Help!!!!fishfinder issues

[UncleWillie]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

Bare with us.
We can't see exactly what you have.
Is is a simple problem but the devil is in the details. Let's Be ridiculously specific. Humor us! :joyous:

The factory cables usually come with bare wire end pairs, Red and Black, no connectors.
You have attached these two wires to an extension wire pair, also Red, Black.
You have spliced Red to Red, and Black to Black.
Red goes to +12v, Black goes to ground.

When you measure the voltage at the point the two wire pairs are spliced together...
Red test lead to the Red Splice Point,
Black test lead to the Black Splice point,
You measure Positive 12 volts and not Negative 12 Volts. Correct?

 

[mav6759]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

I'm sorry but this is getting a bit annoying for me. I should have mentioned this, I got 5 different people trying to figure this out, not including you guys. I am pulling my hair out over this, I have tried 4 different FF's and all of them work fine. My neighbors and a couple of friends that I fish with brought there units over and we connect them to the wiring in my boat and they worked great. We determined that it not the wiring. I even put my old unit back on the boat and it worked great, so that tells me that it's not in the wiring. And It's just not making any sense. The unit itself can only recognize the power that I give. At 12.9v's that enough power to run ever thing on my boat. I know I have a good ground because the other 4 units work great. So I'm thinking it has to be the unit. The only thing is I have to mail this unit back to pro bass shop and i didn't want to do that, because that would take me off the water. If it a low impedance issue, I should be able to take some really thin wire like house thermostat wire or the wire used for a door bell, and it should work. but it does not, I have never seen this, I was also thing, if it was a ground issue, other devices on my boat wouldn't work right either. I don't know,, I'm going to play with it this morning and see if I'm doing something wrong. I'm going to go back to the basic and start all over again.

Thanks

Mav

 

[mav6759]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

OK, Problem solved, I was thinking about what someone said earlier in the posting, concerning low impedance. And I got to thinking, What if it is low impedance, what if I can't use the 8 gauge wire that the boat was wired with, So I took the wire from my garage opener which is about 16 gauge wire and about 16ft long. Just to test, (my wife thinks I'm crazy) connected it to the unit, and guess what,,it worked, the unit powered on. This is so crazy, my boat from the factory or no boat that I know of is not wired with 16 gauge wire. So why would Lowrance, lower the impedance of their units not to take 8 gauge wire that is used in almost 99% of the boat made. Then I got to thinking again, someone else posted, that Lowrance sells a extended wire. so I looked up the price of their wire, they wanted 30.00 for an extended wire for this unit, Lowes have the same 16 gauge wire for 4 cent a foot. P.S on my way to Lowes, the wife is having a fit because I took the garage door opener wire, I better replace it fast, or she will put me on punishment, and I won't be able to go fishing this weekend.

I want to thank everyone that help me with, because I was lost,
Thank you so much,

Mav

 

[gm280]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

Now I am confused. I thing something else is at play yet. 16 gauge wire is a heck of a lot smaller then 8 gauge wire. So after reading through all these comments, I still think something else is not correct... You would have a lot more available current with 8 gauge wire vs 16 gauge wire. I say you still have an issue that hasn't been discovered yet. JMHO!

 

[mav6759]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

I agree with you 110%, LOL,,,And I'm still confused, but I call Lowrance support department, they told me, I should have had 16ga wire from the start. because that unit only works with 16ga wire. I ask him, Why in God name would you guys have a unit that just worked with 16ga wire, and 99% of the boats manufactured come standard with 8ga and his response was, to have you buy the extended 16ga wire.

 

[mav6759]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

Just spoke with the head tech with Lowrance, here is what he told me. and I quote, "When powering this unit up to 8ft it is suggested that you use 18ga wire. 8ft or more it is suggest that you use 16ga wire. that all I'm going to tell you". Now with that being said, and I don't know of any boats manufactured with 16 or 18ga wire. So I ran a 16ga wire and the unit fires right up, I think it a situation where Lowrance wants to sell there cables at 30.00 a pop.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

This is all just crazy!

There is no such thing as I impedance in a DC circuit. It is called Resistance!
The 8ga wire is lower Resistance/Impedance than the 16 ga wire.
Bigger is the equivalent of Shorter, and Bigger/Shorter is always better.

Something else is going on and it is in the wire.
It will not matter which wire you use. You changed the wire to one that does work.
It isn't the size of wire that matters as much as it is a different piece.

This is still crazy! :mmph:

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

This is telling me no long runs should work reliably. Something is poorly designed in the FF. Hence the "that all I'm going to tell you" statement.

 

[ronaldj]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

Makes me wonder if this is why the unit now shows up as discontinued on the website.
I completely agree with this being a way to sell there cable.
When it is working thou, it is a nice unit especially with the built in maps.
Make sure you download the emulator for the fish finder as playing with that is a lot more useful than the poor manual

 

[Fed]

Re: Help!!!!fishfinder issues

You need to strip the insulation off the wires before you join them together.

If the existing lead works then if you extend it properly it will work, that's all I'm going to tell you. J/K