Lowrance LMS 522C Question

[jaybe]

I have one of these units and my buddy also has one - bought just weeks apart. On his, you can see a definite difference between contour lines - that is - a 15 ft flat will show up as light blue against the deeper water surrounding it, which shows white. On mine, the contour line is there, but there is so little color difference, that it is VERY difficult to see exactly where it is - especially in the sun.
On his boat, you can stand in the back of the boat and see the different colors; on mine, you have to almost put your nose against the screen to see it.
We have gone through everything in the book we can find, and have all my settings the same as his - with no success on changing the situation.

Any suggestions?
:help:

[fireboat]

Did you read your owners manual? Go to the Lowrance site on line, look up your model, you can learn all about your unit. There is a simulator on line too. You can adjust the color or change the color of the bottom. Just play around with it, you won't break it. Good luck.

[Wall-i-Lama]

Jaybe, Select:

Menu
Map Data
Uncheck fill water with white
Then you may have to play with the safety contour setting on this same menu page.

Good luck.

[jaybe]

fireboat: Yes - I have read the manual, but don't find information on this issue. I also have the simulator on my computer, but it hasn't helped in this matter. Thanks for the ideas.

Wall-i-Lama - Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to look when I get home and see if that's checked.

Any and all other suggestions are welcome. Keep them coming.
Seems like this is a simple thing, but I'm stumped so far.

[PRD1]

Are you both using the same map chip and the same year or version of the chip? Vendors do change these things between years so a 2007 map may not look just like a 2008 map, etc.

[Hombre Robusto]

Have you checked to see which software each of them are running?

I bought the same unit in April, and it had the older software in it. It took about three minutes to do the upgrade myself. You can check on the menu of the unit to see which version it is running.

[fireboat]

Sorry, I didn't know you were looking at a map card. I had some issues with my 522 but the new version upgrade and a hard reset took care of them. Is your contrast turned way down?

[jaybe]

PRD1 & Hombre Robusto - We both have the Navionics Hot Maps 2008 Premium. We are going to compare the numbers to see if there is a difference, but haven't done that yet. - Thanks.

fireboat - The last time I checked, the contrast was in the middle. I tried moving it to both extremes and it didn't make a significant difference.
I did a hard reset soon after I got it because I couldn't get it out of Demo mode (sonar). I have a lot of waypoints and fish icons in it now, I'd hate to do that again unless there's no other way to solve this issue.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am still open to more suggestions - anybody?

[jaybe]

OK - I believe I figured it out. It was pilot error all along - anyone surprised?
I have my unit mounted on a "platform" at the rear of my boat, since it has no winshield (tiller operated). This still put the unit well below eye level. See attached picture.

While experimenting with both units at my buddy's boat, we discovered that these units actually are much sharper when viewed at slightly above eye level. Just tilting the screen up on my buddy's unit made a huge difference in what he could see.
So I guess I need to tilt mine way up; I just hope it doesn't wash out too much from the sun. It looks great in the garage - we'll see.

Thanks for the suggestions!