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

The only negative comments that I have about my Elite5 DSI is the fact the screen is a little smaller than I like and the owners manuals are useless. You'll spend alot of time messing with it on the water than fishing in the beginning. Once you get it figured out though I think you'll enjoy it. Works great at top speeds. I run mine split screen 455/800 pretty much all the time. Don't know why but I seem to get a better understanding of what's actually under the boat this way. I have the Navionics card in mine and the maps are great. Matter of fact I just got a prompt to upgrade my desktop maps this morning. I use the desktop maps alot when sitting here at the house. Studying the maps on the computer then inputting the waypoints is pretty much how I fish. What looks good on the map may not always be a good place to fish. I mark it, scout it out a bit if it's a good place then I save it forever.

Alamancecreek ... thanks !

Yeah, a 5" screen is a little smaller than I'd like, too. But, it's bigger than the screen on the unit it replaces.

I agree on the owners manual ... but then, most are either too short & vague or too long & complicated Doh .... which is why I have the emulator downloaded on my computer, so I can play with that & learn what all the menus have & do.

I'm a total newbie on this GPS/chartplotter stuff, and basically only used a depthfinder to know what depth of water I was over (and if there was any obvious cover beneath me) ... which is why I started this thread, so as to concentrate on matters that concern this unit alone, and not get embroiled in a HB vs Lowrance discussion.

... cp

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

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!

Ran into a bit of a situation : I was told about a website that has coordinates for brushpiles & pallet stacks, on a lake that I fish and am wanting to get to know better. I can load the coords into my E5DSI, manually, without being on the lake. But, when I looked at the website & got the coords, and attempted to put them in ... they were longer than what my depthfinder will accept. The long/lat numbers were 8 or 9 digits long, and my depthfinder will only accept 7 digits max. I tried using the coords, anyway, and dropping the last number(s) ... thinking it would be the same, just not as accurate. WRONG .... when I tried that on my depthfinder, my waypoint icons were popping up 50 miles away from the lake !! So, I figured that there must be more than one "version" of these numbers, and went looking !!

I found a website that converts coordinates. And I figured out why the numbers were longer on the website, than my depthfinder could handle. The website numbers were being expressed in "Decimal Degrees" ... the depthfinder expresses them in GPS numbers. Similar numbers, but not the same ... which is why I was getting the false waypoint readings when I shortened them to fit. The converter allows you to put in whatever version of coordinate numbers ... and translates them to four different versions, with GPS being one of the four. When I convert them over, the maps on both websites show the same location on the lake. I haven't manually added any of them to my depthfinder, yet ... but, feel confident that they will work, and put a waypoint icon where it belongs. I have 72 coords converted, and probably close to 30 more that I have yet to convert.

I did find out the significance of putting the minus sign in the coordinate numbers. See, the first time I punched in the numbers, I left out the minus sign from in front of the Latitude number sequence ... and that waypoint showed up on the map as being in the Mediterranian Sea
But when I added the (-) minus sign in front of the Lat. numbers ... the waypoint showed up on the map exactly where the website map showed it. Lesson learned !!

Just thought I'd pass this along. I hope it helps.

... cp

Bill ... I haven't used it enough to know Rofl

I'm waiting for some more water time with it, to see if I'm going to pull the trigger on a map card for it, or if the preloaded outline maps will be sufficient for the lakes I fish.

Going from using the old b/w low $$ units, to this one (color/gps/chartmap/water temp/speed/downscan) is probably going to be a bit of a learning curve. I've been playing with the emulator program, and will continue to do so thru the Winter months ... so maybe that curve will be shortened a little, by the time I get a chance to get back on the water.

Wish I could give you a better report ... but, the one time I did use it, I was paying more attention to fishing than I was to the screen. I did piddle with it a few times, but not enough to even see what the different color schemes looked like or the split screen. I did turn on the split screen (map/dsi) and it showed me (on the map chart) exactly where I was on the lake & even named the lake. It was, however, just the shoreline outline map (no details or contours) ... but, I didn't try to zoom in on the map, or even know if I could do that. That's one reason I started this thread ... to see if I could get some "can or can't do" info about this unit.

... cp

What does the cedar tree look like on down imaging, are those three pictures just sonar. I am interested in knowing what the down imaging looks like.

Originally Posted by farmer1940

What does the cedar tree look like on down imaging, are those three pictures just sonar. I am interested in knowing what the down imaging looks like.

Farmer ... the unit only does Down Imaging. The Elite 5DSI does not have 2d sonar (cone shaped sonar ping), only the fan shaped Down Image ping. What you are seeing IS what the down imaging looks like. Now, granted ... I didn't have the best color palette picked, and I probably would have gotten a better/clearer image with 455kHz setting.

I just happened to be moving from spot to spot, when the transducer picked up the image. I was leaning over to take the screenshot, when I realized that the top came close to the surface and I might hit it with the big motor. That's why the right half of the screen is segmented & distorted, since my transducer is trolling motor mounted.

If I'd had my settings like I normally would have ... the screenshot images would look more like this :



And, as you can see by this screenshot, there's a discernible difference in the images of 455kHz & 800kHz ...



... cp

Went out last weekend and had much better luck with the gps. Got some amazing images off and around a hump. Recently bought a navionics chip as well. I'll post pics as soon as I find the "attach " file button.