Lowrance Upgrade chip

[Familymanof5]

Has anyone upgrqaded there chip in a mapping lowrance unit??? Mine has nice color mapping but no depth contours or fish/diving spots.

TOM

[Willie]

I have a Lowrance gps in the car and it will take the marine chip, been planning on getting one, but have not yet. Willie 010

[Familymanof5]

Everywhere I have checked they are $100 BUCKS. :o

Maybe the wife will get me one for my birthday ;)

TOM

[chumhead]

I have had the NauticPath chart for about a year now.....for about $100 you get the entire US coastline as well as the great lakes. With most other companies you only get small areas for the same price (if not more). After extensive searching (have I mentioned I am extremely CHEAP), I found it was best to just purchase the chip at Bass Pro. I did find it cheaper online, but the cost of shipping more than offset any savings (some stores want $15 to ship an SD card!)

The NauticPath Chart is a night/day difference from the built-in basemap. Everything that was of public record at the time the card was published is shown on the GPS, right down to the private docks I pass on the way out to the fishing grounds. All the bouys and wrecks I have checked were spot-on. I would say well worth the $100.

My LMS-480 was not listed as NauticPath compatible, but Lowrance has a software upgrade available that allows it to run on my unit. You can either download the upgrade and put on your own SD card, or they will mail an SD card to you with the software already on it, so you can upload it to your unit.....no charge (but there is a refundable security deposit required). Once you load the new software, you can delete the upgrade from the card, as it is no longer needed. If yours is not listed as being compatible, check with Lowrance to see if there is an update available.

chumhead

[Familymanof5]

Thanks CHumhead that is exactly what I needed to know.


013
TOM

[Familymanof5]

Well I bought the $130 silver chip for my lowrance. Man what a difference it made. My GPS is actually mapping correctly now. I used to drive over the tips of land with it. Now it seems alot more acurate. I checked it on an artifical reef about 4 miles outside of New Pass in Sarasota today and it hit right on the money. We will be happy to have it when we go to the keys for Turkey day.



TOM

[chumhead]

The difference is truely "night and day" isn't it?

chumhead

[Familymanof5]

yeap

[saltyballs]

Dito... I have the same chip and love it; however, my GPS broke this weekend. When I try to turn it on it just blinks for a mila-second and then goes off. It is getting good power. Anyone ever had a problem like this? It is is about 2 years old. I guess I need to track down the original paperwork and see if it has a warranty.

[Familymanof5]

THAT SUCKS

TOM

[chumhead]

Saltyballs,

First, try removing the map chip and see if allows you to power up. If still no good, remove one input at the time (transducer, GPS antenna, speed sensor, etc) and try again powering up after each. It could be one of your accessories is causing your unit to shut down. Doesn't cost anything, so its at least worth a try. You may find out that it is a faulty accessory or cable/connector. Given the boating environment, these multi-pin connectors can get fouled and may need to be cleaned, and often just taking them apart and putting back together is enough to possibly get things working again.

Make sure you are getting 12V to the power input, some electronics will not work if the voltage drops below about 11V.....a test light will still show power, but the unit will not fully power up........just a thought. Here again, the battery might be good, but a bad connector might not allow enough power thru.......

Good luck, hope its something cheap and easy to fix!

chumhead

[saltyballs]

I tried all of that but still no luck. It is getting 12.2 volts. I even reset it as explained on the lowrance site (push and hold both zoom buttons while pressing the power button). Not luck but thanks

[Willie]

I have a lowrance IWAY250 gps, made maily for the auto but with the download from Lowrance it will use the Nautic chip. So I found it online for new $ 79.00 and love it so far. Before that I was just using the garmin gpsmap76 hand held, what a difference the depth readouts make.

saltyballs, have you contacted Lowrance yet? Willie 010

[Familymanof5]

The small man made reef that I thought was only one spot turned out to be about 15 spots kinda combined together in about 3 acres. With the coordinates that the chart gives you it is just one spot. The chip gave me all the points on a map. HOW SWEET!!!! Lovin it so far

TOM

[saltyballs]

Willie,

I have not called them yet but will do so soon. It is out of waranty for sure but I am going to call for service/repair costs. I have been side tracked on my new boat purchase the last few days. Just modified my little 16 ft trailer so I can pick up my new 18ft Carolina Skiff(manufactured in 1990) Friday night. It should be an interesting trip back from the coast. Looks like it will hang past the outside of the wheels by 8" to 12" on each side.

Thanks.....