Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

I have an issue with my Lowrance HDS unit. It is a sreies 1 using a trolling motor puck type transducer. What has been happening is when I run to a new spot and I drop the motor back in the water the unit has trouble finding the bottom. When I first installed it this problem did not happen very often now it does it every time I move. I usually have to cycle the power and reset the range. Any help on this problem would be great.

I have the same unit, and I hit power and then enter to put the transducer to sleep before I lift the TM (thank you Rick Grover). Then when I drop the TM back in, I hit power and exit to "wake" it right back up.
It was explained to me that, if you don't put the transducer to sleep while you motor, it will keep on search for the bottom while its out of the water, and will eventually burn out more quickly.

Thanks Mark, do you happen to know if the newer units do the same thing?

My gen 3 does the same thing. I put it to sleep, then lift the TM.
Same way as explained above.

mark poulson wrote:I have the same unit, and I hit power and then enter to put the transducer to sleep before I lift the TM (thank you Rick Grover). Then when I drop the TM back in, I hit power and exit to "wake" it right back up.
It was explained to me that, if you don't put the transducer to sleep while you motor, it will keep on search for the bottom while its out of the water, and will eventually burn out more quickly.

Bingo!

We recently bought an Elite 7 inch and had the same problem. I knew to put the graph to sleep when it was out of the water from day one. It worked great for the first few trips but eventually couldn't find bottom or fish. We hooked up another 7" Elite and it still wouldn't find the bottom. We are going to have to send the whole thing back, transducer and all. Hope your issue is more simple!

Yup.. that's certainly a workaround but it should be fixed. Most other units don't have issues like that.

Take the unit off auto & set the depth to whatever you will be metering most often. I put mine at 40 or 60. Set the mode to shallow water, then it won't be searching the bottom at 1,000' or more. I had the same problem & that's what the Lowrance rep told me to do. He also said that even though you put it to sleep, the unit is really still on - you just can't see it on the screen. It will catch the bottom a little quicker, but you may have to do a soft reset occasionally to "clear it up". He said the best thing to do is power off the bow unit each time you lift up the TM since it only takes 15-20 sec to come back on.

Here is a funny one " on the same issue !...my HDS gen 2, bow & console ' I turn the "stop sonar" function on the console unit" to eliminate "cross talk" when I am fishing off the bow unit' when I am done' & turn sonar on " . it takes a coupla minutes to find the bottom ! but the bow unit never has trouble finding bottom " no matter what ! both units are on "auto" strange" ! but I have learned to live with it " if it was the bow unit ? I would be looking for a fix.

Take it off "auto range" & put in 30, 40, 60 feet etc. Whatever depth you will be fishing. Set the "mode" to shallow water & that should speed it up some. If you want to meter deeper than what you set, just change it. Once you've done it a few times it becomes second nature. I had a similar problem & mine catches the bottom much quicker now.

I will give a try !...... thank u !.....