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

No confusion on my part. Mine has a flasher . Some of these sonar/chart plotter thinks are confusing thru no fault of yours. Sometimes I think the good old days when instructions were complete and easy to understand---were, well -good old days.

fishnfool

I'm a half hair away from pulling the trigger on one of these. It sure would be nice if they still had the $100 rebate going along with some sales somewhere. The cheapest that I've found so far are refurb units that have a 6 month warranty.

Given the extreme changes in depth on KY Lake, I'm somewhat disheartened to learn that these things are manual depth setting. Even my cheap units do auto.

Originally Posted by Quackrstackr

I'm a half hair away from pulling the trigger on one of these. It sure would be nice if they still had the $100 rebate going along with some sales somewhere. The cheapest that I've found so far are refurb units that have a 6 month warranty.

Given the extreme changes in depth on KY Lake, I'm somewhat disheartened to learn that these things are manual depth setting. Even my cheap units do auto.

PM Brian and see what he can do for you. He has some excellent prices. http://www.crappie.com/crappie/membe...-299-00-a.html (this is just one of his ads he carries Lowrance too)

Originally Posted by fishnfool

No confusion on my part. Mine has a flasher . Some of these sonar/chart plotter thinks are confusing thru no fault of yours. Sometimes I think the good old days when instructions were complete and easy to understand---were, well -good old days.

fishnfool

If you have a Elite 5 DSI ... would you mind giving us a walkthru on where you go to set it in flasher mode ?? Or is your unit actually a Elite 5x DSI ??

One of the reasons I deleted my computer's emulator program, was because it seemed to show features from ALL of the different "Elite" series units, in the same program ... and not all of the different units, in the Elite series, seem to have all the same feature capabilities. I hate giving out misinformation, as much as I hate getting it ... and some of the things I saw on the emulator program could not be reproduced on my unit. In trying to understand the unit's capabilities & how best to use them ... having information that's not translatable to the actual unit is inviting misinformation, as well as confusion, both of which are time wasting endeavors.

Not having a written instruction manual, that went over each capability with a fine toothed comb, didn't really bother me that much. The menu's, on the unit, have pop-ups that explain what each choice does. I'm OK with how the DSI works, and don't really mind having to tweak the menu screen choices while the unit is being used. My next step, in learning how to best use the functions & capabilities of this unit, is to input waypoints and see how well the unit can take me to those spots.

I will say one thing about this unit .... when using it at night, even with a black background screen setting, it practically lights up the interior of my boat.

... cp

Originally Posted by Quackrstackr

I'm a half hair away from pulling the trigger on one of these. It sure would be nice if they still had the $100 rebate going along with some sales somewhere. The cheapest that I've found so far are refurb units that have a 6 month warranty.

Given the extreme changes in depth on KY Lake, I'm somewhat disheartened to learn that these things are manual depth setting. Even my cheap units do auto.

The elite 5 DSI has an auto depth setting. Don't plan on seeing anything much more than 50' deep tho. At 150' it will lose lock on the bottom all together. Fairly good definition up to 50' but not much after that.

Originally Posted by crappiepappy

If you have a Elite 5 DSI ... would you mind giving us a walkthru on where you go to set it in flasher mode ?? Or is your unit actually a Elite 5x DSI ??

One of the reasons I deleted my computer's emulator program, was because it seemed to show features from ALL of the different "Elite" series units, in the same program ... and not all of the different units, in the Elite series, seem to have all the same feature capabilities. I hate giving out misinformation, as much as I hate getting it ... and some of the things I saw on the emulator program could not be reproduced on my unit. In trying to understand the unit's capabilities & how best to use them ... having information that's not translatable to the actual unit is inviting misinformation, as well as confusion, both of which are time wasting endeavors.

Not having a written instruction manual, that went over each capability with a fine toothed comb, didn't really bother me that much. The menu's, on the unit, have pop-ups that explain what each choice does. I'm OK with how the DSI works, and don't really mind having to tweak the menu screen choices while the unit is being used. My next step, in learning how to best use the functions & capabilities of this unit, is to input waypoints and see how well the unit can take me to those spots.

I will say one thing about this unit .... when using it at night, even with a black background screen setting, it practically lights up the interior of my boat.

... cp

To the best of my knowledge, the Elite 5 DSI has no flasher mode.

Originally Posted by FAADAN

The elite 5 DSI has an auto depth setting. Don't plan on seeing anything much more than 50' deep tho. At 150' it will lose lock on the bottom all together. Fairly good definition up to 50' but not much after that.

I think I tried using it in "auto depth setting" ... and it did not present the screen image in a fluid manner, or cover the entire screen with an image. It left blocks of the screen blank, along the bottom portion of the screen, as it changed depth ranges (best I can remember, anyhow) And since mine is mounted on the bow/TM, I have no way of knowing how it would react to speeds greater than a couple miles an hour (top TM speed) and I don't normally need to know what's beneath me in water depths over 30 feet.

I mistakenly stated that it only had manual depth settings (probably still suffering from the confusion created by the emulator program on my computer ) .

And yes ... please do continue to correct me, if I should make a statement that is incorrect. Won't hurt my feelings one bit, and will help other owners of this unit (as well as me) .... and that's the whole idea behind this thread !!!

... cp

Thanks, guys.

About the only water that is deeper than 50' on KY Lake is some areas of the narrow old river bed and the rock quarry. Most of my running around will be done in 30' or less.

What are the auto depth gradients? 10,20,40, etc?