lowrance X-15 problem

[Jeff S]

my X-15 seems to have a problem with it's sensitivity. I have the sensivity set at 100% and all I can get is a bottom reading. And that is only good for about 6 seconds before it cuts out for a couple seconds then its good again for 6 seconds. Marking fish does not happen at all.

The manual said to clean the transducer which I did and that did nothing.

Has anyone else had this problem?

I'd appreciate your help.

Thanks

[HARPOON-OR-BUST]

If all you are getting is a bottom reading do you have your surface clarity set?

[ChuckN]

I'm thinking it's time for a new transducer...

Seen this happen with other transducers and it was always the issue.

Do you have a friend who has a Lowrance that you can plug your X-15 into their boat to test and see if it's the transducer?

[onemagnum]

When you hit menu and see the sensitivity at the top, arrow right and change the sensitivity to roughly 68%,( several friends that fish either the PWT or FLW ran there 15's at this). See if that works first then answer back.

[Jeff S]

harpoon...I know nothing about surface clarity. I'll read the manual and look into it.

onemagnum...I loose everything when I adjust the sensitivity down that far.

Chuck...How dumd am I? I'll connect it to my bow transducer and see if that makes a difference.

I'll update when I know more.

Thanks,

[LMITOUT]

I was told a while back to crank up the sensitivity and gray scale all the way. I figured it would just make my screen a cluttered mess but I was wrong. I'm now seeing a lot more fish on my screen that I never would have graphed previously. There is more clutter, but you just have to pick out the arches. I backed the settings down a little though for the smaller, shallower lakes I fish to around 87-90%. X-15, BTW.

That being said, the sens/gray scale settings aren't whats causing the problem that was mentioned I don't believe. The surface clarity setting may be on high or possibly the transducer is bad. The transducer is close to parallel to the ground and not shooting back is it?

[Jeff S]

I've played around with all of the above possibilities. The one that seemed to work was trying the unit on another transducer. The minute I turned on the unit after connecting it to my bow transducer I knew the problem was solved. I have installed a new transducer and will try it out friday on Mille Lacs. I'll let you know how it works out.

Thanks for the help.

[LMITOUT]

Good to hear. Having another unit that is compatable is a time saver when troubleshooting. I had the same thing happen on an X-65. Plugged in my X-85 and I knew right away the transducer was bad and not the graph. Takes a lot of the guessing/trial and error out of the equation.