Lowrance GPS set-up ????

[lew]

Hi guys, with the warm weather I decided to take my new GPS out to the backyard and see if I can figure out how to operate it.

 

Even though I've used depth finders for years, this is my 1st ever GPS unit, and although I've been in lotsa boats with them, I've never really paid much attention to the set-up so I'm a bit confused on this right now.

 

I hooked it up to a battery, then plugged the antenae into the unit and turned it on. The antenae is sitting in the center of the yard with a clear view of the sky from all angles

 

I went to the satellite status page and on the right hand side in the circle it shows all the satellites, and in the verticle bars below, it would indicate the signal strength.....I think ??

 

On the left side of the page it shows all the different numbers but some of them are flashing......position error, ground speed, lattitude, longitude and altitude

 

Distance, course and bearing show a dotted line.

 

Time and date are solid and correct even though I didn't set them.

 

After about 10 minutes, the numbers stopped flashing and stayed on solid for about 5 minutes, then began flashing again and are still doing it after an hour.

 

Am I locked into the satellites or not and if not, what am I doing wrong ??

 

All connections are tight and the battery is fully charged.

 

It's a Lowrance LCX-17M

 

This picture was taken a few minutes ago......thanks boyz

 

[aniceguy]

you were locked on then it appears you lost the lock. re power it and it should be fine there should be an alarm also when you have aquired signal

[lilkynan]

Re-power after first use is recomended - units are last set at point of MFG and if change is over "X" amount of mileage, then relocating becomes an issue. I also get this when I fly to Calgary, Chattanooga Tenn and Alberville Alabama. When I land I usually need to re-start

 

Is this your first GPS?

 

Later

 

Greg

[aniceguy]

here is a pic I took of my unit 2 minutes ago. See hwo the long and lat are not flashing and the other data groups when signal was aquired

 

[lew]

OK, I turned it off, waited a few minutes and re-started, but the numbers are still flashing, yet the satellites are still indicated in the circle and verticle bars.

[lew]

My position error and altitude are now flashing zero and tracking flashes 11

 

Lat & long are flashing similar #'s to yours

[douG]

Work it thru, Lew, I am doing the same with my new gps rx. Just play that's all.

[lew]

Playing is exactly what I'm doing douG, but it's always nice to ask the advice of those in the know.

[sonny]

i used to use my h2o gps and would do that if you wern't aquiring enough satalites...

[aplumma]

Hey lew I just installed a lawrance 525 on the boat with chart plotter. If you are nmea 2000 unit you will see 3 cables on the power plug. Two sets are Red Black and white and the other set is 5 wires. The five wire is for an other use so do not worry about them for now. The other 2 sets , wire the 2 reds together to the positive and the two blacks together to the negative. The white wires are not needed. If your does not have two sets of power wires then your unit does not have a 2000 buss terminal that need the power for the GPS to work. Mine is an external GPS and Dephfinder with speed and temp all feeding in from cables. If this does not make a difference then try this..... Turn on the unit and find initialize the GPS then use the curser to get it into the general area. Those are what I needed to do to get mine to find the area I was in before that it was trying to find me in the middle of the

USA.

 

Good luck

 

Art

[lew]

Thanks Art, I had to go out for awhile and just got back in, so I'll give that a try in the morning.