I have gotten to take my new elite 5 out twice now since installation, love it so far. I upgraded from a black and white humminbird 570 on the transom, still have it back there but the lowrance is on the trolling motor. Color screen, 2d, dhi, gps, i'm like a kid in a candy store.

Spent my time yesterday playing with the unit (did manage to catch a few though), i've tried adjusting color schemes, fish id, etc. I have a couple questions for you experts....

Can I leave the unit on when the trolling motor is not in the water (if moving spots or going back to the start of a good drift with outboard)? In other words will it hurt the transducer or unit to be on.

I think I understand the different frequencies for 2d sonar, the angle of the cone etc..... but what is the difference in the two down image frequencies? What situations are both best for?

What do the colors represent on 2d sonar, I assume it denotes strength of return or a measure of soft/hard? Does it also tell you where in the beam the return is?

Lots of color choices for down image, sort of lost there aside from just playing with each one.

I'm getting what i would call pretty good images from the di, but it is also really cluttered and washed out in the upper 2/3 of the screen. I've played with contrast but cant ever seem to get it to go away, any suggestions?
Also, I thought there would be more menu options with di, seems like there is only one or two options that really do anything under the di controls.

I know thats a lot of questions, just looking for some guidance and a quicker learning curve.