Lowrance Elite 5 HDI random shutdown?

So lately "last few trips" I've noticed my FF randomly shutting down. At first I though it was power related until this last trip. I run a 20ah lithium battery and should be able to run this unit for hours (also happened with a lead battery 12ah).

This last trip I didn't even get an hour out of it before it just shutdown every time I powered it on it would show the lowrance boot up screen and shut off. I immediately assumed my battery was dead. When I got home I pulled the multimeter out and checked the battery and still was at 12.8v

So of course I checked all electrical connectors and wire and all gave the same output.

I have the 83/200 transducer.

I should mention I never upgraded its software been using it out of the box.




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look in the gearing up and rigging section, there are several threads on FF issues like this

You have a bad connection either between battery and cable or cable and head unit.

Are the plugs corroded at all? Did you use dielectric grease on all the connections?


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Yup, I've taken all the necessary steps to ensure a solid connection is made. No corrosion and I definitely use dielectric grease. I'm going to try upgrading the firmware and see where that gets me

Huh. I had the same symptoms and it was due to a bad connection (even though all the connections looked good and I'd used dielectric grease). The new firmware can't hurt, but I still suspect a connection issue.

You could rule out the connection at the battery by testing voltage at the far end of the cable.


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Playing hooky today to do some work on the yak so I'll definitely take a peek at it.

Interesting strategy. I always try to save my "hooky" days for actually going fishing!


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You have a bad connection either between battery and cable or cable and head unit.

Are the plugs corroded at all? Did you use dielectric grease on all the connections?


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Yup, sounds like this might be the issue. I actually had this issue recently, corrosion got into one of the shrink tubes.
While the unit is plugged in and on move the wiring and connection points around and see if it shuts off.
This is a very common issue especially if your boat is in the salt.

Send me a PM and I'll do what I can to help you out.

Mike

In addition or lieu of shrink tube, you can always apply liquid electric tape to make sure no moisture or water will penetrate. I think I had issues when I put too much dielectric grease one time so I use those sparingly nowadays.

Partial hooky day, had to do some work remotely so I was bound to my home-office. Anyways I think I may have found the culprit. I checked everything but the in-line fuse and sure enough there was some corrosion there - instead of cleaning it out I just installed a whole new one. In addition to that I removed the 10ft of extra power since I was no longer using the rear tank well for my battery and upgraded the firmware. Plugged in the battery and powered right up, now to get it on the water and test it.

Thanks again for all your help

Right on. Glad you got it fixed.

For what it's worth, I don't use a fuse for the FF on my kayak. I never have and I never will. In the last ~12 years, I've never fried a fish finder. Adding a "waterproof" inline fuse and two extra cable splices would have likely lead to a LOT more frustration during those same ~12 years.

If my FF were connected to a more complex electrical system (multiple competing loads, on board charging systems, etc) I would add a fuse. For a simple system composed of one small battery and one small load, I think the potential for bad wiring frustration outweighs the potential benefits of the fuse.

Just my $0.02...




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Fuses really aren't designed to protect electrical devices from surges anyway. They're mostly designed as a safety measure to prevent electrical fires (VERY minimal risk with our little 12V batteries.

Has anyone out there ever heard of a fish finder fuse blowing on a kayak? I wonder if our little batteries even have enough juice to blow a 3-amp fuse?


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Fuses really aren't designed to protect electrical devices from surges anyway. They're mostly designed as a safety measure to prevent electrical fires (VERY minimal risk with our little 12V batteries.

Has anyone out there ever heard of a fish finder fuse blowing on a kayak? I wonder if our little batteries even have enough juice to blow a 3-amp fuse?


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Yes, our batteries could blow a fuse.  No, I've never heard or seen a kayaker blow a fuse.  I've never blown a fuse on my boat for that matter.  Yup, there to protect the wire from a fire.

I would think the fuse would be good if there was a dead short. Damage to the wires allowing the hot and the ground to touch would blow the fuse instead of heating the wires. I doubt it protects the FF. If the short occurred in the FF it would likely already be fried and the fuse would not help.

For what it's worth I had the same issue leading me to the fuse holder spring loosing tension. I swapped it out with a blade style maxi fuse


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