Lowrance FF Issue

[MO_CPA]

Hey group

I come to you with an area that I know little about. My Tracker came with a small Lowrance FF at the helm...you know one of those that costs like $100 or less new? Anyhow, I put a nice one at the bow by my trolly motor. I do find the small one useful for telling me depth when I am up on plane, trolling, or in unfamilar territory.

Well I have been having trouble with the little bugger (the cheap one). Whenever I am using it and have it on the "auto adjust" for depth the thing goes crazy...constantly resetting its depth range and not showing anything useful. Now, if I know I will be fishing in <20 foot of water and set it manually for this, it will do just fine (read fish and display correctly). However, this doesn't work whenever I am trolling or etc.

I hope I have explained myself good enough. Maybe someone that knows more than I do would will pick up on my ramblings and be able to help me. I can try to take a video the next time I am out so you can see what it is doing.

Any suggestions.

John

[MO_CPA]

I guess what I was trying to say is that the FF won't auto track the bottom of the lake properly when it is on auto depth range. It just pops back and forth and seems to adjust bottom range every 5 seconds or so....rendering it useless.

[kennethdaysale]

Does it do this all the time and every time? I had a low end Lowrance unit once that did what yours is doing but only when the battery was less than 90%.

You're probably going to have to manually set it for the deepest depth you're likely to encounter...............or replace it.

[MO_CPA]

KDS, it's hooked to one of my boat batteries so I'm not sure about the charge level. I will keep that in mind though.

Was thinking about putting one of the Garmin color units there if I had to. Would rather get this one to work, though.

[lilmule]

If hooked to the troller battery or one of every time you turn it on or off the troller will make it blink, reset or even turn it off,needs to be on start battery.And many of the cheaper units any brand dont auto select well if deeper than what is selected.I keep mine on 60.It may downsize the screen at times when shallow also may not,but bottom is viewed always.Unless deeper than 60,mine wont auto up,just down.
Yours may even have a select auto setting.Mine will do it automatic if less depth than selected.
Should you decide on a new unit and still want cheap,stick with same brand running same frequency,with same plug ends can reuse old transducer.

[Todd Driscoll]

Originally Posted by MO_CPA

Hey group

I come to you with an area that I know little about. My Tracker came with a small Lowrance FF at the helm...you know one of those that costs like $100 or less new? Anyhow, I put a nice one at the bow by my trolly motor. I do find the small one useful for telling me depth when I am up on plane, trolling, or in unfamilar territory.

Well I have been having trouble with the little bugger (the cheap one). Whenever I am using it and have it on the "auto adjust" for depth the thing goes crazy...constantly resetting its depth range and not showing anything useful. Now, if I know I will be fishing in <20 foot of water and set it manually for this, it will do just fine (read fish and display correctly). However, this doesn't work whenever I am trolling or etc.

I hope I have explained myself good enough. Maybe someone that knows more than I do would will pick up on my ramblings and be able to help me. I can try to take a video the next time I am out so you can see what it is doing.

Any suggestions.

John

What model unit is it? Auto depth problem could be related to a faulty ducer. A setting or two could also be at play, but I need the unit model to provide further info.

[MO_CPA]

Lowrance x50ds serial 103726795

[MO_CPA]

Transducer is on transom.

[Todd Driscoll]

Given the ducer is on the transom, and the fact that it appears to be working well using manual depth, I suspect it may be losing bottom in Auto due to turbulence from the hull. With fiberglass boats, I always recommend a shoot-thru-hull install. You will lose a small amount of ducer power shooting thru, but even the X50 has plenty enough sonar power to automatically adjust for this loss. If your boat is aluminum, slight adjustments to the transom mounting location may be needed to resolve performance in Auto Depth mode.


Occasionally, a unit reset will resolve issues like this. First, turn off the unit. Next, press and hold

↓ and the MENU DOWN key at the same time, then press the PWR key. Release the keys as the unit
powers up. The unit will turn on with the original factory settings restored.

[MO_CPA]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will take your suggestions and see what I come up with. If the problem continues, I will take some pics or a vid and maybe that will help.

Thank you!

[MO_CPA]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

Does it do this all the time and every time? I had a low end Lowrance unit once that did what yours is doing but only when the battery was less than 90%.

You're probably going to have to manually set it for the deepest depth you're likely to encounter...............or replace it.

Sorry for brining up a dinosaur thread but I think I have more to add to this one. When I had the boat out this weekend the unit worked 100% great for the first morning. By mid-day it was back to it's old tricks.

I'm thinking there is some merit to what KDS is saying. The question now is WHY?

[lilmule]

Its cheap chuck it you got some use out of it,buy sob(some other brand).
Variety of causes ducer losing bottom for a blink of an eye,alum boat,ducer itself,unit itself,voltage to the unit one on a trollng motor battery will get robbed of its power when one turns it on ,screen will actually blink out for about 1 second,when used about 1/2 a day.
Another cheap one can take its place with little loss.If you really like the unit buy another just like it and hook to mounted ducer,if does same problem isnt in the unit.

[MO_CPA]

Originally Posted by lilmule

Its cheap chuck it you got some use out of it,buy sob(some other brand).
Variety of causes ducer losing bottom for a blink of an eye,alum boat,ducer itself,unit itself,voltage to the unit one on a trollng motor battery will get robbed of its power when one turns it on ,screen will actually blink out for about 1 second,when used about 1/2 a day.
Another cheap one can take its place with little loss.If you really like the unit buy another just like it and hook to mounted ducer,if does same problem isnt in the unit.

I wasn't wanting it to come to that but it might have to. I would like to keep Lowrance because that is what I have up front. May upgrade...but it would be nice to know if it was the unit or transducer before i did.

[lilmule]

If you really like the unit buy another just like it and hook to mounted ducer,if does same problem isnt in the unit.
You will either double your pleasure,double your fun or have double trouble.

[Captmikestarrett]

I found this link very helpful. http://support.lowrance.com/system/s...RTICLE_ID=2967

But from your description it is most likely low power.

Capt Mike

[MO_CPA]

Thanks Capt. I just sent you a PM.

[Captmikestarrett]

Article ID: 2967
Sonar Tutorial
In the knowledge base..
lowrance.com
then support / then knowledge base..

Odd it made me logon too from my link...

Capt Mike

[lilmule]

If its being robbed of power simply move where being fed from to a better supply or source.It should have somewhere voltage input.

[MO_CPA]

That's what I am going to do. I'm not sure which battery it is on but I will try to move to other. I don't have a ton of electronics onboard so I am confused.

I have 2 12V batteries - 1 cranker and 1 TM battery.
I have 2 Lowrance units - 1 on bow and 1 at helm.
Motor and dash run to batteries (obviously)
1 Onboard charger.

Going to run trial and error. never hurt!

[lilmule]

Cranking battery,with 24 v not as apt to do it,hooked to one 12v but still can halfway or near end of day,mine did it and was saying 11v,Diagnostics screen 12.2 to 12.4 earlier and still low a 12v battery is about 13 v.
Hooked to a single 12v trolling battery would surely rob it,unhook the start battery total and see if they still work,if not then its not that.Or the reverse unhook troller.
With two batteries shouldnt be hard to find the one it is on.