Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch Screen

[Grand_Marlin]

G'day Guys,

Maybe Honda could use his IT skills to re-write the logarythms for the Navico Engineers?
Seeing as he has identified exactly what the issue is, it would be great to see him being a solution to his own problem.

I didn't originally fit Honda's HDS but I have looked at his boat (555 Yalta), checked the wiring, reset the transducer positions, water tested it, tried my own HDS 5 on it... all with the same result Honda is getting.
I did improve it, but it still wasn't perfect.

Note: My HDS 5 does not show the same issues when it is on my boat.
I have also fitted HDS units to two other 555 Yalta's and had perfect images on both.

Whilst I could not get Honda's HDS perfect, it was far from a basket case...
It appeared to me to be getting some sort of electrical interference in it, but I cannot verify that this was the case.

Honda is happy with his Furuno 585, as are many others.
I have fitted many Furuno 585's, all with perfect readings.
I have also fitted 20 times more HDS units all with perfect readings.

Ultimately, buy the unit that suits you best.

If you are concerned by Honda's comments, take a look at the Simrad NSS.
It uses the same sounder module but the screen display is completely different to the HDS.

Cheers

Pete

[Moonlighter]

Hi Pete

I have HDS 5 gen 1 and I don't get the same problem that HOnda gets either. Have looked closely at his images and checked mine carefully on a number of occasions, nothing that I can see on my screen like that. I have also helped probably a dozen mates fit HDS units to their boats and nothing like that has been reported by any of them.

I think you have also made a good point about sales volumes. I saw a report on Ausfish's USA sister site THT by a respected electronics sponsor who sells all brands and his comment, that was acknowledged by several others, was that Lowrance "owns" a far greater share of the market than any other single brand, possibly by a factor of at least 5. And that is only the specific Lowrance brand, not counting Simrad and Navico's other brands.

Sheer volumes mean that their fault rate translates into more numbers for Lowrance than the others combined. But according to their dealers, the Lowrance problem rate per thousand units is no different to the other brands, and possibly better.

Maybe HOnda just got unlucky, or maybe it's something intrinsic to his boat.

I am still debating whether to upgrade one of my hds5s to HDS7 touch or Simrad NSS7.

Decisions, decisions! I don't think I will be likely to add structure scan to the HDS, nor am I into deep water fishing to the extent that I can justify a Chirp transducer for the NSS. So that kind of brings them back to general screen size, resolution and clarify, and sounder performance. the Simrad includes Navionics Silver charting already installed so that's a bit of a advantage for them.

I am starting to lean a bit towards the Simrad. Cost is a bit less too. Any further thoughts?

Thanks

ML

[honda900]

Maybe Honda could use his IT skills to re-write the logarythms for the NavicoEngineers?
Seeing as he has identified exactly what the issue is, it would be great to seehim being a solution to his own problem.

Pete, I am going to ignore these statements. I assume you got a little bit excited.



To clarify to the installation of my equipment and personally Pete has gone above and beyond to assist me in trying to sort this out.

Initially the HDS was installed and connected to a HST-WSBL transducer(transom mount), fitted by the original supplier of the boat. As Pete stated, he reviewed that installation and made some small tweaks to it.

Seeing no changes in the display, I purchased an Airmair P79 transducer and had it installed (shoot through hull), I asked Pete to install this transducer, hoping his experience would help me to fix the issues and eliminate the transducer as the source of the problem. Pete did a very professional job on the installation.

The HDS was attached to the P79 transducer and exhibited no change in the display. Pete, more than graciously came out on my boat for the day and we did some testing in this configuration. As the old transducer a hst-wsbl transommount was / is still attached to my boat we were able to switch between the transducers and make some config changes to the head unit.

The change that was made that made a difference was changing filtering to medium, thus filtering information from the units display.

With that change in place the unit performed much better in waters up to 30mtrs deep, but exhibited no change in deep water at speed. (I have no issues at slow speed in deep water).

I finally got “Jack” of the performance of the unit and had the configuration re-assessed by Trymax marine, who advised that Pete was 100%correct in his assessment of the situation and the unit / transducers and location and setup were correctly.

So right then and there I had the Furuno installed and had it attached to the P79 transducer (that Pete had installed), the transducer was completely untouched by Trymax, with the exception of the plug end.

As you can see from the video, it is obvious that the Furouo is able to use the transducer (that the HDS was attached to) and produce the image and definition that I was hoping the HDS would be able to provide.

Now, since then I have re-wired my entire boat, from back to front under the “Guidance” of an "more than sufficiently "qualifed” Sparky and nothing has changed in the performance of the HDS, nor the furuno for that matter.

Now in all of this there has been one clearly identifiable difference between my unit and the only one that I do have some confidence in working (Marty’s) and that is that he is able to wind the gain up on his to greater than 70%, mine cannot be moved past one or 2%, without the screen basically blacking out completely (yes I have video footage of this as well).

So all you guys who have no issues with your units, show me, get the video footage, in normal offshore conditions your unit working perfectly as you have said it does, make sure you switch over to the standard colour scheme while moving and record that change as well.

PS, I have identified issues on my unit that were addressed in some of the later updates, that most of you missed, such as the coming off the plane issue.

Regards

Honda.

[honda900]

These images, are from the Lowrance update 4 release notes. the improvements did not help. Note the picture in the bottom left hand corner.

Lowrance update4.jpg




Regards
Honda.

[Fed]

How does it perform stationary, engine off & all other electricals off Honda?

(I'll fully understand if you don't want to go through this game, I guess you have already posted a lot of this stuff before)

[honda900]

Fed,

works fine, engine running and moving at low speed. click on the image to Play.

REgards
HOnda.

[Fed]

To me that wasn't fine at all, scattered crap on the screen.

This is what I would do.

Firstly you need a base line, smooth water, stationary, engine & all other electricals turned off, sounder in manual @200KHz with a single screen and pick a colour scheme to stick with throughout all the testing.

You get where I'm coming from I hope, I mean you have to start somewhere.

With all other value added features turned off start turning the gain up from zero and see what you get, take a screenshot or two.

Then do the same with the engine running, even give it a rev or two.

Then do the same with the boat moving, faster & faster.

(Exactly what sounder and transducer is it, I'll try & grab a manual?)

[honda900]

Fed,

thanks for your input, you might not have caught what was written above, but that was all done with Pete (grand Marlin) on board, we spent a few hours reconfiguring the unit and testing against his HDS5. PS, the Furuno unit was not installed at that time and we were using the same transducer that is now connected to the furuno in the picture.

We got my unit at a stage where you can cross the bay on a flat calm day and it will hold the bottom at speed . The real problems start when you are moving (reasonable fast > 15kph) and in water over 35 to 40 meters.

But as you can see from the Lowrance Software update, mine is not the only unit having the issue, i have seen the same issues exhibited in posts on this site. What is interesting and most people miss in those 4 pictures is the sensitivity level configured on the top set and bottom set of pictures.

HDS8 - HST-WSTBL transducer. The scattered stuff you can see is the sensitivity at 4%, thats why the screen is so busy, so you can imagine what 70% will be like. basically blue.

Regards
HOnda.

[Fed]

I did notice the zero setting and put it down to the gain being set on auto, that's why I'm going to try & get a manual because I'm not familiar with your sounder.
I also took into account there's been a lot done to get it working better but I don't want to get side tracked from a common sense approach to finding what's wrong with it.

With all other value added features turned off start turning the gain up from zero and see what you get, take a screenshot or two.

Did you get a perfect reading and how high could you turn the gain up?

Then do the same with the engine running, even give it a rev or two.

Did you get a perfect reading and how high could you turn the gain up?

Then do the same with the boat moving, faster & faster.

Did you get a perfect reading and how high could you turn the gain up?

Obviously not, but can you try & describe what happened in each case?

[Si]

Fed,

thanks for your input, you might not have caught what was written above, but that was all done with Pete (grand Marlin) on board, we spent a few hours reconfiguring the unit and testing against his HDS5. PS, the Furuno unit was not installed at that time and we were using the same transducer that is now connected to the furuno in the picture.

We got my unit at a stage where you can cross the bay on a flat calm day and it will hold the bottom at speed . The real problems start when you are moving (reasonable fast > 15kph) and in water over 35 to 40 meters.

But as you can see from the Lowrance Software update, mine is not the only unit having the issue, i have seen the same issues exhibited in posts on this site. What is interesting and most people miss in those 4 pictures is the sensitivity level configured on the top set and bottom set of pictures.

HDS8 - HST-WSTBL transducer. The scattered stuff you can see is the sensitivity at 4%, thats why the screen is so busy, so you can imagine what 70% will be like. basically blue.

Regards
HOnda.

I'm sure you have looked at this but whats your scroll speed and ping speed percentage?

Also, I cant see any brown fill-ins in the before and after shots. also the frequency is not indicated on the bottom one either.

[honda900]

This problem has been ongoing for 4 years, this is not something new. Numerous config changes and testing have resulted in no difference.

Please note that lowrance did not release update 4 for my unit alone, which means a large number of units have exhibited these problems.

It seems that most owners seem to be wearing LowranceGoggles and not looking at critically at how their unit is working.

Take the time to do some testing of your own. Feel free to post the results.

Newbys post on his issues are worth a review as well, particularly his comments on his deep water results.

As for Furuno V HDS, I have made it very clear a number of times that both have their pluses and minuses, in fact the two units compliment each other in certain areas.

Regards
HOnda.

[ranga7]

I got the hds 10 and a few mates have furunos, seeing both work i have now ordered a furuno 295 with a 1kw tranny. The hds as a gps is quite good but furunos are definately the way to go for sounders IMO.

[Seahorse]

I am still going to buy the Hds7 touch struct scan. I just think that there has been more positives that negatives on here.

I am only fishing the bay, in my 4.55 tinnie.

Cheers
Greg

I

[Dicktracey]

I am still going to buy the Hds7 touch struct scan. I just think that there has been more positives that negatives on here.

I am only fishing the bay, in my 4.55 tinnie.

Cheers
Greg

I

Greg It was very disappointed in the LSS2 picture quality on the HDS5 gen 1 & 2 due to resolution size, remember the old Hds7 is only 6.5 actual.
On the HDS10 the LSS2 was great could tell guys to jig on the correct side of boat for bait with loaded jigs coming up.
Just had the opportunity to test a B164 1KW through Hull on my boat, I wont be fitting one to new boat. If anything under 100m I went backwards smaller cone size by far in shallow water, tuning the 50/200 skimmer in manual I can get the same showing in up to 60M as the 1kw with the HDS10gen 2. I'm sure the 1KW would shine in 100m + but under that save your $$$$$
Dick

[Seahorse]

Dick
What do u recommend then?

Greg