When all else fails...

Mine seems to have settled down a bit. It acts up worse when the voltage is low. So I keep it over 12v.  I've found that if it is flashing, I can put it in standby for a minute then turn it back on and it's ok again. Worked good yesterday. Flashed a few times but standby and back on would fix it.  Got it showing fish by using my anchor as a "fish" and adjusting things until i started seeing it on both chirp and downscan. I'm still hearing ticking though.

The ticking is the transducer sound wave .... or is it?!?!?! 

Ha!

Hearing check complete.... bat status level.....😆

Well I don't know what else to do at this point. I was fishing in 120ft of water and it was reading 10. I sure am disappointed. It seems that it works better if I keep it on the auto depth setting. I did a reset and it came back to normal for a while.

It didn't even make it the rest of the day before it fouled up again. I wonder if Lowrance will make this right.

The flashing depth is an indicator that it lost signal with the bottom for a variety of reasons; ping speed, excessive boat speed (haha on a kayak), improper installation, gremlins, etc...  If issues persist, by all means reach out to the Lowrance Customer Service & they will promptly replace units under warranty.  Still have any issues, feel free to reach out to me anytime!  I'll do what I can do from my end to get things resolved.

At this point is there anything you can do at your end to get this resolved? Any suggestions on who to call or what to tell them? Thanks.

The flashing depth is an indicator that it lost signal with the bottom for a variety of reasons; ping speed, excessive boat speed (haha on a kayak), improper installation, gremlins, etc...  If issues persist, by all means reach out to the Lowrance Customer Service & they will promptly replace units under warranty.  Still have any issues, feel free to reach out to me anytime!  I'll do what I can do from my end to get things resolved.

At this point is there anything you can do at your end to get this resolved? Any suggestions on who to call or what to tell them? Thanks.

I replied to your PM & now you take it to an open forum ... interesting.

As I said in the PM, your incident is beyond what I've managed to experience.  I'd highly suggest you contact the Lowrance tech support line for assistance.  Sometimes these issues are above a Pro Staff members service abilities.  Their toll free number is on their web site.

What do you tell them?  Tell them what it is doing, when it's doing it, in what depths, at what speeds, on what type of boat (or a kayak) and most importantly what you have done so far to attempt a remedy to the situation.  They may want to replace or ???? Id make the call as suggested a while back.

The flashing depth is an indicator that it lost signal with the bottom for a variety of reasons; ping speed, excessive boat speed (haha on a kayak), improper installation, gremlins, etc...  If issues persist, by all means reach out to the Lowrance Customer Service & they will promptly replace units under warranty.  Still have any issues, feel free to reach out to me anytime!  I'll do what I can do from my end to get things resolved.

At this point is there anything you can do at your end to get this resolved? Any suggestions on who to call or what to tell them? Thanks.

I replied to your PM & now you take it to an open forum ... interesting.

As I said in the PM, your incident is beyond what I've managed to experience.  I'd highly suggest you contact the Lowrance tech support line for assistance.  Sometimes these issues are above a Pro Staff members service abilities.  Their toll free number is on their web site.

What do you tell them?  Tell them what it is doing, when it's doing it, in what depths, at what speeds, on what type of boat (or a kayak) and most importantly what you have done so far to attempt a remedy to the situation.  They may want to replace or ???? Id make the call as suggested a while back.

My apologies. I thought you had offered and forgotten. I guess I was under the impression that you were already in contact with them about this issue in general. If so, I didn't want to start from scratch if someone was already involved. I did not realize you were only responding based on what you had experienced.

The flashing depth is an indicator that it lost signal with the bottom for a variety of reasons; ping speed, excessive boat speed (haha on a kayak), improper installation, gremlins, etc...  If issues persist, by all means reach out to the Lowrance Customer Service & they will promptly replace units under warranty.  Still have any issues, feel free to reach out to me anytime!  I'll do what I can do from my end to get things resolved.

At this point is there anything you can do at your end to get this resolved? Any suggestions on who to call or what to tell them? Thanks.

I replied to your PM & now you take it to an open forum ... interesting.

As I said in the PM, your incident is beyond what I've managed to experience.  I'd highly suggest you contact the Lowrance tech support line for assistance.  Sometimes these issues are above a Pro Staff members service abilities.  Their toll free number is on their web site.

What do you tell them?  Tell them what it is doing, when it's doing it, in what depths, at what speeds, on what type of boat (or a kayak) and most importantly what you have done so far to attempt a remedy to the situation.  They may want to replace or ???? Id make the call as suggested a while back.

My apologies. I thought you had offered and forgotten. I guess I was under the impression that you were already in contact with them about this issue in general. If so, I didn't want to start from scratch if someone was already involved. I did not realize you were only responding based on what you had experienced.

It's a mix of experience AND calls (myself) to reps and tech support guys.  Thus far, based on those I've personally worked with, the hard reset followed by a software update has solved the issue you are mentioning.  This assumes it isn't related to a bad transducer install, bad wiring or bad battery - all issues I cannot fix from afar.  So that you don't run out of your 1-year warranty period, I'd get it in front of a tech support person at Lowrance.  This will get a help ticket generated and get you "in the system".  I wish I could resolve all issues and I do attempt to do what I can do.  Sometimes I fall short of making everything all right.

I was preparing to do an update in my E-7 chirp and ran into questions....I have an existing 16 card in it with a mapping software for offshore. Do I use this same card to download the update from the web? Should i use a different card? Will the update load into the units hard drive or does the card have to stay in the unit for it operate?

Don't use that map card.  It could become corrupted.  Use a blank card.  File is really small in size.  Power off.  Remove map card.  Insert 'update' card.  Power up.  Follow prompts.  It will tell you to remove card after upload.  Once you remove card, it will power off on its own.  Power back up.  After it powers up, you can go to System > About & see if the latest update loaded.  You can turn unit off & then insert your map card & back to fishing.

Hope this helps.

Bill

thats what i needed, thx

did the hard reset, did the latest update, set the Volt and time on display....went smooth. Now just need to get out n try it.

I ended up sending it in for warranty service. I got nice emails updating me on the status. Then I got a repeat email stating it was with a service tech. The next thing was a package at my door. They had returned it to me with no notice or explanation. I responded to the email chain we had going to ask what the outcome was. They never replied to explain what if anything was done to my unit. I used it again last weekend. I left it setup as it was when they returned it. I didn't put in a map card. When I turned it on it was set at the depth level of 5 feet. It was reading a couple feet deep as I paddled out. After a bit I started to expect I was in deeper water than it said. I changed the setting to auto with no improvement. Then I changed it to 100 feet and it started to read the bottom, which was around 20 feet at the time. It doesn't seem to me that it is fixed based on that. I used it the rest of the day and it acted normally. The depth reading didn't flash. That has always been intermittent so I'll have to wait and see if it happens again.

If the lake is 150ft deep and I am targeting fish at 40-50ft down I want to set it at 60ft so the area I am working fills the screen. Otherwise if it is set at 150ft, the zone I am fishing is much smaller on the display. Anyone else notice a problem if the depth is set to a number shallower than the bottom?

Ken,

PM me your phone number and I'll call you. Make sure you have your instruction booklet handy cause I'm gong to go through it with you on demo mode.

Mike

PM sent.

I took it out around Liberty Island yesterday and tested it some. I still get the flashing number. Am I the only one with this problem or am I the only one that uses my FF this way? If the lake is 150ft deep and the trout are 30ft deep I set it so the display only shows the top 40ft of the water column. That way everything displayed is larger and easier to see. For some reason my FF doesn't like that. If the water is deeper than the setting I've chosen it acts up. I guess the warranty tech was unable to figure it out so they just sent it back to me. It would have been nice if they had explained what they were doing.

I have a very similar situation.  I have an Elite 4 DSI, about 3 years old.  The transducer is mounted in my Hobie in the transducer well.  It has always worked great--until last week.  I was at Klamath the week before and had no problems; depth, bottom structure, fish, GPS, Steer and Chart, water temp and speed all worked perfectly. 

Labor Day Weekend weekend I went to New Melones.  Depth, temp, and bottom structure went haywire.  I had a flashing 60 for depth, no bottom structure, and water temp of 122.  I tried restarting the unit, adjusting different settings, different colors, and different depth ranges.  The best output I could produce was a flashing depth with no bottom structure, tree structure or fish. Water temp stayed at 122. Lowrance Customer Support was not available on the holiday weekend and  there is no trouble shooting section in the manual.

I called Lowrance Customer Service Department when I got home.  I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with a very helpful tech.  I have the latest software and we did soft re-sets and hard re-sets.  I checked battery voltage, 12.6.  I checked wiring and battery connections.  I even put my Kayak in the swimming pool with similar results.  Water temp did work accurately.

Yesterday I recharged the battery, re-checked all connections, and removed and checked the transducer.  I then took the kayak to Shadow Cliffs and parked in a nice shady spot in about 6 feet of water.   I could see the vegetation on the bottom and lots of fingerling fish, plus a curious bass that had to be four pounds.  I turned on the Lowrance and it confirmed that I was in 6.0 feet of water, but with no bottom structure..  That reading lasted about two minutes; then I got my blank screen with a flashing 60.  I called Lowrance.  We went through the resets again, each time getting a different result, but no correct depth or bottom structure.  The Simulator and water temp did work.

I asked the customer service rep what options were available to me.  I was told that I could send the unit in and have it bench checked.  If the unit was found to be faulty, I could get a replacement, or upgrade to a new and improved model for a reasonable charge.  If the unit bench-checked OK, it would be sent back to me and I would be charged $65. If the problems re-occured, I would have to send the unit back again, for another $65.  The service rep also told me that I should find someone who has the same unit and test my unit, using the transducer on the other unit.  I asked if I could send my transducer in to be checked.  The answer was "NO," they do not check transducers, even though they sell them with the units, and they may be the source of the problem. 

I asked if could just trade my unit in on a new unit rather than pay $65, plus shipping, for a good chance of still having a non-working piece of equipment.  The answer again was "NO."

It appears that Lowrance does not warranty or bench test their transducers,  they do not warranty against an intermittent problem that doesn't show up in a bench test, and they really don't care what customers think about their service policy. 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Doug