Operate fish finder without transducer?

I just picked up a Lowrance Elite 5x-HDI.  I've got the transducer mounted in my Hobie.  I won't get it on the water until the weekend, but I'd like to learn my way around the menus and such.  I'd rather not sit outside in my kayak in the dark.  Is it ok to turn it on without the transducer plugged in?  If I turn it on and quickly setup the simulator mode, I'm assuming that disables the transducer output.  I just don't want to blow it up the moment I power it up.

You can turn it on and set it up.only thing while its on you wont get any depth readings. And im not 100% but the simulator mode is just that.what you do while its on simulator its not gonna change anything else.ask fishingforthecure he's the lowrance guy I think

Lowrance used to have a simulator that you downloaded on a computer. I'm not sure if they still do. I would hope they still have that it was nice. You downloaded your specific model and you could click the buttons with your mouse and go through all pages and settings.

Here try this
http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Support/Product-Emulators/

Put it in demo mode and start going through the features listed in the book. This will help you understand what each feature does and how it effects what your looking at on screen. Don't worry, when your in demo mode no settings are effected. If you do decide to use the ff outside of demo and feel you messed up, just restore defaults and your good. Between me and Bill you have a great support team. Congrats on the new ff!

Mike

Ditto what wingshooter said. You wont hurt anything playing around with the demo mode (and not having the transducer hooked up) and its a great way to play with the settings and get a feel for navigation and panes. When I got my Elite 4, I literally fell asleep in bed playing with the demo mode the first night I had it.

Waking up in bed in the middle of the night with a running fish finder in your arms ... there's a "come to Jesus" moment if I've ever heard of one ! 

Thanks. I used it in both demo mode and simulator modes.  It looks pretty simple.

Yeah ... what they said 

   The 'Restore Defaults' will be your best friend in the beginning. 

Played with it more last night.  This is pretty cool!  It's my first fish finder.
The fish ID feature is pretty neat, but how accurate is that?

Is there any document or video to learn how to interpret the sonar?  I looked on the web page, but most of the information there seem mostly to show features of the unit itself. 

I stay away from the fish ID feature. I've found it to be very "liberal" with what it considers to be a fish.

That's what I suspected.

Avoid fish ID ... all that does is apply a fish "symbol" to anything it picks up on the sonar, such as your lure/weight.  Not really a true "video" to interpret what you are seeing.  That just comes with experience.  Small arches are generally fish, larger blobs are generally bait balls/schools, stuff protruding from the bottom is generally weeds/structure ... the rest is practice.

Check this link for some helpful videos...  I use these in my training seminars.

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Support/Video-Library/

Thanks

Another reason why I'm glad Lowrance ditched the uni-plug (that had transducer and power integrated). Much easier to find a spare power cable to play with the FF in the garage instead of sitting on my kayak in the backyard in middle of the night. 

Another reason why I'm glad Lowrance ditched the uni-plug (that had transducer and power integrated). Much easier to find a spare power cable to play with the FF in the garage instead of sitting on my kayak in the backyard in middle of the night.

Looks like it will stay this way too ...  With the exception of the 2015 Elite 3x & DSI unit which went back to the Uni plug.  I presume due to leftover stock of the transducers with uni plug but that is strictly a wild guess ... seriously wild.