Lowrance chart plotter troubles

[lynall]

Sorry if i have posted in the wrong section.
Lowrance came with the boat, didnt have a clue how to use it as it seems to do almost everything, anyways now ive got some idea it turns out the sd card may be duff, the gps shows the route i am taking as a pink line but there are not depths/contours etc.
Bit of googling and it appears the card may be dead, so card out and into the computer and all the files appear to be there, i didnt go any further for fear of killing the card.
I dont want to buy a new card if there is nothing wrong with this one.
Card details:-
Navionics
Littlehampton-Walton
Gold/s msd
MSD/5G563S2
Any ideas much appreciated?



Lynall

 

[Playtime]

Is it one of these? It's difficult to read the model number in the photo.

 

[BGW]

Sorry if i have posted in the wrong section.
Lowrance came with the boat, didnt have a clue how to use it as it seems to do almost everything, anyways now ive got some idea it turns out the sd card may be duff, the gps shows the route i am taking as a pink line but there are not depths/contours etc.
Bit of googling and it appears the card may be dead, so card out and into the computer and all the files appear to be there, i didnt go any further for fear of killing the card.
I dont want to buy a new card if there is nothing wrong with this one.
Card details:-
Navionics
Littlehampton-Walton
Gold/s msd
MSD/5G563S2
Any ideas much appreciated?
Lynall

Have you gone through the menu settings and selected the correct chart? - Don't have my manual to hand for the exact menu sequence.

 

[FWB]

Agree with BGW. Looks as if you have not selected the Navionics chart, or you are zoomed out too much.
Assuming you get no proper chart when zoomed in, then...
Press menu twice.
Select chart enter.
Highlight chart data enter.
Select Navionics enter.

 

[ghostlymoron]

If it's a standard Navionics card, you could try it in someone elses plotter. Eagle, Furuno, Humminbird and Raymarine should accept it.
Or you could download and read the manual for your unit.

 

[lynall]

Thanks all i will have another play, the manual is a good hundred pages of A4!
Playtime, yes thats the one a 3500c, apologies for not saying in the first place.
But the double tap trick sounds excellent, i really hope thats all it is.


Lynall

 

[pvb]

Thanks all i will have another play, the manual is a good hundred pages of A4!

If you don't read the manual, how can you expect to know how to use the plotter, let alone get the best out of it?

 

[lynall]

If you don't read the manual, how can you expect to know how to use the plotter, let alone get the best out of it?

Ah but i have read it many many times, thats why i was convinced the card was dead as everything else seemed to do as the manual said, ie signal strength, number of satellites etc i even reset it, or at least i think i did!, i dont think i have come across such a complicated to get my head around manual.
I think there seems to be more than one or two ways to do everything and anything with shortcuts everywhere.
If i can get the card to work i reckon i will on my way.



Lynall

 

[lynall]

Right couldnt wait so went down the boat
Tried the double click trick no go
Press menu once brings up one screen and again another screen neither says select chart, but i did find mmc details



Lynall

 

[charles_reed]

It depends on which GPS receiver you have as to where the chart-selection menu occurs on the 3500C.

So assuming the latest.

Press Menu key x2 to get the 2nd screen.

Select Earth Map Detail.

Mark the details you want on screen.

Choose the Navionics Map Choice

Choose the Presentation Mode (International)

Choose the safety contour.

If it's the old type receiver you start with the same sub-menu but have to choose from a series of alphadigital maps. If you have a single area in there only that will come up.
If you have multiple areas it's much more difficult as there appears to be no intuitive nomenclature for the maps and you have to plough through the lot.

 

[lynall]

Thanks Charles will give it another try next weekend.


Lynall

 

[martinaskey]

Lowrance 3500c problem

Lynall

I had a similar problem at the start of this year.
After weeks of trying all sorts of approaches (including reading the extensive but not particularly helpful manual ) I went to the Lowrance website and loaded their software upgrade. http://www.lowrance.com/en-GB/Software-Updates/

I didn't hold out much hope - the problem had just appeared at the start of the season and the symptoms seemed more like a card / card reader fault (ie lack of zoomed charts). But the software re-install did the trick.

You need a very small capacity card (256Mb I think) as the unit won't read a 1Gb + card. Computer shops will laugh if you ask for one but you can still get them online for a few quid.

Hope it works.

Martin

 

[FWB]

That is a good point about the software update.
I have an old dead 3500c here with the manual, did not realise you had this model.
Try this..
From the map page press menu.
Scroll to map data..enter.
You should see Navionics options choose Navionics instead of Lowrance.

The software update procedure is not quite as explained by Lowrance.
Download the update to the computer, then extract to the new blank card.

 

[Playtime]

. . . . but i did find mmc details

Lynall

I'm not familiar with Navionics charts or file structures but I would be suspicious that only 17MB of the 1GB card appears to be in use (see your second photo).

Maybe someone who has a similar set-up can comment?

As suggested earlier in the thread a good test would be to try the card in another chartplotter that uses Navionics.

 

[Zagato]

But the double tap trick sounds excellent, i really hope thats all it is.
Lynall

If that doesn't work bolt it to the dash of your SeriesII Lynall, that will kill or cure it small world eh!

 

[lynall]

Martin i didnt realise you could do a software update, another job sigh!

Playtime, i did notice that but also thought theres not really much info in a chart say compared to a car type sat nav.
Just looked on my iphone tom tom uk and west europe 1.8b total
Navionics uk and holland 25.9mb
Not sure if thats a like for like comparison?

Zagato hi to you to the s2 still running well was only laning in it last weekend, got to replace the vent flap as my fingers are bloody freezing!



Lynall

 

[martinaskey]

Lynall

I was surprised when the software upgrade worked for me.
It seemed unlikely as the plotter had been perfectly happy before that.
Suspect it just got a bit confused as old age crept up on it - I know the feeling.
A revitalising dose of new bits and bytes did the job - if only we could do that for humans.

Dylan is right, the Lowrance instructions don't tell the whole story. Best to download software upgrade to your PC then copy to the card. Once you've done that you just insert the card and fire up the plotter - the rest is pretty much automatic.

Re: chart data volumes, one of my pre-software change attempts to fix this was to copy the Navionics files to PC and to another card. It didn't work - suspect Navionics have some security in there. But there seemed to be 154Mb of maps for the whole of UK.

Martin

 

[tony_lavelle]

Lawrance plotter - blank chart

Mine does this sometimes (actually quite often) too. Solution is to unscrew the chart flap, take out the SD card and clean the contacts with a bit of WD40, then replace. Wiggling the card slightly can help too.

The simplest solution is usually the best one. (to paraphrase Occam).

 

[lynall]

Sorted thanks to all the excellent replies
It was the reply from Charles that clicked it for me, printed out his reply down the boat driving myself nuts with the constant beep of button pushing
When i finally saw a page with the word lowrance in a little box, click the box and hey presto up pops navionics, click and enter bingo.
I updated it as well but made no difference, the update software is dated 2007 and the machine appears to be 2003 so its pretty old.
So thank you all again.

Lynall