? I do have the shallow water feature enabled. It doesn't matter whether I'm in shallow water or deep water when this happens.

[Cicada]

Tried Ed's solution today. Didn't work. Pretty much did the same thing again. If it is the transducer, would it still give me a bottom reading while not displaying the depth? When it whacks out, I can shut off the auto depth range, choose a depth range manually, and it will show the bottom. At the same time, the display bounces between .8 and 1.4 feet.

[NETim]

Soft reset time!

Hold down "pages" key while powering it up. Hold down "pages" key until page with "Made in USA" appears.

You'll know if it was successful if the GPS page now shows the entire US. You shouldn't lose any data by doing this.

Soft resets got my 520's attention after it decided to constantly display 61.5' after I networked it with an HDS 8.

[eelpout#1]

I just upgraded my 522 from version 1.4.0 to version 2.5.0 last night. The two biggest problems were finding the right card to put it on, I had sony cards, canon cards, phone cards but not the right one for the 522. I asked my youngest son if he had anything like this. He thought about it and went inside and came back with a Wii memory card. It was the right shape and 2 gig in size, so I downloaded the .exe file onto the card. Put the card into the 522 and powered up, and noticed nothing. Reread the instructions on the web site and discovered you had to open the .exe file on your computer and transfer the three new files to the card. Did that and put Wii card back into the 522, powered up and the upgrade took 15 seconds if that. Don't know if that fixed the problem, but will get back to you all tomorrow if the wind goes down so I can get fishing tonight...

[Ed Carlson]

See if the Soft Reset helps?

You can get a reading with a bad ducer, but it is a messed up one or a half truth at best. This sounds too simple...but your 100% sure...the ducer is good...and well aligned in the water?

Be sure the "Auto Zoom" is off..be sure it is zoomed OUT....see if it then shows anything new for you...for the good or for the bad bad...any change?

I'm running out of guess's here bud?

It may be plain and simple, a internal processor error, and then....it's service time...sorry to say. Hope not.

[Cicada]

Soft reset did not help. Tried it this morning before we went out and first thing it does give me 1.4 feet. Back to shutting off the auto zoom and setting the range at 30 feet.

I'm not putting another dime into Lowrance's pockets. If they want me to buy another transducer, they will have to guarentee it will solve the problem.

Hard to make the move. When I do finally get a job, the first order of business will be to find a Hummingbird or Garmin. Kind of hard to advertise the Lowrance: Hardly used, hardly usefull.

[Cicada]

Question for Ed Carlson. Do you hook display unit to a simulator in the store? I was wondering, if my unit was hooked up that way, would it display properly if it is the transducer. Then if the display is still messed up it would have to be in the unit itself.

[Ed Carlson]

I do not think a simulator will define and diagnose anything at this point...except if the processor is glitchy..it may point that out by acting odd and not operating in simulator at all?

Does it now operate properly when you now run it on simulation mode? Does it display all functions and pages properly and allow you to tinker with the gain and ping speed with good results? If not, then it's the internal processor for sure.

One can hook up the unit and run it with a known good ducer and see if it gets the same readings as it does with your ducer...do this test with both...compare them.

If you set the ducer 24" off a concrete floor it should get a solid return reading someplace close to 10' (+/-) in the 200 Khz mode, with a very hard bottom target return.

If you need to crank up the gain to get a reading at all...or can't get a reading or it drops out and drops back in mysteriously..it's the ducer.

If it will not do that with your ducer now, I think you found the problem....bad ducer, or at least one of the problems.

Again a good simple way to diagnose it is find a guy with the same type of unit on his boat, and is functioning properly....swap the head unit and take a run and see if it still acts up with his known good ducer..if it does act up...your back to the internal processor or software being bad...if it runs fine...it's the ducer.

That's about the best advise I can give you at this point....good luck. Lets hope it's just the ducer.

[Cicada]

Ran the simulator for a half hour today. Everything looked normal in that mode. How much is a transducer for this thing, do you have one on hand, and will you be working Wednesday morning?

[Ed Carlson]

I'm working Wed 9 - 5, so if you drop in I'll look it over. (Your update is good right?)

The ducer will run $70. I think we had them on hand, call on Tuesday or Wed first to be sure. I was off all weekend so it is best to check in with me first to be sure we still have a Hi-Speed ducer for it on hand, save you the trip if we don't. I know we have the puck/trolling motor style on hand...but we often sell out of the hi-speeds during busy times of the year. Call me at 701-277-9979 on Tuesday or Wed to be sure.

With the boat out of the water, turn on the unit, and place your wet hand over the ducer...you should feel it ticking....you should also hear it ticking as well if you get your ear close? If it is weak, or it drops in and out, it is bad.

[Scott K]

I had nothing but problems with mine this past weekend as well, I did a soft reset, and a hard reset, if there was a soft bottom, there was no way I was picking anything up. A rocky bottem, maybe it worked 60% of the time. Any ideas with mine, before I go buy a new ducer?

[BRULEDRIFTER]

I picked up an adapter last week to try mine with the Universal Sonar Transducer in my Minkota before trying the new transducer route. I figured I'd rather start by giving Lowrance $30 than $75 since I planned on running the unit up front in the future anyway. I just "stretched" the power cord halfway to the bow from the dash and the transducer cord half way back.

The unit worked fine....never lost bottom; soft, hard, weeds.

I guess that means I'm off to donate another $75 to Lowrance as it appears that it is my transducer (hopefully).

[Scott K]

Hmm, now if I only knew someone in my are that has one that works to try my unit out on their ducer. Anyone in Southern Mn, Mankato area have a working 522 that wouldnt mind plugging my control head in to test it on their ducer?

[Ed Carlson]

Cicada..I hope one of the options we worked on today payed off and it works well for you. I hope I was of some help. If not, I'll do my best to help you find a fix or a good option from there forward if you still need one.

I'll be interested to hear how it went.

Good to meet you today. Sorry about being somewhat pressed for time...got a bit crazy as you may have seen.

[Cicada]

Ed, thank you very much for your time. I did find a transducer, got to Lida and mounted it and went fishing. So far, so good. Got a bottom reading with the correct depth displayed and saw fish and weeds and baitfish for the first time in over a year. Everything worked all afternoon and at all speeds. Looks like you were spot on with your recommendations. Thanks again and great meeting you too.

[NETim]

I love a story with a happy ending (and the feedback it provides.)

[walleyemaniac]

Been following this one just in case I ever have problems with mine, knock on wood. Haven't had any issues with Lowrance yet glad everything worked out.

[Scott K]

I am glad you got it fixed, looks like its time for me to go buy myself a ducer, and hope it will fix mine as well.

[fisher_king2004]

Just a follow up to my issues. I tried to run the unit after my software upgrade and had the same problems. I replaced the ducer and it has been working since then. Sounds like both are needed.

[PeteA34]

I have a 334C iGPs and it seems to do it when there is a lot of algea in the water. Other than that , it works fine.

[Ed Carlson]

Ed, thank you very much for your time. I did find a transducer, got to Lida and mounted it and went fishing. So far, so good. Got a bottom reading with the correct depth displayed and saw fish and weeds and baitfish for the first time in over a year. Everything worked all afternoon and at all speeds. Looks like you were spot on with your recommendations. Thanks again and great meeting you too.

KEWL...glad it's up and running.