Lowrance plotter issue

[desertrat]

Well launched the Rib today for it's first test run after the mini refurb and on the whole everything went fine, just a couple of little problems one of which I wondered if anyone could help with. I'm hoping to get them sorted this week and join everyone for the round IOW next weekend fingers crossed.

The boat came with a lowrance globalmap 5150c chart plotter with Navionics gold uk chart on sd card. When I turn it on it just keeps restarting over and over again, unless I pull the sd card out, then it starts up fine but with just the free base map. Plug the card back in then and it seems to read it but you then cant zoom down to a large scale.

I'm not sure if it's the card that's dodgy or the plotter or how to find out but buying a new sd card to find the plotter is screwed seems a waste of £200, anyone got any ideas?

Cheers
Rob

[Dhf]

Hi Rob, Really good news to hear you took her out for a play, although not good to hear probs with gps,
there shoudn't be anything wrong with the sd card, that was only purchased 16 months back,
although If the units not been switched on for a while, you may need to adjust the settings in the menu.
All the best for the round IOW cruise.

[jyasaki]

Does it do the same with a different SD card? Doesn't have to be mapping; just a normal camera card or similar.

If it works with a different card, I would try doing a factory reset (save your waypoints and routes first); then try updating or reloading software (should be available from Lowrance), then as a last resort try a different map card (better if you could borrow one rather than buy one to find out it's the head unit.)

jky

[tiggertree]

Hi
If resetting and updating the SW does not work I have a working Nauticpath UK chart card you can borrow (for a day or two) to test the head unit.
I had the same problem with a corrupt card resetting my 5150c.
Cheers.
Paul.

[SteveHall]

I had the same problem on a 3500c and it took a few hard resets and removing and inserting the card to get it to work. I also think I was perhaps a little impatient and didnt wait long enough for it to load.

[9D280]

Couple of thoughts -

- if it's been powered off for a while there is (I think) a setting i the depths of the menus that swaps if from Navonics to C-map (or whatever two it reads). I forget the default setting, but mine wasn't Navonics!

- how big is your SD card? Not sure from the thread whether you have put a "new" card in (i.e one you already had) or if it came with the plotter, but my Lowrance is max 1Gig, and it throws a wobbler (as opposed to the usual "not recognised" error) if I try to put a bigger one in the slot.


Also - how clean are the contacts to the card? Mine used to reset on big waves until I cleaned them!

[desertrat]

Cheers for all the replies guys.

It's already running the latest version software so I couldn't update it. I've had a play removing card and re-inserting and rebooting etc. and it seems to have starting playing ball again. Hopefully it was just a bad connection to the card.

I had a look for a setting as my new Elite 5 HDI has the c-map/navionics option but can't find it on this one. I did find the option for which chart area was active and think I was also trying to zoom into the wrong area when I first tried to fix the issue so fingers crossed all will be ok for Sunday.

Cheers
Rob

[jyasaki]

Pull the card, and hit the contacts with a pencil eraser. Then wet the contacts with some contact cleaner and insert/remove a couple of times to clean the contacts in the unit. Finally, a light coat of corrosion spray should keep oxidation down (don't spray it; use a Q-tip or the like to avoid hitting the plastic.)

jky