LCX27C acting up.

[Jencourt]

So the sounder on my LCX27C GPS/sounder is at times not reading bottom. I turn it on and I get a yellow and orange mass covering entire screen. shallow alarm sounds and depth flashes like 6 or 7 feet. so far after a few minutes it gets to normal every time. the exception is that the water temp either flashes on off or does not come up at all. I am kinda leaning toward it being the transducer?

Any experts or folks with experience want to chime in with an idea of what it can be

Thanks: ray

 

[scar tissue]

i have the same sounder with the same issues. hopefully someone can answer this
cheers
scar tissue

 

[spring fever]

Ray-I had a lot of those problems on a LCX 15. First I would check all the pins on the unit and the transducer cable and make sure they are clean and not loose. Pretty common head-see if any one else has the same unit and plug into theirs. I am pretty sure it is the transducer-I replaced mine with an Airmar P66 and it put years into the old girl. Not sure if my cable will fit yours but I think it might-would it prove anything with the boat not in the water??

 

[TheBigGuy]

It would be a useless testing method if the boat wasn't in the water. If you don't mind letting him take it out on the water it doesn't have to be mounted to the boat. Just plug transducer into the head unit and dunk it in the water. As long as the transducer is horizontal in the water it should tell you what you need to know.

I've just one question. Is the battery being charged when you run into these issues. Even if the battery is being charged I've run into this type of issue with a weak battery. Some units are really picky about having a strong voltage coming off the battery. Just a thought. You might want to check the voltage your battery and charging system are putting out.

Good luck.

 

[spring fever]

BG suggestion has some merit as well. Didn't really figure plugging into mine in the garage would prove much other than getting a clear screen with no extraneous noise showing. Mine boat won't be out of my shop for a week or so if you can wait.

 

[Jencourt]

Ray-I had a lot of those problems on a LCX 15. First I would check all the pins on the unit and the transducer cable and make sure they are clean and not loose. Pretty common head-see if any one else has the same unit and plug into theirs. I am pretty sure it is the transducer-I replaced mine with an Airmar P66 and it put years into the old girl. Not sure if my cable will fit yours but I think it might-would it prove anything with the boat not in the water??

Thanks for that Mike. Ya

BG suggestion has some merit as well. Didn't really figure plugging into mine in the garage would prove much other than getting a clear screen with no extraneous noise showing. Mine boat won't be out of my shop for a week or so if you can wait.

Thanks for that. I will check the pins and grounds ect. batteries are good. I may take you up on your offer Mike if i cant find one that is in the water to try it on

 

[the fog ducker]

Thanks for that Mike. Ya


Thanks for that. I will check the pins and grounds ect. batteries are good. I may take you up on your offer Mike if i cant find one that is in the water to try it on

my lcx 27c does the same thing , cleaned the pins , nada , guys at harbor chandler looked at it ,
no answers , prob a bad head ,was always dry and well cared for , conns are all like new ,,, my 25c works perfect on the same power and transducer conns ,
use the 27c for mapping only , that part works fine...let me know if ya have any success , selling it all soon regardless
( all 3 of my boats have P66 airmars , wasnt my issue Ray )

fd

 

[Whole in the Water]

Had a similar problem with that unit. It was solved when I replaced the lower quality factory Lowrance transducer with a higher quality Airmar P-66 transducer.

 

[TheBigGuy]

There is one other possibility that I have encountered before. Check the firmware version on your unit. I had an issue with the sounder on my garmin not keeping a bottom lock. I had an early version of the firmware that had problems. Check online to see if there has been a firmware update issued for your model on the manufactures website. If there has maybe harbour chandler can do the update for you. My Garmin unit needed a special garmin cable to interface with the computer to perform the software update. I don't know, but maybe you can perform the update via SD card these days. That was a while back with the issues on the Garmin.

The unit I had that was fussy on the battery voltage was a Lowrance.

 

[Jencourt]

So boat is out of water now and finally had a chance to look at the transducer. seems the rubber is chunking of the bottom and I can see the guts, so water is getting in there. I don't know anything about these things but seems to me that aint good. I will be pulling it off tonight to get a better look.

Where is the best place to buy a P66 from?

Thanks Ray

 

[spring fever]

Harbour chandler is where I got mine-make sure about the length you need to your head and make sure you get the lowrance connection (blue). Also it won't likely fit the holes for the old transducer so get some good sealer at the same time. It sounds like the old transducer is toast and if there is a bright side to spending unexpected money you will be amazed at the improved performance.

 

[redman210]

Also…. to upgrade firmware/software on 27c is important. From factory that machine cannot read a card over 1G…. you need to find a small card to load the firmware upgraded onto then download into 27C…. they are hard to find cards. Once that is done you will be able to do software upgrades and transducer upgrades. The machine will now read cards bigger than 1G

 

[TheBigGuy]

Also…. to upgrade firmware/software on 27c is important. From factory that machine cannot read a card over 1G…. you need to find a small card to load the firmware upgraded onto then download into 27C…. they are hard to find cards. Once that is done you will be able to do software upgrades and transducer upgrades. The machine will now read cards bigger than 1G

That is a good suggestion ronj. If you have an early version of the firmware, a newer version might have improvements to enhance your unit.

In your case the transducer would obviously seem the culprit. Updating the firmware as well, might really help your units performance (along with the more powerful transducer) .