Help on HDS 5

[jayrino]

I have recently just purchased an Ranger 1860 Angler and had a HDS 5 Lowrance mounted in the console. I took the boat out for the first time and the water temp gauge doesn't work. It shows up on the bow finder which is a X135 lowrance. Before I call the dealer up am I missing something? Also, I know I have to play with the sensitivity, but the bow finder was marking fish while the HDS 5 wasn't marking anything.

[LWinches]

The HDS-5X I used worked well right from the box - factory settings. I was testing the unit against a couple of different brands and called Lowrance tech support for their recommendations to maximize its performance. Their technician said "just turn it on". For the most part I agree. The automatic settings work very well. When I was using it and other units using the same 200/83 Khz frequencies I did have to manipulate the filters to get rid of interference.

I think the temp not working is a red flag as to the connections. There is one other likely possibility. When I turned it on it did not identify the transducer that came with it. When I went into the transducer settings "Unknown" is what was showing. You may have to manually select your transducer.

L.Winchester

[hondo]

If Ranger glassed in the transducer for your HDS you may need to increase the sensitvity to get a good display image.

Also, if it's a glassed in transducer then there is probably a separate temperature probe and you need to select it and display the data. It would be part of the network components or network accessories.

Good luck getting it figured out.

[jayrino]

Thanks and I will try it.

[tzonetom]

It took me a couple of trips to understand what the heck my 28HD did. My sonar didn't work either. The factory setting was on the wrong transducer. It has worked like a charm since though.