Well my Lowrance seems to have given up the ghost. For some time it wa Two questions. Will anyone attempt a repair or what is the current s reluctant to light up like the kitchen light thas has a week bulb and needs several flips of the switch to illuminate. There seems to be no way for a mere mortal to open the unit and check it’s backlight bulb. New units use LEDs to backlight but pretty sure this one uses flourescent illumination. Two questions. can anyone repair these. What is best replacement chartplotter to consider. It will be used on a twenty foot Whaler.
Call Lowrance, they give credit sometimes. I can’t see that you’ve posted the model number, which might be useful. I have HDS Gen 1’s that I like but I’d love them to be a bit faster processing-wise. I spoke to them about how disappointed I was that they came out with 2 generations within a year of my purchase and they said if they break I could upgrade for $100 to the gen 2 or like 600 to the touch. Maybe they’d give you a break on something too.
I don’t know whether or not you would be interested, but i still have my old unit for sale. You may not even have to rewire anything depending on what you have now. Pm me if interested.
If you end up replacing it, you might want to look for a Garmnin 740. I have heard they have dropped the price since the 741 came out. I have a 640 and 740s and have been pleased. I have owned a Lowrance GPS and a Lowrance sounder but they weren’t full fledged chartplotters.
I have the HDS7 gen2 touch. The reason I bought the touch unit was because the structure scan is built in to the head unit and the transducer I already had would work with it. I just had to buy the structure scan transducer. I am happy so far.with it and am still figuring out what all it will do. The options are almost limitless, just depends on how much you are willing to spend.
With that being said, the humminbird unit is less expensive and most people seem to like them.
Transducer location is everything. It needs to be on the right side of the motor (looking at it from the transom) and away from any chines or steps. It needs to be in clean nonturbulent water and always submerged.