An LX3 'situation'

[herb]

I've read a lot of comments this winter about the LX3 and the tc upgrade and problems some were having.

In december I ordered an LX3 with factory tc upgrade before reading on this site about the ducer problems and how well Marcum was taking care of this.

I had misgivings about this purchase even before it was delivered, and made a post about why the company would even ship units knowing there was the possibility of them having "issues".

To top it off I hadn't been able to use the machine all winter, no ice.

Till yesterday.

Finally got out on some ice, drilled a hole and set in my new Marcum LX3 with the tc upgrade. This unit ran absolutely great-for about 15 minutes!!!!

Then the screen turned yellow. I shut it off and turned it back on and it ran like it was supposed to for about 10 seconds, then back to nothing but yellow.

It's a good thing I brought along my old Vex as a back up or the day would have been shot to dump.

I'm going to try to stay away from bashing Marcum. I still like this machine, but it has a flaw.

Does anyone have a clue as to what is wrong? Is the ducer? I unplugged it last night and noticed it has 3 prongs. There was mention on another thread about 3 prong vs 2 prong ducer plugs.

Will I need to send the whole unit back to Marcum, or just the ducer?

Thanks for any help and suggestions.

[herb]

And before you ask, yes, the battery was fully charged. Double checked with amp meter before leaving home. And all the connections were checked too. Battery terminals were cleaned also.

[Surface Tension]

herb,if its a flaw with your MarCum it would be the first time I've heard of anything like that happening.

I know you said you checked the battery with a voltmeter but the symptoms your describing would make me think the battery is low. Just humor me and connect the charger and let it charge or at least try a different battery.

[fsnrod]

I would like some one to explaine me to about the two prong transducer the unit has three prongs where you plug in the transducer how does that work. I had them change the transducer last year and they put on a three prong . it seems to work fine.

[herb]

Frank, I'm positive it's not the battery. I went back to the basement to try a few other things with the unit. I have a brand new FULLY CHARGED battery and my fully charged vex battery, that I hooked up to it and the results were the same with all 3 batteries. I also hooked up my Smart Charge to it last night so the Marcum battery was sure to be fully charged before messing with it this morning. So this isn't a battery issue. I also unhooked the ducer and still had the yellow screen when running.

When I first turned it on this morning, it worked ok for about 5 seconds and then it went to yellow screen. I checked all the connections and it made no difference.

If anyone else has had this yellow screen problem, what did you do to fix it?

[Surface Tension]

herb, I can't think of anything else for you to try on your end. All I can suggest is you call or email MarCum and they will do what it takes to resolve the problem.

[hondavxr]

(Contact US Regarding This Word), Marcum with problems and I know at 98% of the probems have to do with the transducers. I think when Marcum first introduced the LX-3, they used some cheap or poorly made ducers. Old tranducers have the three contacts or prongs at the connector to the head unit. I don't know what that extra one prong is used for, I think the third contact on the old ducers were maybe a extra ground contact or a neutral contact. But the new tranducers-for the Marcum of the 2005-2006 season(LX-2,LX-3TC), only have two prong contacts on the ducers. The new ducers will work fine with your unit. I like you, Herb, have been frustrated with my unit also. I shipped my unit into Marcum two times and the last time, I said no more playing the waiting game. I fixed it myself by switching it with the new transducer. Now the Marcum works like a well oiled machine. I feel your pain. Shoot Marcum an email they will probably ship you a new transducer.

[cybermuskie]

I was told by a good source at Reed's that last year Marcum was using transducers that they tried to make,and now (the ones that work) are made by Vexlar.

Today I was somewhere, and talk with a good friend that works for a big name chain store. We were talking about depth finders. He said their stores is the biggest buyers of depth finders, and that Marcum won't even return there phone calls when they have questions. He said wouldn't recomond Marcum to ANYONE! So that got me wondering why everybody on here is singing such praises? Did they get all the bugs out this year? Is it because there customer service is so good? I personally never want to talk to the customer service about anything I buy! I don't care how nice they are.

[Northlander]

All I know is I use the Marcum because its the best unit I can get. If there was a "Fishspy" brand that I thought was better I would buy that. I have been very happy with my Marcum. Remember every graph out there has issues. Heck my $1200 Lowrance had "Issues". My olf Vex had "Issues". We all have issues.

[CNY Tim]

In a perfect world wouldn't it be nice to never have to contact customer service about anything... But look fellas were ice fisherman., so are equipment we hope when purchased is built for the extremes that we fish in. This goes for flashers, portable shelters, rods and reels... Murphy's Law is bound to catch up with anyone at any given time. I could go on about products that haven't delivered for me and customer services that were non existent cause there are few. I do find that if your personable and explain the problem if the company is worth there salt they will take care of it. This has been indeed the case with many companies I have dealt with through the years, Thorne Bro's, Vexilar, MarCum, St. Croix, Clam Corp. to name a few.

I would recommend MarCum flashers becuase they are simply the best from my experience and there customer service is incredible you will see.

Your problem maybe circuit board related you may have to send that back in to be fixed. The reason I say that is I know someone that had an LX-3 that looked like it was dropped during shipment that shown the same symptom's yours is having. Let us know how you make out...

[herb]

I'll be calling Marcum first thing in the morning.

Took it back out on the ice today to give it another try, but before I did, I played with it a bit at home. Fully charged battery and I still had the yellow screen. While it was flashing all yellow I happened to grab the ducer and squeezed it on the sides with my thumb and forefinger. Well, that got rid of the full screen yellow and just had one thin yellow line. Ok I thought, let's try it on the ice.

It seemed to run fine with no full yellow screen flashing, but then I let my jig down into the water, 22ft with a clean water column. For the most part, I could not see the jig unless I turned up the gain, but when I did that, I had a lot of single yellow lines, could not tell bottom, and my jig was a yellow line that the only way I could tell it was my jig was by lifting or lowering it through the yellow lines. And my jig was also a single yellow line. If I turned up the gain even more, it just got worse. If I turned it down, I could mark bottom but no jig. And this was a good sized jigwith 2 waxies on it.

This unit is supposed to be a brand new LX3 with factory tc upgrade shipped to me from the factory in early January. If what hondavxr said is true, why does mine have the 3 prong connection ducer? Also, I read on another thread about a good ducer having a somewhat soft bottom face. Mine is rock hard.

I won't be able to get on any ice anymore this season to do any more testing as we are losing our ice fast. Would have been nice to see someone else out today with a Marcum, but everyone else had the vex's.

Like I said, I'm calling Marcum in the morning. Good or bad, I'll relate what happens. Got my fingers crossed.

Oh yeah, sorry for such long posts, but I wanted to get out all the info I could.

[Northlander]

No problem Herb I feel your pain. I know it stinks. Call Marcum up and tell them what is up. Im sure they will get you straight ASAP. To me it sounds like a bad board type deal. Comes on and for a bit is ok then gets warm and cuts out. But Im no expert thats for sure. Leave it to the Pros at Marcum.

[McGurk]

Well, I hate to say it but I have a similar problem. I had the TC upgrade done and it worked fine the first 2-3 trips out. The next trip I went on It worked for a couple of hours and then I lost the green and red colors. The spacing of the yellow marks stayed the same, but there was missing displayed information. I would see black (no color) where there was previously red or green displayed. The red mark at the top stayed, so it is not the LED's, and after I moved it it would come back. It would come and go, but after I "tapped" it in frustation, it worked again. Now it comes and goes, and I had not heard about any other problems until now. I will check the 2/3 prong and send an email to Marcum, and report the status as it goes. Thanks, herb, for posting, and I hope to hear how your situation is resolved. Good Luck! McGurk

[trapperdirk]

Well I had a transducer replaced and as it was slowly going I had to turn the gain higher and higher and in the end the extra lines you spoke of happened the same . I myself figure that happens from getting erratic signal feedbacks because the gain is high with a bad transducer . ONE e-mail to Marcum is all it took and a new transducer was at my front door in 4 days . You betcha I'm happy with Marcum's Customer Service and Support . Top notch and living in Canada where often it can take up to 3 weeks to get a letter from the states this kind of time frame for anything is unheard of but it's how it happened . Heck it takes me longer to get auto parts right here that are warehoused here .Kudos to the Marcum Customer Service team and I have no doubt your issue with yours will be resolved as quickly as mine was . My unit also was over a year old with lots of use before I had the transducer problem and I don't foresee anymore and will be sending it in for the TC upgrade this summer plus purchasing an LX-5 with confidence. I love this baby and count on it and I'm sure by the solid support I recieved from Marcum that they are aware of that . Call them you will see .

TD

[herb]

I goofed and posted my update on the "Another LX3 question" thread. I don't see any sense in repeating it again here.

[McGurk]

Quick email to Marcum, and another RMA quickly. I sent the unit out today and am hoping to have by the weekend. After looking I saw that I had the 3 prong transducer, we'll see if it comes back with a 3 or a 2. I'll post either way. Here's to a quick Fedex trip. Good Luck, McGurk

[McGurk]

Arrived back after a phenomenal 2-day turnaround, and have yet to test it. I'm pretty sure that they sent the same transducer back and it still has the 3 prongs. Haven't had it on the water yet so I can't report a fix or not, but as I turned it on in the house I could see all 3 colors. Good Luck! McGurk

[herb]

Received my new ducer today,(2 prongs), but it will be afew days before I can test it.

[runtille]

I have owned an LX3 since it was introduced and am very happy with it. About two and a half years in to it, I had to constantly turn up the gain to 10 to read anything in deep water. I knew there was something wrong with the unit, so I called Marcum customer support. The service rep told me that there was a two year warranty on the unit, but to just put down a purchase date that fit in the range and that Marcum would take care of it. I shipped my unit in and they sent it back in two weeks with a new transducer and no bill. I was very impressed and the unit has worked flawlessly since.

[jigeye]

My LX-3 is two years old also and I just sent it in because of the transducer problem. Had the TC upgrade done too. Sent it on Monday recieved on Thursday. Has a new ducer and I noticed it has the three prong plug. They never asked when I bought it nor for any money other than the 49.00 for the upgrade. Great service.

[riverrat56]

When I purchased my LX-3 it was missing the charger, Marcum sent me a new one with out even asking a single question, I'm sure there is a bad one in every bunch, but they will get it fixed for you.