X-75 problems

[Scoot]

I've got two Lowrance X-75's in my boat. I don't have any problem reading the bottom with them. The bottom shows up great on the bottom of the graph, but the number in the upper-left hand corner indicating depth doesn't want to lock on. Even while the bottom is showing up great, the depth number either blinks or shows some ridiculous number like "689" when I'm in 24 feet of water. This happens to both graphs and when I have only one of them on or two. Also, it happens for the one I have mounted on transom of the boat and the one that has the transducer on the trolling motor. Any ideas?
Scoot

[Guest]

I had the same problem with Lms 350A, called Lowrance and was told to try a new transducer before sending unit in. The tech was 90% sure that was the problem, he told me if that wasn't it that they would take the cost of the transducer off of the repair. That's what it was and I didn't have to send it in. You have to be careful about running your boat up on shore as the sand will scratch your transducer, thus affecting it's performance.

[Guest]

I had the same problem with my X-75. The reason for my issues was that I had 2 transducers that were interferencing with one another, so I did what you did (one on trolling motor and one on transom) and problem went away.

I also had a transducer that failed after one season on the water. They do fail!!

Here's a way I could tell if a transducer was bad....with the boat out of the water, of course, I put my ear up to the ducer and listened for the sonar vibes. I listened to the one that was working properly and the other that did not. The ducer that did not work did not have much vibe to it, and wasn't sending out the proper signals. The one that worked properly would give out distinctive "click" sounds, and a pattern to the sound.
I don't know if that helps you, but it sure helped me without sending the unit in for unnecessary repairs!

[Scoot]

I would seem unlikely that both transducers would have gone bad at once (actually it's three transducers because I have three mounts on the boat so I can move the two graphs around depending on how I'm fishing). However, it also seems unlikely that both graphs went bad in the same way at the same time. I'm not sure what to check or do about it.
Thanks for the suggestions guys, they're good ones.
Scoot

[Guest]

Geez, what are the chances that both graphs are having the same problems, and with 3 different transducers? Wow!

The only thing I can think of now is that you have a wiring problem....interference somewhere. If you have all the power cables intertwined to the battery, then that is where I think your problem is. There are several sources of interference....trying to find the source can be the tough part.

If you have a 12V battery that is not connected to anything then take it on the water with you on your next outing and just quick hook the wires up to a battery with nothing connected to it and give it a shot. You can always re-splice the power wires.

Also try turning off the "auto" mode on the unit and run it on manual. Also try adjusting the SCC level, grayline, sensitivity, etc... See what happens from there. Good luck!

[Guest]

Yep, I'm willing to bet that it is an interference problem. The goofiest things can really screw electronics up (i.e. I've seen: marine VHF radio interferes with GPS, AM/FM radio interferes with graphs, bilge pump messes with AM/FM radio).

I have also had interference with my transom trolling motor giving off sounds to my X-75 ducer on my transom, maybe an issue for you? The strangest things can happen, and I'm sure there are a lot more out there....

[Scoot]

So... my question for you is this- If I want to keep all of my other little bells and whistles going, do I need to get a seperate battery for just the graphs (assuming the problem is related to interference at the battery)? If yes, can I run the alternater to both my starter battery and the graph battery? Or, would I be better off simply hooking up my graph-only-battery to the onboard charger (this would seem like a bad idea because it would then be connected indirectly to all of the other gadgets that may be causing the problem in the first place). What do you think?
Scott

[Guest]

It's either interference or a undercharged battery.

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[Scoot]

I've given the manual setting a shot and that didn't help. I've also tried the other settings with no luck either.
I believe I'll give your other suggestion a shot. A clean battery with nothing else on it. Can I get interference in my graphs from running too many things off of one battery? If yes, I'm probably guilty of it- I have too many gadgets going at once.
Thanks for the ideas and feedback.
Scoot

[Guest]

Scoot, I have the same boat you have, but I have not had the problems like your graphs have.
You should have a large battery compartment for your deep cycle batteries in front, behind the main livewell. You can simply run your graph's power wires to your deep cycle battery(s) if you are having interference. Before you "fish" all the wires to your deep cycle compartment, try to use an independent battery first, so you don't waste a heck of a lot time and effort if this method doesn't work
Right now all of your power is coming from the starting battery, unless you modified it. See if that helps.

[Scoot]

Makes good sense to me. I'll give it a shot and see what I come up with.
Thanks again,
Scoot

[Valv]

Scoot, another way to test with batteries is to use a small gel cell (Vexilar or Aquaview style), they are easy to move around and don't take much weight, when you found out if that's the problem, you can start switching battery hookups.

[SuddenlySummer]

Gell cell all the way. They're cheap and will work all day long. When I bought my FL-18 for ice fishing, it came with a 110 to 12 volt transformer/charger that had a red LED light for indicating the charge of the gell cell. The brighter the red the fuller the charge.
I took one of my x-85's to Kenora this summer and ran the finder 10+ hours a day from a gell cell.