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

Bought the Elite 5 from Cabelas three weeks ago..... installed late last week onto my TM.... bought the Fishing Hot Spots E113 card..... Anyone on this thread using the FHS card?? Your thoughts?? Have been on the water once and spent most of my time getting the color I like and the contrast set....... Thanks to all who have posted on this thread.... lots of good info! Will add as I learn more. First post..... Thanks All!!

Originally Posted by OzarkAngler

Uh.....write up please! :-)

As requested by OzarkAngler, here is the procedure I have used successfully to transfer my markers, routes and tacks from the iPhone Navionics app to my new Lowrance E5 DSI. I’m sure it is equally applicable to other chartplotters with only minor modification.

Basically, what you have to do is send yourself your iPhone markers, routes and tracks as .kmz files by using the iPhone app's share feature. I used the share via email option and sent them to my email address. Once you have those, save them to your hard drive and then open the resulting .kmz files with Winzip, a freely available utility. Within the .kmz files you will see a single .kml file and a couple of graphics files. Just extract the .kml file to a folder and then take the .kml file and run it through another free utility called GPSBabel to convert it into Lowrance .usr format. Most here are probably familiar with GPSBabel already, but if not you just have to select your input file format as Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language and your output format as Lowrance USR.

Take the resulting .usr files and copy them to a blank micro-sd card and stick that card in your Lowrance chartplotter. Then you have to load the waypoints, trails or routes from the card using the chartplotter's menu. On the E5 it’s within the waypoint, routes and trails sub menu. Once you've done that, they should appear in the appropriate listing and show up on the charts.

Other than the part about using Winzip, this should be a fairly standard process, and it’s certainly easier than typing them all in by hand.

One final note – I’ve noticed that when importing tracks using this method you will end up with several generic waypoints titled WP1, WP2, WP3, etc. However, those can be easily deleted without affecting the trail itself.

Hey that's handy. You found a work around. I don't necessarily have waypoints on my Navionics app as I got it at the same time I got my Elite 5dsi but I'm sure others appreciate this tip. I do have a couple of waypoints on my app I'd like to add. Thanks for your explanation. Sounds simple enough.

Originally Posted by OzarkAngler

You see it as noise, I see it as water temp differences. Both of my graphs and my buddies HDS 8 were marking the thermocline differences at the same depth in the same areas yesterday. As for "clutter", it's all a preference. I prefer to know the depth at all times so I can see what's going on and why. For example, why 18-20ft of drop on the side of a shallow sloped bank on an island is the target depth I need vs. 10-15 based on water temp, depth/contour, rock bottom or what. The speed stays on my graph because mine isn't on the trolling motor. Its at the helm and I use it as much as I use the depth when I'm on plane. I'm limited to only 40mph so I play with the trim some to squeeze out all I can. I also use the speed for trolling. I need to be in the 2.5mph range and my boat likes to idle at 3mph or just under. it's all a matter of preference and turning off stuff doesn't really give me any more insight on "whats below" with this graph. I use all the tools to help me and explain what is below me when I see it as I'm watching the graph really close.

Thanks, OA ... just goes to show everyone who owns this unit, that there's more than one way to set it up & get what we want/need from it !!

... cp

Hey CP and OA y'all sure do know a lot about depthfinders, I don't so i have a question if you don't mind. Can you connect 2 lowrance depthfinders to 1 transducer? Like the E5 DSI to a HDS? If so how? Thanks

Not that I'm aware of

Originally Posted by Eatmorecrappie

Hey CP and OA y'all sure do know a lot about depthfinders, I don't so i have a question if you don't mind. Can you connect 2 lowrance depthfinders to 1 transducer? Like the E5 DSI to a HDS? If so how? Thanks

No, you can't ... sorry. At least not those two mentioned. Some HDS transducers will work on other models, like some LCX, LMS, and X series units. But, the switchboxes that are available, seem to be made to use one unit with two transducers ... not the other way around.
The two you mention do not share the same frequencies, so they can't share a single transducer.

... cp

Originally Posted by HaMm3r

While reading through this thread, I’ve picked up a lot of great pointers that I’ve already used on my E5, but one thing that I haven’t been able to figure out is how to load the Lowrance Enhanced Lake Maps on my unit. The free enhanced maps were brought up by OzarkAngler back on page 48, and there is one lake in Florida that I’m particularly interested in. The problem is, once I download the .at5 file I don’t know what to do with it. I tried placing it on a micro-SD card and sticking it in the unit and powering it on, but it didn’t seem to make any difference for the lake in question. There were no new chart source options to switch to and seemingly no way to manually load it from the card like a waypoint, route or trail. Has anyone used these successfully and if so, mind sharing how you did it?

Go to page 34 of the manual and youwill see how to select from "Lowrance" to "Navionics" map sourcing. Basically you push MENU and then select CHART if I remember correctly.

Question is, I have downloaded the enhanced map for my home lake from Lowrance and I cannot see any enhancement at all over the factory map that came with the unit. It is supposed to have the 1ft depth contours like my Navionics app for my Android phone. I'd really like to have the enhanced countours on the graph so I don't have to use my phone and my Elite 5.

Does anyone know why this is not working even though I have selected "Navionics" and "Lowrance and there is zero difference between the two???