Got a deal on a Mark 5X DSI

[jusanothajoe]

I found a new mark 5x dsi for half price so I bought it. gonna mount it on my trolling motor. any advice ??
do you like yours ?? Not much to the manual, did you just figure it out as you went ?? thanks for the help

[Slabs Inc]

Where? Red to hot, black to ground. I don't own one. No one else piped in so I thought I would.

[jusanothajoe]

has to be the worst operation manual ever. my h'bird 581i operation manual is 99 pages. the mark 5x dsi.....................
................. is 7 pages and mostly pictures, the words would not fill one page. well guess I'll try this weekend and see if I can figure it out

[Little Skeeter]

Curious as to where you found it at that good of a price.

[CrappiePappy]

Joe ... go to this link - Product Emulators and scroll down & find the Mark 5X emulator download link. Download it to your computer & play with the buttons/menu. It should show you pretty much all the unit can do.

My Elite 5dsi has the same type manual as your Mark 5 ... so I downloaded the emulator & play with it to get the feel of what each button/menu page does. It's not mounted to the boat, yet ... but I "can" hook the unit up to a battery & play with it @ home ... I just don't want to take the chance of messing up the transducer, by running it out of the water for any length of time. So .. with the emulator download, I can avoid any such problems.

... cp

[jusanothajoe]

Curious as to where you found it at that good of a price.

classifieds in local paper, elderly gent had bought it one month ago and decided not to mount it on his boat. gave him $150
new in the box

[jusanothajoe]

Joe ... go to this link - Product Emulators and scroll down & find the Mark 5X emulator download link. Download it to your computer & play with the buttons/menu. It should show you pretty much all the unit can do.

My Elite 5dsi has the same type manual as your Mark 5 ... so I downloaded the emulator & play with it to get the feel of what each button/menu page does. It's not mounted to the boat, yet ... but I "can" hook the unit up to a battery & play with it @ home ... I just don't want to take the chance of messing up the transducer, by running it out of the water for any length of time. So .. with the emulator download, I can avoid any such problems.

... cp

I tried downloading this yesterday couldnt get it to work, may try again. Pappy you can put yours on simulater and then play with all the buttons, trasducer not firing in simulate. still wish manual was better. there is a setting for speed compensation ?? it is in percent ???? this is type of thing manual should explain.

[jusanothajoe]

OK went and tried out the Mark 5x dsi today, here's my review. manual is worthless, just mashed buttons til I sorta figured some things out. there is NO sensitivity setting only contrast. NO scroll speed adjustment and it is SLOW. It is not like side imageing or down imageing. not really much different than the depth finder I already have, 581i h'bird. maybe just a little clearer. dont expect to see tree tops like in the pictures on box. maybe a little better blob than shows up on the h'bird but not much better. I got this unit for half price and it is worth what I paid, but at full price I think you can do better with a unit that will show fish as this one shows structure good but not fish

[jimp]

could/would you post some pictures of what you're talking about, as I'm considering this model myself. I tried the pc based emulator as well, had trouble with some of the settings, as I figured it was not a fully functional unit. I could not get anything to show on the emulator screen other than some of the various settings, I was somewhat expecting the "screen" to look like it would on the water with fish/structure being shown, or at least I couldn't get it that far.

[jusanothajoe]

next time I go I'll try to get some pics. this unit may show fish to some degree but not defined arches like most are used to.
I wanted a unit to put on my trolling motor to help locate structure, it will be ok for that I think. too locate FISH I think you need a different unit. an equivelent unit to my h'bird 581i without gps is the 718 or something, have saw them for around $179 I personally would buy a 718 before I paid $300 for a mark 5x dsi, but that is just me. maybe I'll like it better after more use. my next purchase would be a unit with TRUE downscan/down imageing, have to save a while for that.
This is not what I would call a TRUE downscan/ down imageing but, I didnt expect it to be. I only bought this one because it was $150. not trying to bash this product just give an honest review. really dont think the H'bird 570 di would be any better but have never seen or used one. for a little clearer pic of structure buy this one, looking for fish buy something else.
FYI; H'bird 718 on EBAY $181.99 with free shipping