Lowrance HDS - can't get trails to display as I navigate/move

Peahead

Peahead

Well-Known Member
I have had pretty good luck with my HDS chartplotter for several years ( Gen1) but recently I erased all the old trails and can't get new trails to display. In the trail menu I have selected "display" trails and "record" trails then selected "SAVE" and yet when I navigate there are no trails displaying on my screen. I have rebooted, reselected and re-saved but with still no result.

Has anyone else had this happen? I called Navico and they suggested I do a "reset" . This is done by first removing your navionics chart card and then pressing and holding down your "pages" and 'Power" butoon at the same time ( for 30 seconds until you hear a beep) then reboot with your nav card installed.

I haven't been out to the boat yet but before I go out there just wondering if anyone has had this problem or done this suggested fix?

thx for any info !
 
Try this

Settings > waypoints routes trails > trails > create new trail

Sorry can't remember all the menu names but basically if you deleted all your old trails you have to create a new trail or its not saving anything. Once you create a new trail ensure its set to display and record. You can name it, choose its color etc.

Also of course once you create a new trail it won't show anything until your boat moves around.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had a gen 1 that did the same thing a few times; I would mess around with changing your colors for your trails as well; Have you ever taken it in to your lowrance dealer and had any up dates done? If not I would recommend doing so as it could be needing a reboot with the newer software pkg to fix your problem!
 
Phone Mike at Harbour Chandler. I had a similar issue and he talked thought it as I was in the boat. He is the "Man" on the West Coast for Lowrance, really knows his stuff.
 
Greg make sure you have a gps signal too or trails won't be working,
And ya create new trail and name it or leave it as new, save and exit
Should display
 
Try changing colours for trails...somehow mine got reset to same colour as background, thus disappearing.

Cheers!!
 
Thanks for all the tips guys - definitely not a trail colour issue or a signal issue as my position shows fine and moves about on the chart as I navigate .....I have had little time to work on the chartplotter issue due to other work that has become priority -got the boat on the hard right now doing a bunch of maintenance/repairs/hull sanding, antifoul etc. - but what I can tell you is so far Navico/Lowrance told me to soft reset the unit - now the unit doesn't recognize the navionic card!!!... even though I've set the chart to Navionic setting ahhh!! ..... I'll get back to you let you know when I solve this -I may go see mike at HC on the weekend.
 
Make sure you take the unit with you and have it updated; you may want to call Mike and see if he can talk you through a couple of other things before you go for a ferry ride. He can also get the info from you for your unit to see how many updates there maybe or may not be for your unit; he will just need to know the program # that your unit is running with from your start up screen.
 
Peahead said:
Thanks for all the tips guys - definitely not a trail colour issue or a signal issue as my position shows fine and moves about on the chart as I navigate .....I have had little time to work on the chartplotter issue due to other work that has become priority -got the boat on the hard right now doing a bunch of maintenance/repairs/hull sanding, antifoul etc. - but what I can tell you is so far Navico/Lowrance told me to soft reset the unit - now the unit doesn't recognize the navionic card!!!... even though I've set the chart to Navionic setting ahhh!! ..... I'll get back to you let you know when I solve this -I may go see mike at HC on the weekend.
Click to expand...

Ok all solved !!

I flew my HDS unit over to Denise and Mike at Harbour Chandler. I used Harbour Air as I am a regular customer( $10 to ship it in 20 min !!) . Denise amazingly offered to pick it up 25 min later at Harbour Air terminal in Nanaimo!! Simply awesome!
An hour or two after the unit arrived , problem was solved and it was ready....just amazing service. I am stunned actually. It turned out that the trails returned after my original soft reset that Navico got me to do - all the settings to "display" trails and "record" trails were set correctly.

Here's where things went "south" :
When I pulled out my Navionics card (Platinum + micro SD) I was forgetting that the SD card is actually the adapter for the smaller micro card. Denise called me to say the tiny micro card must have fallen out of the SD adapter card as it wasn't in the SD adapter when they received my HDS unit and pulled the adapter from the card drawer!! I just happened to be out at the boat doing my antifoul paint when she called and checked in my electronic box on the boat and found the micro SD card !! It had fallen out and was sitting there buried under a bunch of other stuff. Denise updated my older software on the HDS to 4.1, I think it is now ( I had not updated the software since purchase) so was about 2 software updates behind. Needless to say I am elated and completely blown away by the help I got and the lightning speed of getting this solved. Denise offered to me to have the unit delivered back to harbor air on the same afternoon of that day I sent it over but had a family member flying over the next day anyway so had them bring it back to Vancouver.

The lesson and warning here is that the tiny micro SD card can fall out of the adapter very easily when you open your SD drawer/slot and try to pull out that SD adapter . With my eyes and no glasses on at the time I never even noticed that the micro card fell out or that it was missing from the adapter when I kept re installing it ( without the actual micro card there)

no wonder my charts disappeared !!!! phew - that micro card could have easily fallen out away from the electronics box and somewhere else on the floor of the boat and disappeared forever!
 
Hey Greg,
I had that same thing happen and ended up putting a small piece of scotch tape over the end of it so it doesn't happen again
 
Hookin'up said:
Hey Greg,
I had that same thing happen and ended up putting a small piece of scotch tape over the end of it so it doesn't happen again
Click to expand...

If I did the tape thing .....with my luck the tape would become detached inside the drawer and get jammed in the back of the drawer lol
--- I will just be very careful now when I pull the sd card adapter. I had no idea the micro chip would fall out of SD adapter that easily and completely without detecting it drop out. Part of the problem was I was forgetting the SD card was just the adapter for the micro chip and wasn't watching for anything to fall out of it - man I was lucky to find it.

Thanks for your tips/ideas Tim, I appreciate how your on here always helping out !

Greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top