H20C Issue

[CrappieAttitude]

For the last year, my H20C hasn't been able to lock in on the satelites. I am very careful with my stuff, and it has never been dropped and has been used very lightly. I was told that an axternal antenna may solve my issue. Has anyone ever tried one of these and did it make any difference? Without locking in, it has turned into a $300 paper weight, and I am in no position to purchase something new. If the external antenna has worked for you, what kind did you get and what is the minimum chord length that you have found?

Thanks,

CA

[Surface Tension]

My thinking is the same. I wouldn't go out and buy an external antenna until you know the antenna is the problem. Maybe someone you know has one you can try.

There were some issues when the unit hadn't been used for some time and it took longer to find itself. I'd also go into the menu and do the setup again. After you've exhausted all other options and find it is the antenna, one plus is you'll have increased the accuracy down to around 20".

[CrappieAttitude]

I haven't heard that about the unit taking longer to find itself after long periods of time of non use. The last time i tried it this summer, I had the unit on the whole time out fishing and it never locked in. I was very frustrated. I will have to try doing the setup again. By this do you mean the original initializing gps option? I have also heard that you can do a reboot option, however I have a lot of waypoints saved over the years that I am worried about losing, and am unsure if a reboot would lose this info or not. Thanks for the reply!

CA

[OnAFly]

This sounds like what has happened to many of these units. One day they start taking longer and longer to lock on. Then one day they just won;t lock on at all.

[delcecchi]

For the last year, my H20C hasn't been able to lock in on the satelites. I am very careful with my stuff, and it has never been dropped and has been used very lightly. I was told that an axternal antenna may solve my issue. Has anyone ever tried one of these and did it make any difference? Without locking in, it has turned into a $300 paper weight, and I am in no position to purchase something new. If the external antenna has worked for you, what kind did you get and what is the minimum chord length that you have found?

Thanks,

CA

You can pitch it and buy a nice garmin etrex off the bay for well under a hundred dollars. You can then download maps if you want to.

[harvey lee]

This sounds like what has happened to many of these units. One day they start taking longer and longer to lock on. Then one day they just won;t lock on at all.

Exactly what happened to mine.

I sent it into Lowrance and 4 days later my new one worked fine and is still working great 3 plus years later.

[schweady]

harvey, if I may ask:

Was your unit long past the warrantee period?

Did you have to pay Lowrance a princely sum?

[Buck_Hunter04]

I did the same and it cost me like $160 or something close to it. Mine also just lost the satellite connection and couldn't get it back. I would call Lowrance. The H20 and the Hunt are obsolete now. It took me 7 weeks to get a new one. They said they were waiting for parts to come from china. I told them to just give me my money back and I had a new one in the box 2 days later. Hmmm, go figure.

[MattL]

I'm not sure how to fix your issue, but it is very simple to back up coordinates/routes to an SD card if you are worried about losing them during the re-booting or repair process.

Insert a blank SD Card

Hit "Menu" twice

Select "System Setup"

Select "Transfer My Data"

Hit "Save"

Uploading waypoints to the unit from the SD card is easy as well. This is the exact same process except you hit "Load" instead of "Save". I just transferred all of my waypoints from my graph in the boat to my handheld.

[harvey lee]

harvey, if I may ask:

Was your unit long past the warrantee period?

Did you have to pay Lowrance a princely sum?

It's been some years since I had those issues.

I know I did not pay anything for the replacement.

if I remember correctly, I had issues under warranty and then they fixed that. Then I had issues again and they did not want to do anything.

I talked to a rep at Lowrance and pretty much ask why I had to purchase another after they had already worked on my unit.

Long story short, they said to send it in and they would look at it to make sure it was not an issue due to my mishandling.

I was very persistant with them and they finally replaced the unit for me for no charge again.

Be nice and keep on them, the squeeky wheel always seems to get the grease.

The last time I sent it in, I told Lowrance that if they could not fix or replace the unit for no charge, to then throw unit in the garbage as it was not worth spending another penny on it.

That must have done it as it was days later and my new one arrived. Working well ever since.

[Surface Tension]

Matt, that is some good info.

We back our stuff up on the computer so backing up waypoints from the GPS before failure is smart.

[schweady]

I did the same and it cost me like $160 or something close to it. Mine also just lost the satellite connection and couldn't get it back. I would call Lowrance. The H20 and the Hunt are obsolete now. It took me 7 weeks to get a new one. They said they were waiting for parts to come from china. I told them to just give me my money back and I had a new one in the box 2 days later. Hmmm, go figure.

Buck, how long ago was that?

Props to both you and harvey for your persistence.

[Hoey]

From what I understand not all GPS satellites are the same, revisions of signal, etc. and same goes to the receivers. So over time satellites supporting GPS fail, fall out of orbit and are replaced.

The newer revisions of satellite signal are not receiveable with older units such as the H20s, they take longer to establish position and are not as accurate. So insteand of having 8 or 10 satellite to choose from you only have 3 or 4, or less.

External antenna our software upgrades can improve your unit's ability to obtain position quicker and more accurately.

[schweady]

From what I understand not all GPS satellites are the same, revisions of signal, etc. and same goes to the receivers. So over time satellites supporting GPS fail, fall out of orbit and are replaced.

The newer revisions of satellite signal are not receiveable with older units such as the H20s, they take longer to establish position and are not as accurate. So insteand of having 8 or 10 satellite to choose from you only have 3 or 4, or less.

External antenna our software upgrades can improve your unit's ability to obtain position quicker and more accurately.

Not buying it. My Lowrance ExpeditionC (basically an H2Oc with a few extra bells and whistles) is supposed to be able to lock onto 16 satellites, but it shows a couple or none. Others have gps units of the same vintage that are going strong. It's not due to the lack of satellites to pick from, it's due to the unreliable unit.

[marine_man]

Nor am I.. I've got one of the first GPS plotters (no maps) Lowrance came out with and it still acquires satellites and position without a problem.

marine_man

[MattL]

I don't buy that either. I have an old school Magellan from about 15 years ago and it still locks on. I fire it up once in a while to pull waypoints off of it.

[ChuckN]

A friend tried the external antenna and it did not work for his H2Oc. He sent it to Lowrance and it took some time to get another one, don't know if they repaired it or replaced it. It will still be around $200 to send it in to Lowrance, at least last year..

I'm on my 2nd H2Oc after my first one's antenna failed. My current 2 year old H2Oc I bought brand new is showing the signs of slow GPS connection. Sad...

My first 1996 Garmin still works, even after the antenna has busted off and ran over. lol

[harvey lee]

One can be honest and say that over the years Lowrance has has at least 2 dud products, the 522's and the H20 units. Both of these units have had share and more of issues and Lowrance really never stepped up to the plate and resolved them.

I realize they sold a ton of these but there have been just as many unhappy users.

To bad for Lowrance as many will never forget how they were treated.

Yes, some were warrantied and then that unit goes bad and, oh well.

I also said oh well when I switched to another company.

[Mike Stark]

Anyone ever have an issue with the unit not plotting a track? The manual says it does it automatically but my unit shows no track.

Thanks.

[Dave]

Did you turn that feature on?

[Mike Stark]

Did you turn that feature on?

In the manual is says it does it automatically when you turn the unit on. I have not seen an option to turn it on. Is there an option to do so?

[delcecchi]

One can be honest and say that over the years Lowrance has has at least 2 dud products, the 522's and the H20 units. Both of these units have had share and more of issues and Lowrance really never stepped up to the plate and resolved them.

I realize they sold a ton of these but there have been just as many unhappy users.

To bad for Lowrance as many will never forget how they were treated.

Yes, some were warrantied and then that unit goes bad and, oh well.

I also said oh well when I switched to another company.

Actually the 334 was worse.

[Dave]

In the manual is says it does it automatically when you turn the unit on. I have not seen an option to turn it on. Is there an option to do so?

Menu, Menu, My Trails, hit enter at Trail Options

Should be a box there to check mark and turn on to "Update Trail"

[fishing tech]

I was on Upper Red last weekend and went out about 5 miles. We crossed 2 pressure ridges. On the way back in the dark we got to the point to cross the ridges and the tracking was off by about 50 yards. I was not happy and will be looking for a new gps as the h2o is slowly going down.

[eyewitness1]

i have a IHunt in perfect condition im not using. Maybe we can work something out.

[Mike Stark]

Dave.

Thanks for the info. For some reason it was turned off. I just got done mounting it on my snowmobile with the ram mount. Gonna be nice.