Lowrance HDS Gen 3 Sonar Problem

[rswanson330]

My Lowrance HDS 9 Gen 3 sonar is intermittent.
I have both the regular downscan cone/CHIRP sonar and the sidescan.
Sidescan works fine.
The downscan is hit and miss.
I will read depths and contour bottom for a while, then it loses the signal and I get nothing, many times for long stretches of time. Its like the screen locks up.
But the sidescan continues to work.
I have the older 7-pin blue plug skimmer transducer on the unit.
I'm thinking that I need a new transducer.
Yesterday I cleaned out the plugs with electrical cleaner and re-dielectric greased them, and then did a soft reset.
But testing in the yard still gave me a problem.

Anybody have any thoughts on the matter?

[nysrx01]

What is your other transducer the LSS 2. Where is your 2d transducer mounted. If they all mounted on your transducer you might be better off getting a total scan transducer and replace both with just the one transducer.  Go to BBC forum and check things out. They have a lot of electronic  info and great classified section 

[rswanson330]

Thanks, I'll look into it.
The other transducer is the LSS 2,
I don't know if the totalscan is compatible with HDS Gen 3 though, 
I'll have to look into it.

[rswanson330]

Note: When a TotalScan transducer is connected to a legacy display with a 7-pin blue connector, the side-scanning feature will not function.
Well, I don't have to get rid of my LSS2 then...

[Andre wallyandre]

If you try to run 2D on Chirp and sidescan at the same time the screen will freeze.

Be sure that you got the right 2D transducer in the sonar installation menu.

Also be sure that you are running the latest update 

[rswanson330]

I'm on the latest update,
But me thinks I remember hitting the "reset defaults" button while up at Lake George earlier this summer.

Coincidentally, that is when I first noticed the problem.

I reset everything, did a hard reset, restored my waypoints and identified my transducer correctly.

It didn't lock up in the driveway,

I'm going to try it on our local walleye lake tomorrow evening.

[rswanson330]

The Hard Reset, then re-defining the transducer worked.
I tried it out last night and it worked flawlessly.

And we caught a couple walleye, couple bass, couple slime darts and a perch all in about an hour and a half,

Biggest walleye just shy of eight pounds.

I didn't post it because its down here in CT.

I created a document on doing the hard reset on the Lowrance HDS Gen 3, including how to back/restore up your waypoints.

Some of the options can be a little tricky to find.

If anybody would like it, send me a PM and I'll send it along.

[Andre wallyandre]

Soft Reset HDS units
(does not delete user data)
--turn unit OFF 
--press and hold the PAGES button
--press and release the LIGHT/POWER button 
--release all buttons when the USA map appears

Hard Reset HDS units
(deletes stored user data such as waypoints and trails) Back up your files to a SD card first!

--turn unit OFF
--press and hold both the ZIN and ZOUT buttons
--press and release the LIGHT/POWER button 
--release all buttons when the USA map appears

[rswanson330]

[nysrx01]

Totalscan transducer is definitely compatible with the gen 3. It plugs in the black 9 pin structure scan port. That is the transducer they sold the gen 3  with when they were new . The blue 7 pin was for either 2 d or the HDI transducer. None of the Lowrance  units  7 pin blue plug port will recognize  side scan. Just the 9 pin structure scan port recognizes side scan. 

Edited August 31, 2023 by nysrx01