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Re: Lowrance 522c sonar question??

Ryan
Ok, I offered some insight to someone else on here about their transducer on a pontoon boat. I should have kept my mouth shut because now mine is malfunctioning and i'm hoping someone can help before i call Lowrance.

While trolling this weekend my sonar kept losing the bottom. It would work fine for an hour then it would all of a sudden ahow 3.1 feet and the sonar screen would be solid orange (like the bottom structure looks when it is working properly). It would stay that way for a while(sometimes a minute other times an hour) then all of a sudden lock back on and work fine. I did find that if I moved the transducer up and down or tap it with my net it would most often come back on. It drove me insane all weekend.

I have it set up exactly the same way I did last year and even completely disconnected it and hooked it all back up a few times hoping a plug didn't seat right or something, no luck.

Any suggestions??


Sonar depth issues can sometimes be cured by not running in auto depth, set your depth at 100 feet and leave it. I had that trouble on and off before and eventualy the ducer failed, not sure if it was a sign of trouble brewing. When it happend to me, I noticed if one guy walk forward on the boat sometmes it would correct itself. Could be a ducer adjustment, sometimes they get bumped, but doubt it.

Actualy most all your settings should be manualy set, most people leave all settings at the factory settings or in "auto". Sensitivity should be 100% and left on the screen so that you can fine tune it now and then. Surface clutter and noise should be turnd off, very important.

Russ Johnson knows more about sonar and gps than Lowrance. He fishes with me all the time, many things I did not agree with at first, but he made a believer out of me. He is the man when it comes to electronics, he has I think 9 working units on his boat and 9 or 10 ducers (all working) a bit extreme but he likes gadgets.

If you run in manual and still have trouble, I think your ducer might be on it's way out.

Your welcome to hop on the Barge anytime and I'll show you how I set up and run mine, I have nobody fishin Wednesday (or Saturday and Sunday) too. Seems most people have a busy week and some kind of holiday Sunday I heard. If you fish with me and think you need a ducer I have 2 (maybe 3) spares, new in the box as well as two mounted on the boat, it's a long story, but it started out with your problems similar to yours, lol.. But I can let you take one, try it and if it works you can buy it or order one.

Big John

Re: Lowrance 522c sonar question??

I've had that problem several times over the years and it always turned out to be the transducer on its way out.

Re: Lowrance 522c sonar question??

I had the same issue on my M68C unit and was pretty sure it was the ducer. I could fix it temporarily by "resetting" the unit (direction for resetting in the manual) but it only fixed for a short time then same behavior came back.

I was looking to upgrade to better mapping features anyhow so it gave my and excuse to buy my HDS-5 but my 68C seems fine so I'm going to buy a new ducer and put it on my trolling motor.

Re: Lowrance 522c sonar question??

Thanks for the help. I have to admit, I was kind of expecting that I was going to hear it was the transducer going on me. I'm a little disappointed given that I only put 130 hours on the one I have, 99% of that time is trolling.

Sounds very similar to the way you described yours going John when you said someone would walk to the bow and it would work again. Sometimes the littlest thing would get it to reset, like a tap with the net, moving it up a couple clicks on the mount then putting it back, rocking the boat, or turning the AM/FM on and off. The one thing that ALWAYS worked was taking it back to the dock. Every time we went in to the dock where the water is only a couple feet deep it would reset and work fine.

I will try running it in manual mode but I think I am going to buy a new ducer to keep on the boat for when it finally does completely play out. If you want to part with one John, I will buy it or I could hop online and find one somewhere?

I am dying to fish on the barge for a day, Sunday IS a holiday at our house given that she is a mom 3 times over. This **** job of mine keeps getting in the way of fishing.

Re: Lowrance 522c sonar question??

Don't hurt to have a spare, I have a spare everything (almost)

Probably be faster if you just order one on line as mine are on the boat at the lake. Not sure why they have so many problems with them but I do know if you run your ping speed higher than factory setting, it can shorten ducer life considerably, that's the one setting I don't touch. Order the 200mhz only, they are cheaper and you don't need dual frequency on the lakes.

Anytime you want to hop on The Barge just let me know, I fsh allot and I'm always looking for someone to fish with, especially when it's windy. Solo is fine when yu get a day with not much wind, problem is the weatherman never get it right..

Big John
(who's hoping it's not windy Wednesday)