Help with HDS-5!

[RobGfor3]

I bought a used bass boat and had a lowrance hds 5 installed. I have had some problems using it and the manual is very confusing.

#1- the first time i went out on the boat, a icon that indicated the boat ramp came on and drew a line wherever i drove the boat. I was able to go where i wanted and return to the boat ramp safely. The next time i went out on the chick, there was no boat ramp icon and no line drawn to where i went. I found this very frustrating and could not go too far from the ramp for fear out getting lost. How do i get the ramp indicator and line back up and running?

#2- theres is hardly any fish on the sonar and a whole bunch of specks and colors all over the place on the screen makes it pretty much useless. i set the sonar settings to shallow water and still no luck. How can i clear this up?

#3- a boat dealer installed the hds and i have no idea what transducer they used. I called them and they dont know either. how would i find this out and what would you reccomend me setting it to?

#4- on the gps side, i notice a whole bunch of white circle dots on the shoreline, hundreds of them. What do these mean? And can i get rid of them?

anything else you would recommend a hds noob? The collegiate bass fishing tournaments start up next month and I really want to get this unit straightend out so I dont make a fool out of myself.

Thanks for your help,

Rob

 

[screwball]

I have the same unit and have only had one of the problems you have had. When first starting out at the ramp you need to clear the old trail by hitting exit. this will help with your current location. You might try a "hard reset" for the other problems. Look in your book or on the internet for the instructions on how to do that. Hope this info is some help. emoTeacher

 

[frazier2209]

#1
Pages> Scroll over to waypoint, routes, & trails.>Enter> scroll to the right to highlight trails>menu> New> select color, etc>Enter>

#3 Within 1 ft of the end of the connector (that plugs into the back of your unit) you should find a small silver foil tag. This will have the transducer model on it.
You can go to the Sonar menu under installation and choose the correct model.

#4 The white dots are points of interest (POIs). You can turn them off.


Do you have an owners manual?? It will answer ALL of your questions. Spend some time looking over it to get more out of your graph.
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products...r/Downloads/HDS-5-Operations-Guide---English/

Also, check out the lowrance support forum on BBC for help and tips on sonar settings.

 

[RobGfor3]

Thanks for the help! Going out tommrow and gonna try and see what i can get accomplished.