Lowrance Ice Machine ?'s

[BRULEDRIFTER]

hello fellow Ice Machine owners. i feel that, even though we are a minority, we need our own thread to chat about the product we chose to buy. i recently had a bit of trouble using mine last week. i am still fairly new to the unit. got it for christmas this year, and have used it quite a bit, but still have lots to figure out. the problem i had was i was out last week fishing at a friends perm. that i have fished a few times prior to this and havent had anywhere near the problems i had this last time. in my previous outings i have fished along side a lx3 and an fl8 at the same time and had no interference problems what-so-ever. (its a bigger shack, 6 hole, generator, ect). well this last time out my unit(x67c) totally went hay wire on me, and this time out i was only competing with the lx3. i started the night fine, after a half hour or so my depth cursor keeped fluctuating between the 12.4 feet of water i was in up to 9ft, then 8 ft, then back to the correct 12.4, then it would shoot up to 1.9ft. and after awhile of this it would seem to freeze up and blink at some random depth. id shut it down and start it up and it would still be stuck at the 1.9 ft yet i could still see my bait and the fish below the bait. at the beginning of the night i was right next to the lx3 so i moved over to the other side of the shack and it seemed tto work just fine again. well then everything started going haywire again. we shut off the lx3 and it still was fluctuating all over. so my questions are this.... do i have a bad machine?, was it just getting alot of interference from, say the generator? if so then why this particular time?, has anyone else out there had similar problems and know what to do? was it just reading fish at these depths and registered them as the bottom?

i havent had a chance to try it out since then. im going to try it on thursday alone somewhere and see how it goes. at the time my battery was 3/4 charged, so i dont think it was that. i just dont know. its frustrating when you drop fat $$ on a toy, and it goes nuts on ya. any advice anyone?? how is lowrance's customer service? thanks to all who can help, and good fishing!

[andy j]

Brule,

As I told you before I had a few similar situations with mine also. I would not be surprized if the generator was the problem. I would try your buddies IR on his Marcum and see if that helps. I heard the newer X67s this year have better Interference Rejection but I am not positive. I would call Lowrance and ask for one of their tech.guys and ask them. I fished with the x67 all last year and I only had it go crazy like you said once. I was close to another LX3 also. I would also try tranducers hanging levels, if they are hanging in the wrong location it can effect interferance. Good Luck AJ

[Mongro02]

Mine was doing that sitting next to a OVS 560 last weekend...I've had problems being close to a FL-18 before...but never thought the camera would interfere with it. I just moved my camera away about a foot and it was fine again.

So it could be the generator...

[Chad711]

Bottom line is you cant fish next to a flasher with it, period...

[andy j]

Chad,

You can fish next to a flaser with it. I have done it many times and it has been fine. I did run into a few problems a couple of times, but most of the time it worked just fine.

[smallieobsession]

I picked up one of the Ice Machines a couple weeks ago and have been out 5-6 times with it. Love it. However, just this weekend I too had the problem where it would suddenly go from the 18 ft I was fishing in to 3.6 and the something like 1.4 then it would be fine for a bit then it would do it again. I did really hang one time and I had to reboot it to get it to go back to normal operation, etc. Not sure what cuases it but I was no where near any other flashers, cameras, etc. It really wasn't significanly bothersome the few times that it happend but was wondering if I was doing something wrong, etc. Now I know it's not just me;-)

[Chad711]

Ive had the interfearance setting on high when next to others and yeah it works, but not like it does without another flasher. Great unit though without a doubt.

[Captain B.R.K]

Guys- after being in the sales industry at GM for about 5 yrs and pushing Lowrance fish finders......they do have great customer service. Just make sure you describe your problem to the tech guys and they'll be able to help you out.

[jtroop]

Mongro, I'm not understanding how a camera could possibly interfere with a sonar transceiver. Have you come up with any theories ? I'd just like to know before I make an underwater camera purchase.

[Mongro02]

I'm still trying to figure that out myself. I didn't think it would matter.

I had my X67c and my camera sitting right next to each other and the X67C had black dots/lines all over the screen. And my depth was jumping all over the place. I moved my camera away a few feet and the X67C was working fine again.

I don't have any theories....Yet. Still wondering myself if it was interference or something else.

[Chad711]

It was picking up the camera cord.....

[slick814]

I'd check the depth and levelness of your transducer.

I haven't had mine all that long, and it's the M68 version, but the first time I took it out, I was with a friend who had an FL-18. It had minor depth changes, but I adjusted the transducer, made sure it was as level as possible, and the problem went away. Never had any after, either.

I love mine... best purchase I've made in a long, long time.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

yea, it may have been the depth the transducer was at. my buddies house sits up off the ice a bit and the transducer was just under the water.

has anyone tried to use their machine without the big metal arm, kind of like a marcum? im going to give that a shot next time out(tomorrow). i set it up and i dont see why it wouldnt work just fine. i hope it works too, im not a fan of the metal arm. so we'll see how it all goes. if i do have any problems tomorrow, i'll be knocking down the door at lowrance.

ps. chad, in previous outings, like i said, i used it next to the lx3 and an fl8 at the same time, and it worked just fine. i think my problem may have been the level of my transducer, i hope . because the more i think about it, he just repositioned his shack, there was considerable melting around the holes, and it definatly was sitting a little higher off the ice that it previously was. im hoping for the best tomorrow.

[Woody Erickson]

I have gotten rid of the metal arm and the swing out plastic arm as well. Bought a replacement Vexilar float and stopper. Ended up having to cut the float in half, so it sits in the water with 1 inch or so of the foam above.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

well, i was out tonight and all seemed A-O.K. so many (Contact US Regarding This Word) pearch around though, my screen was filled w/ color. tried it w/o the arm too, i think i like it that way better. the only thing was the transducer was not quite level. however, it didnt seem to matter. i think it was just interference from the generator, ect. that caused me problems last week. im really happy too, i really dig that machine. well, thanks for the tips and advice.

Keep Fishin!!

[nthomps66]

I got the X67C this year and have fished next to an FL8, FL18 and LX-3. I got very sporadic interference from all three but nothing to complain about at all. It was no more or less than the others were getting from me. After seeing all four this past weekend I am still very pleased with my purchase,

I have had my unit "go haywire" as you put it twice and couldn't figure out why either. One time I turned it off and on again and it was fine. The other time turning it off didn't work and I had to monkey with the transducer. By the way, I gave up on the metal piece and threaded the transducer wire through the rubber stopper on the arm. That allows me to adjust the depth of it just like with a float. It works great so far.

Other than the two isolated "haywire" incidents, the unit is awesome. I was out last weekend catching suspended crappies like crazy after seeing them on the flasher. I was also jigging up sunfish from the bottom. That is fun to see in the graph mode...