LCG 4000

[Kenny Webb]

Getting ready to purchase the HDS 8...I was told to get the LCG 4000 puck to help with better pinpointing on waypoints and the LCG 4000 will also help with any delay on GPS.

Anyone else using the LCG 4000 and is it worth the money to put one on ?

Does the unit work fine without the LCG 4000 ?

I'm hearing different things from people.

Thanks

Kenny Webb

[Ken Sauret]

The LGC 4000 is worth adding to any HDS system. This antenna will update your position 5 times a second, compared to once a second with the internal antenna. This will help you stay on a waypoint if wind is blowing you around in the middle of the lake while you are trying to stay on a waypoint. As far as pinpointing your position it is better. But what most people don't think about is that a waypoint is a longitude and latitude at the location of the GPS antenna. I say this so you will think about where your antenna is located in relation to where the transducer is located. We set waypoints on things we see on our sonar screen, right? If you have your antenna at the console next to the unit you are looking at while you are idling around and you see a stump for example and hit waypoint (WPT) twice you are looking at the stump that is under the transducer, and since you are idling probably just behind the boat by now, your waypoint is at least 10 feet off if you are in a 20 foot boat. This will not matter if you approach the stump from exactly the same direction every time. Let's say you approach the stump from the opposite direction. When your GPS antenna is at the same point where the waypoint was set, the transducer is 10 feet behind you and 20 feet away from the stump. The only way to "pinpoint" a waypoint on something you see on your sonar is to install the GPS antenna as close to the location of the transducer as possible.

If you are really interested in getting all your waypoints as precise as possible you can do what I did on my boat. Install an LGC 4000 on the back deck close to the transducer that is glassed into the bilge and install a second LGC 4000 up on the bow as close to the trolling motor as possible. This way when I set a waypoint up front the long and lat for that waypoint is within a foot of the transducer that located that spot. The same goes for the waypoints I set at the console, the GPS antenna is within a couple feet of that transducer so I get an accurate long and lat for every waypoint. I also have my units sending and receiving waypoints so a waypoint is set on each unit at the same time.

[Kenny Webb]

Ken,

Great info thank you.

[Marc]

Ken is giving you some great tips that others need to learn. I do the same thing.

I also name my waypoints with the water depth in the name which makes it even easier to pinpoint my waypoint when returning to it. For instance, I may name one Ridge 24, with 24 feet being the depth. This helps me remember how deep I should be looking for this waypoint, and makes sure I don't run up on it too fast and spook the bass I'm trying to catch. This is another reason to use a LGC-4000 and position it as close to your sump transducer as possible.

ciao,
Marc Marcantonio

[Capt Al]

Ken,

In order to add the LCG-4000 to an HD unit, is it a simple matter of plugging the puck into the NMEA2000 socket with a T connector & resistor? Or is it necessary to power up the NMEA2000 network? Or is the NMEA2000 network power internally?


Thanks for all the tech help,

Al

[Marc]

The older LCX series were capable of powering the NMEA 2000 network cables and everything attached to it including LGC 2000/3000 gps antenna/receivers, but the HDS units are designed not to power the network.

When using HDS units, your NMEA 2000 network should be powered by a power node added to your network. Then the LGC-4000 gets it's power source from the NMEA 2000 network which is powered by the power node. So yes, then adding the 4000 is as simple as plugging the Tee supplied with the 4000 into your existing NMEA 2000 network, anywhere between the two terminators.

ciao,
Marc Marcantonio