Discussion on Lowrance Elite 5 DSI/Chartplotter ....

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Originally Posted by bigjoe936

If you push the power/light button you can adjust the brightness of the display and also able to put it in night mode which almost looks like night vision...it will turn the display color green. It really makes a difference while fishing at night.

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Thanks BigJoe ... I'll have to remember to try that on my next night outing !! I'm wondering, though .... with a green background, what color do the fish show up as ?? If it's white, like when the background is black, are they all that visible/discernable on the screen ??

When mine was lighting up the boat, I think it was a combination of the backlighting & the numerous (white) fish images on the screen. I was drifting around the outer edges of a large dock light, and there were schools of baitfish & fish in that area that kept the screen lit up pretty good ... until I would drift off a good ways from the edge of the light. If I could keep the black/white contrast screen, and cut down on the brightness, that would be great. It's kinda tough to keep good focus on your line, pole tip, or float .... when you have a big honkin halogen light in front of you, and a bright DF screen shining up at you, at the same time Rofl

... cp :cool:

Crappiepappy, I haven't had a chance to read all the replies but in case nobody else has mentioned this, I would stick with the base map or whatever came in your unit. I bought a Nav. Hot Maps Premium South for mot detail and the 1' contour lines and I got both but, the processor in the Elites is pretty slow so with a map on a micro SD card, it updates VERY SLOW. Like when I come to an area with a waypoint I want to check, and I approach in 200' zoom then change to 150' then 50', just zooming in the map takes too long to update and often I've passed the waypoint. I LOVE the DI view and with just the base map it works great for my needs. Just my opinion.

Thanks Pepop ... I'll keep that in mind !!

I've had little chance to even use it, over the last couple of months ... and even when I did, which was on a couple of night trips, I was in a situation where the GPS/chart wasn't necessary.

I am, however, collecting some waypoints from friends, and intend to punch them in manually ... when the time comes that I'm on that particular lake. I haven't really had to use the GPS/chartplotter function very much, since I installed the unit ... mainly because I've fished lakes & places on those lakes that I'm very familiar with, having fished them for decades.

In the meantime, I have noticed that my "tracks" from previous trips have been recorded. But, while those tracks are pretty much useless to me now, I can see where they'd come in handy ... say like when on a several day trip, and I want to review each day's movement/search pattern & areas covered.

One thing that cracks me up about the internal/base map ... is that it has 7ft, 17ft, & 27ft contour lines on a 3000 acre lake that I fish, but on a 8000 acre lake I fish ... there are no contour lines in the map. Well, none that I've noticed, anyway. It may just be that I haven't zoomed in the chart (or used the chart) enough to bring them on screen. I'll have to check that out, next time I'm on the 8000 acre lake.

... cp :cool:

That's the thing about these maps, they are loaded with "current". data. That 8000 acre lake probably hasn't had any surveys/soundings done on it. I have a fairly new Navionics Hot Maps Premium South card and when I first got it I noticed a fairly large area of my home lake that was just white, no contour lines, and I knew the depth in that area ranged from 2' to 12'. Well, with a Navionics card purchase, you get 1 year of free updates. Well, about the 3rd time I went to the site & updated my card, the next time I was on the lake & passed through that area, there were contour lines & they were pretty accurate. I emailed support about this & they said either an individual or one of their field reps had sent in a sounding for that area & that I had received it with my last update. Pretty cool!

Oops... I just asked this question in the "RF Interference" section before I saw this specific area...

Do the Lowrance Elite 5 DSI FF/Chartplotters have thesame problem with interference as the Humminbird DI units? I use a Minn Kota VariableSpeed TM.

Thanks,
FlyBye

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Originally Posted by FlyBye

Oops... I just asked this question in the "RF Interference" section before I saw this specific area...

Do the Lowrance Elite 5 DSI FF/Chartplotters have thesame problem with interference as the Humminbird DI units? I use a Minn Kota VariableSpeed TM.

Thanks,
FlyBye

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I have a Terrova I use with mine and have no problems at all (except I can't get out fishing as much as I would like).

Please correct me /inform if you can.....if the transucer is attached to the trolling motor, can you raise the motor and leave the unit on and the GPS portion will still function properly?

i have the elite 4 dsi. i've had it for about 4 months now. i came from the hb 595c.it is kinda hard to get understandable material on it. the bright spot to this unit to me is the dsi feature it is much sharper than my other.as for everything else i have to play with the unit. i still havent figured out how once youv'e marked a way point how to go back to it. i dont have the sd card so maybe thats it.anyway i'd say i'm about 80% satisfied with this unit.i'll give it a while longer to get more adept with it.

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Originally Posted by Bulletman

Please correct me /inform if you can.....if the transucer is attached to the trolling motor, can you raise the motor and leave the unit on and the GPS portion will still function properly?

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Yes, Tommy ... it will. The GPS/Chartplotter function is seperate from the transducer/DF functions. It gets all its info from the internal (or external) antenna, so it will still show position & speed correctly.

... cp :cool:

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Originally Posted by lil re-speck

i have the elite 4 dsi. i've had it for about 4 months now. i came from the hb 595c.it is kinda hard to get understandable material on it. the bright spot to this unit to me is the dsi feature it is much sharper than my other.as for everything else i have to play with the unit. i still havent figured out how once youv'e marked a way point how to go back to it. i dont have the sd card so maybe thats it.anyway i'd say i'm about 80% satisfied with this unit.i'll give it a while longer to get more adept with it.

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Thanks for bringing that up, brother "re-speck" ... Thumbs Up

Even though this thread is specifically about the Elite 5 DSI ... I'm sure there are many similar functions on the Elite 4 DSI model. I haven't had the opportunity to use my unit to mark waypoints, then return to them, so I'd be interested in a discussion on the "how to" of that function of the unit. Even with 26pgs of posts, I don't recall this function being discussed.

I won't expect you to read thru all 26pgs of this thread ... but, I would advise you to look thru the first several & find the posts concerning the transducer angles. Understanding what angle & shape the transducer signal is, will help you understand what information is being portrayed on your screen. And yes, you will have to "play around" with the settings & color pallets, in different situations ... in order to find which one is best suited for the conditions at hand. The more diverse the conditions, the more menu choices you'll have to go thru to pick the most favorable settings.

Keep us updated/informed on your progress.

... cp :cool: