FF question

[Pat Smith]

I have a Lowrance Elite-4 (precursor to the Elite-4 DSI, but without the DSI)...

The fish finding part works great, shows me stuff in the water I can only imagine are fish.. or floating debris, or Russian submarines.. but it shows me stuff.

The GPS portion however is problematic. It shows me where my cursor is, so the last time I used it I put my cursor at the FSK bridge on a spot where some fish were.. well now when I go out it doesn't show me my loction but rather shows me that spot...even if I am 50 miles away. I would like the stupid thing to show me my current location. I asked a young guy at BPS tonight and he said that is what they do and I need to move my cursor to my fishing location and that is that..

This sounds erroneous, even though he seemed to know a bit about the model. What do you guys think?

[On the fly]

Reset the unit, should fix problem.

[kdkilbo]

How do u re set the unit

[On the fly]

1) Press and hold the + and - keys while powering the unit on.

2) Continue to hold the +/- keys until the unit boots up to the warning screen

3) the unit will be reset to factory settings

For soft reboot press pages key instead of +/- button.

Difference between soft and hard reboot is soft reboot does not delete any GPS data like waypoints or trails, hard reboot will.

I have had the exact issue with mine but the reboot resolved them.

lowrance customer service 1-800-628-4487

[DonV]

Reset should not be necessary. You need to find the "Return to Vessel" command on the menu. If I remember right, make sure you are Chart View, hit MENU, look for and scroll to "Return to Vessel" and hit enter. It will take you back on the chart to your current location. Make sure you have a GPS lock before trying. I have a hard time myself finding it on the menu sometimes but believe my directions are right, if not, RTFM as a last resort.

Another thing I find irritating is having previous trails and routes displayed, especially when I am in the same area, clutters the screen way to much. Again from the Chart View I believe, find the Waypoints,Routes,Trails menu item select and enter, scroll to Trails and select. You should see a list of all your recorded trails. Select whatever one you want to work with and hit Enter. At that point you can delete it or uncheck the Displayed check box.

You may also want to make sure at the end of each trip to go back to the Waypoints,Routes,Trails menu, pick your current trail and uncheck the Record check box. The unit will sometimes combine your next trip with the older existing trail. I sometimes export my trails to Google Earth and it makes a big mess when two separate trips get combined in the GPS track. I make sure to end my trail at the end of each outing and it keeps it clean.

BTW I love the nerdy stuff and if you guys want I can put a little tutorial on exporting/importing your trials and waypoints back and forth between Google Earth and the Lowrance. I like to keep a record of my trips with how far I go and where the fish are biting on my home PC instead of on the FF with it's clunky interface.

[On the fly]

Tutorial would be nice. lowrance seems to lack detailed instructions on anything.

[daolai]

Hah.. I thought it was a poor design little did I know... and yes the lowrance 3 page manual stinks....

[Photocat]

I don't know that specific model FF but on mine (HDS5, as well as my standalone Garmin GPS for Geocaching and shorebound fishing) you can press exit key and it will return to your current location as well with no need for a reboot at all.