Lowrance-lcx-15mt

[Tomr]

Did anyone's unit come with the serial cable that conects your pc to the unit? As I understand it, this is needed to get your internal serial number so you can order Navionic Hot Maps. Am I correct? Does abyone know what is the correct cable to get, as the web site lists 2 options: PC-D13BK and PC-D13PBK. My power data transfer port is a 10 pin. Are these compatible?
Thanks for all your help, tr

[Tommy Mac]

Tomr, I ordered four hot spot maps for my X-15mt yesterday. I did not need to give them any numbers from my unit. It is neccessary to buy (from them) or send them a MMC (multi media card). I bought a 16MB card from them ($44.00) and they are going to send the four maps ($25.00 ea.) that I ordered installed on the MMC. They said that each map takes up appox. 1 MB. So there should be plenty of room left for other stuff.

If you order the GPS package the computor interface cable is included. It also comes with the GPS antena and cables, a 8MB MMC, and the Map Create 5 software. If you did order the GPS package and did not get the interface cable I would contact Lowrance. The large pin type connector is a 25 pin connector and I found it necessary to unplug my printer to hook it up. It is also hooked up via the mouse. I still don't understand everything I know about it, but I hope that It helped somewhat. Good Luck. Tommy Mac.

[GORD]

I too bought one of these Lowrance x-15 units. Why do we have to jump through all these hoops? Cards, cables, upgrades, downloads etc, etc, etc. What's the matter with the designers at Lowrance? Why can't they make their units simple like the other guys do? This is nuts!! I'm starting to wish I bought some other unit.

[SeaCat]

The complexities that you list are one of the reasons I'm actually interested in the new Lowrance unit.

Basically it looks to be designed much more like a PC system that can be upgraded and programmed to run a broader selection of software. If you only fish one lake or region, the unit is probably overkill and you can get buy with a more "fixed" configuration.

Lowrance appears to have designed their unit so it can be loaded with new fixes to the system through upgrades that can be done by the end user (same as your computer can get a BIOS upgrade); can be loaded with detailed level maps for the area your going to fish or save/backup your customizations (waypoints) to your PC; and if a new version of a map comes out, you don't have to buy a new $200 cartridge or a whole new GPS, just download a new version or a different brand.

In a unit that costs close to $1000, I would hope that it would be designed to accept newly developed technology for a long, long time. Now if they go the way of the computer manufactures and every 2 years have a new fangled version that is needed to let the newest feature be used, then Lowrance would get me upset. This would be like Intel has done with the Pentium, Pentium II, and Pentium III all requiring different motherboard processor slots -- and being forced to upgrade the computer because a new software (like Windows 2000) won't run on an older processor. I know it is not a perfect analogy but...

Basically, flexability and growth requires a little more complexity. As with your old 486 PC, you don't have to upgrade or replace it, but also don't expect to get the latest features.

Ryan

[Muskyhigh]

I just downloaded the maps for the rainy river 10 minutes ago and it seemed to work pretty good. The maps are basic, but still nice. I thought that the instructions were pretty poor on the part of lowrance, I have a computer background and was easily able to figure it out however. Not too bad. The connection cable connects to both the parallel port (printer port) and to the keyboard. The keyboarc is then jumped to the computer again. It works pretty fast, the software is a little slow I found.

Muskyhigh

[Answer]

The answer is, all the other units are pure sh#t.