zercom lpg 2000 for ice fishing

[chris]

Has anyone tried this? ,.I haven't yet used mine on soft water,.and I know they have an instant feature and I was wondering if it worked very well.

[Hookmaster]

I played with mine on the ice last weekend fishing for crappies. Of the 6 fish I caught, I caught 4 of them while I was playing with the LPG2000. If you can't afford a flasher, this unit will work fine. I had it adjusted so my #10 Fat Boy jig looked as big as the fish did. All but one of the crappie caught were nine inchers.

This is how I had it adjusted. I was using the manual mode and was zoomed into the depth the fish were at. It was at full gain, narrow cone angle (this was key), max power output, RTS set between 4-8, scroll speed set at 6 (max is 8) and pulse width set at 4. The lower the pulse width, the better the resolution, but if the pulse width was set any lower I couldn't see the jig. When in auto this is set at 7. When the fish got closer to the bait, I would watch the RTS and could really tell when the fish was right at the same level as my jig. Then I would watch my line for the bite.

The only thing I didn't like was ocasionally the fish would come through at the same depth at which there was a number for the depth scale. When this happened, both the RTS and history were blocked a little. I would either adjust the depth a little or increase the pulse width which increased the width and height of the RTS signal.

Formerly John in MN

[chris]

Thank you! This is very helpful!,...I've never used a flasher,..would you say that using a flasher like the Vexilar is a LOT better than the Z LPG? or is it pretty close? I hear some say that in the cold that the screens on lcds don't work wel,..I've also heard that now some models have solved this in all but the most coldest of days,..(?)

[RVRRAT]

Hookmaster,
I just purchased a LPG 2000 and am wondering if pulse width adjustment is in the manual or if it is information that is accessed from their website only?I have read that there is tech tips offered on their website for this finder that is not in the manual but I have been unable to find them.

RR

[Hookmaster]

I would say that these units would be pretty close. The Vexilar will let you know where in the cone angle the fish is, where the LPG2000 won't. Even though the LCD that Zercoms use is military grade, they do slow up when they get cold. I fish in an Otter fish house so this is not a problem for me. For just ice-fishing I would recommend the Vexilar or the Zercom LCF40 which replaced the Clearwater Classic which I have. These two Zercom units are LCD flashers. On the LPG2000 the depths numbers ocassionally being in the way was bothersome to me even though you can adjust it so they aren't. This isn't a problem on the flashers.

Formerly John in MN

[Hookmaster]

These additional functions are called the Super-User modes. The web-site doesn't let you see these anymore. Here is how to get to the Super-Use mode.
1. Turn the unit on by pressing the GAIN knob.
2. Press the CONTROL PANEL knob.
3. Rotate the CONTROL PANEL knob to select the CONTRAST.
4. Press and hold the RANGE knob.
5. While holding the RANGE knob in, press and release the CONTROL PANEL knob, press and release the GAIN knob, press and release the CONTROL PANEL knob, press and release the GAIN knob, release the RANGE knob.
The LIGHT should now be selected for adjustment. Rotate the CONTROL PANEL knob counter-clockwise past the UNITS or LANGUAGE (depending on which model have) and the additional parameters are the Super-User Control Panels. These include voltage, show Gain, X-mit Length, X-mit power, Noise filter, Chart Lines and Beam.

Tomorrow, when I get to work, I'll post the details of each of these functions.

By adjusting these additional settings you can really fine tune the unit.


Formerly John in MN

[Hookmaster]

I received this from Greg Walters, the Techsonic technician, on Nov. 28.

See how I adjusted the unit in my first post of this thread. I could easily see a panfish ice jig in 38 feet of water.


LPG 2000 Super Users Menu Group

To enter the Super-Users Menu:
 Power on normally.
 While Pressing and holding in the Range Button, press the following knobs in the order stated:
 Control Panel.
 Gain.
 Control Panel.
 Gain.
The unit is now in the Super-Users Menu mode. To view these extra menus, use the Control Panel knob to activate the menus and scroll down past the Simulator menu.
The extra menus are:

 Voltage – settings are ON and AUTO. With the ON setting, the LPG 2000 will give a constant display of the Battery Voltage (at the unit) in the lower left-hand corner of the LCD. With the setting in the AUTO setting, the LPG 2000 will display the voltage in the lower left-hand corner only when it is below 10 Volts or above 16 Volts. This can be used to alert the User to under and over voltage conditions. This setting is saved in memory after you turn the unit off.

 Show Gain – settings are Off and On. Turns On and Off the display of the numeric feedback for the Gain setting. When this control panel is set to On, a percentage is displayed momentarily in the lower left-hand corner of the screen representing the current gain setting. This number is only shown whenever the Gain knob is turned. 0% indicates that the gain is at its minimum setting. 100% indicates that the gain is at its maximum setting. The gain percentage only remains on the screen for a few moments after the gain is adjusted. Its purpose is primarily to allow fishermen to communicate to other LPG 2000 Users how they like to adjust the gain setting in different water conditions. This setting is saved in memory after you turn the unit off.

 X-Mit Length – settings are “AUTO” (OFF) and “1” through “60”. Early versions of the LPG 2000 will say Off instead of Auto, but the effect on the sonar is exactly the same. Controls the number of Transmit Cycles performed before the display is updated or controls the Transmit Length of the Sonar Pulse. The default setting is AUTO (OFF). When set to Auto, the transmit length is adjusted with the depth of the water. The values 1 to 60 allow the User to set the transmit length in 2 µs (micro-second) increments. Increasing the number of Transmit Cycles will effectively show more (weaker) targets as the unit takes a ‘longer look’ at the water column. Increasing the X-Mit Length also will help in tracking the bottom and displaying structure. The down side of increasing the X-Mit length is that you lose Target Separation. The following are the normal transmit cycles versus depth:
 1ft. - 40ft. 7 cycles.
 44 – 60 8 cycles.
 61 – 80 10 cycles.
 81 – 240 14 cycles.
 241 - 360 20 cycles.
 361 – 480 40 cycles.
 481 – 600 50 cycles.
This setting is not saved after you turn the unit off.

 X-Mit Power – settings are “AUTO”, “LOW”, “MED” (Medium) and “HIGH”. Controls the Transmit Power of the unit. On AUTO the unit will normally operate at the Medium (MED) X-Mit power setting when in 20 feet of water or less and on the HIGH X-Mit power when in over 20 feet of water. The unit will also use the HIGH X-Mit power setting when in a noisy condition (Example: when the boat’s motor is at a high RPM, during trolling motor usage, when an additional depth sounder is used at the same time, …). The LOW X-Mit power setting is only used when selected by the User. This setting can be used; when a User complains of hearing the transducer ‘clicking’, to save (portable) battery power, when the unit shows too many returns on the screen, and it can also be used to help in extreme shallow water readings. This setting is not saved after you turn the unit off.

 Noise Filter – settings are OFF and ON. Controls the ‘2 of 2’ Filter. With the 2 of 2 Filter On, a target has to be ‘seen twice by the unit before it is displayed (this is the ‘normal’ setting). Turning the 2 of 2 Filter Off will allow the unit to show targets that it only ‘sees’ once. This will help in showing targets when the boat is running at high speeds but will also allow the LPG 2000 to display noise as targets. This setting is saved in memory after you turn the unit off.

 Chart Lines – settings are ON and OFF. Controls the display of the Chart Lines that display across the History/Chart Window. This setting is saved in memory after you turn the unit off.

 Beam – settings are; AUTO, NRW (Narrow) and WIDE. Allows the User to display the Transducer Beam information from both (AUTO) Transducer Beams, only the Narrow (NRW) Transducer Beam or only the WIDE Transducer Beam. In the AUTO setting, the LPG 2000 uses the wide beam to display sonar returns until it gets near the bottom. This helps show the fish as arches and gives a broader range of coverage. As the sound pulse nears the bottom, the LPG 2000 automatically switches to the narrow beam to provide a higher degree of structure definition. This control panel allows the User to select either the narrow or the wide beam for the entire water column. This setting is not saved after you turn the unit off.