GPS question

[lew]

I was fishing Stoney Lake on Sunday and a couple times part of the map on my GPS screen would go blank, not the entire map, just part of it, yet I could still see my track from a previous troll pattern on the blank section.

 

If I zoomed in it would all come back and then be normal again.

 

A couple times the blank section was perfectly horizontal on the screen, while another 2 times the blank section ran diagonally.

 

The 1st time it happened as I was making a tight turn and I figured it just lost the signal momentarily, but then the other times I was going in a straight line when it happened.

 

The map would re-appear gradually as my cursor moved along towards the blank section, but wouldn't come back fully without zooming in.

 

My antenae is on the gunnel towards the front of the boat and has a clear view of the sky, and I'm using a Lowrance GlobalMap 7200 with a Navionics Gold+ XL-9

 

The same thing happened to me once before on a different lake as I was making a sharp turn but re-appeared shortly afterwards.

 

Is this normal with a GPS or is there a problem ??

[JPD]

Lew, that is more of a processor problem than a signal problem. The Unit is trying to read the map off of the MMC Card and once and a while it freezes up much like a computer. Not much you can do about it except use the zoom buttons. It has happened a bit to me over the years but all in all not that bad.

 

JP

[Smokey]

I agree with JP. Sounds like some kind of freeze up problem were the processor is just keeping up with your progress. Damn technology...... I think the more information shown on the maps the harder it is to keep up.

 

Have you checked the lowrance site for updates for your unit and to see if your running the latest update its all explained on the update page how to check it.

 

Click here to check

 

Maybe this might help, if they had a known issue.

 

 

Good Luck with it

[lew]

Thanks boyz, much appreciated !!

 

As long as that's a relatively normal occurance I won't be concerned with it.

 

I'll check those update Mike.

 

Jeeeez, fish'n was so much simpler before electronics

[SlowPoke]

I've seen that a few times on mine Lew. I believe JP is bang on... next time it happens, quickly look in the lower left corner of the screen for a black icon in the shape of your map chip. When mine blanks the icon will appear flickering like the hard drive light on your computer. When something like that happens on our home computer my wife says "it's thinking" which pretty much sums it up.

-Brian

[lew]

Thanks Brian, I'll watch for that icon if it happens again.

 

I was just afraid I had a problem with the GPS unit itself.

[Roy]

Good info. It hasn't happened to mine yet but it's good to know that it COULD happen and not to panic if it does.

[SlowPoke]

Mine seems to hesitate when zooming into 6nm (if I recall correctly). It may have something to do with the level of detail in your preferences. Once it figures everything out, it zooms in and out quickly. I hope that is what you're experiencing and not technical issues.

-Brian

[aplumma]

Lew my 525 low so far has not done as you descibed but it does sound as though it is a processer or chip issue. You might want to contact Lowrance with an Email and tell them that the unit is glitching just in case it turns out to be a warrentee issue then it is documented even if it is out of warrentee.

[charlesn]

My Lowrance X26 was doing the exact same thing this weekend. It's not a glitch lew, it's an undocumented "feature" that trains you to use those zoom buttons... lol

 

Charles

[lew]

What I don't understand though, is why the processor would read the map fine most of the time, but have trouble at other times.

 

I can see where a computer may slow down if the server is busy and alot of folks are using it, but why would it happen to a GPS unit when nobody else using the same system....or are they ??

 

It would seem to me that each GPS unit is independant of all others.

 

Enquiring minds need to know......