Lowrance LMS 334C Issues?

I’ve been following this thread as I recently added a 334C to my boat. So far I love it. Not one issue. Can I find position in my garage? No. Do I care? Again, no. I need to find my location on the water and so far this baby has been mint.

I’m reading guys are getting the “signal lost” warning. I get that a couple times a day.

I will state with emphatic certainty that I am not seeing any loss or degredation of performance with the unit. The signal loss last a minute amount of time… so short that I have yet to see my Speed over Ground (SOG) or GPS position hesitate or lock up to any degree.

Is anyone seeing anything different or any type of actual performance issues AFTER the unit has locked on for the first time for the day? I’m not. Beyond this warning the unit has functioned FLAWLESSLY.

Here’s a guess… all units lose signal during the course of the day as satellites are dropped and others locked on. No good units lose signal to a degree that performance is affected. Lowrance was utterly foolish enough to put in a feature that notifies you when this signal loss takes place without taking into consideration how long that signal loss lasts.

It would have been one thing to have an alarm that told you when the signal was lost for an extended amount of time. It is quite another to notify fisherman that signal was lost for a fraction of a second.

If this is the case, and I think I’m corect here… fussy fisherman, and I’m in this group too, will go bonkers worrying about something that is a non-issue.

That’s my 2 cents.

One more thing… I have it set-up to mount on the dash and on the bow. (I love the versatility) I have not had a single issue with tipping the unit to far back and losing signal. I can take the thing out of the mount and hold it upside down and everything works fine.

I understand that I don’t need to get a position in the garage, I’m just using that as proof that I don’t believe the unit is working as well as other units I’ve had. If it is the case that the unit is notify of a lost signal when it only lasts for a split second, I don’t know why Lowrance failed to mention it in their response. I have to be honest, I have not been out in the boat a ton with this unit yet, but it just seems like it is not working as well as ones that I’ve had with the puck antenna. Only time will tell I guess. I will give it some more time before I try to exchange it for a 332.

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Was there a warning label on the box…There should be because I am sure most people put them on the dash.

I dosn’t say on the dash,It say’s IN the dash.

I’m going to look for a way to turn off that stupid alarm and will post here if it is possible. Problem solved in my mind.

I can honestly understand why the unit has that alarm, we wouldn’t want to be trying to find a small harbor mouth at night in big waves only to find out later that we lost signal 10 minutes ago, the fact that you get the same alarm for a signal loss that DOES NOT affect performance in any way is a little rediculous and is simply begging for people to worry about the performance of their 334’s.

I do have over 100 on-the-water hours on this unit in the last month. Except for the alarm mentioned, its a fantastic unit.

With all the positive feedback, I’m wondering if mine might just be a defective unit…maybe something as simple as a loose wire inside or something. I think I will call Reed’s and see if I can exchange it for different 334c.

If it was me I’d use it on the water for a couple trips first. IF there’s something it’s supposed to do on the water and it doesn’t do it, then I’d look to swap. Water time is what counts in my opinion.

James & C-Dub, I know in scrolling through my 3500C (same exact unit without the Sonar) I remember seeing a way to disable the WAAS alram and other alarms. So it can be done, if I remeber correctly. Actually I believe it was also pretty easy.

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Was there a warning label on the box…There should be because I am sure most people put them on the dash.

I dosn’t say on the dash,It say’s IN the dash.

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My bad I read it wrong.

I understand……..It was probably in small print. I’m sure you wern’t the only one.

James,

I have to respectfully disagree with your remarks

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Here’s a guess… all units lose signal during the course of the day as satellites are dropped and others locked on. No good units lose signal to a degree that performance is affected. Lowrance was utterly foolish enough to put in a feature that notifies you when this signal loss takes place without taking into consideration how long that signal loss lasts

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I don’t agree that all units lose signal during the course of the day. They might lose individual Satellites, but if you have a clear view of the sky you should never have signal loss where you actually loose your position. As Satellites move in and out of view the GPS units are designed to switch to the best satellites overhead. So while you might be locked on to Satellite #1 you are still tracking at least 11 other satellites. When Satellite #1 goes out of view it picks up a better one to replace it. My handheld Garmin tracks 12 satellites at one time. You only need 4 Satellites to acquire a 3D position, 3 Satellites to acquire a 2D position so the only way you see the message “Lost Signal” is when you have in fact lost all but 2 Satellites not just one of them. This might be a little different for the Lowrance units, but the fact is you should never lose signal to all satellites at one time. The only time I lose signal with my Garmin handheld is when I take it in my house, and even then I can pick up a couple satellites.

I think it is a big deal that the 334C loses signal from time to time, and Lowrance needs to resolve the issue. I wouldn’t just live with it, I would trade it in or get it fixed.

In my opinion I wouldn’t be turning off the “Lost Signal “message either, what happens if you loose signal for a longer period of time? Wouldn’t you like to know that? What if you didn’t realize it while trying to navigate at night? There’s a reason they have those messages in the GPS units, I don’t believe it’s utterly foolish at all. It’s in there for your safety. I do believe you can turn off the WAAS message, but not the overall “Lost Signal” message.

Just my .02

I bought my 334c over the winter and as this thread developed i was worried that i bought the wrong unit.I didnt get to put mine to the test till just a couple weeks ago but i have been very happy with it. I think it’s a great unit and i havent had any problems at all with it.

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I bought my 334c over the winter and as this thread developed i was worried that i bought the wrong unit.

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I was a little worried myself until I got mine on the water and used it as this thread had painted the 334c in a very negative light.

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I think it’s a great unit and i havent had any problems at all with it.

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I figured out how to turn off the WAS alarm yesterday (not a big accomplishment as its easily accessed from the main menu) and the “position lost” alarm has gone away completely.

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I think it is a big deal that the 334C loses signal from time to time, and Lowrance needs to resolve the issue. I wouldn’t just live with it, I would trade it in or get it fixed.

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There’s nothing to get fixed… beyond that alarm. I turned off the WAS alarm… and now I don’t get the “position lost” alarm. Or at least it hasn’t happened in 2 days of fishing for over 10 hours a day. Did the turning off of the WAS alarm affect the position lost alarm? I wouldn’t have thought so. Maybe its just a coincidence. I’ll keep looking attentively for ways in which this 334C doesn’t measure up. So far I can’t find one and the only people I’ve run into with issues, so far, are not using it on the water.

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In my opinion I wouldn’t be turning off the “Lost Signal “message either, what happens if you loose signal for a longer period of time? Wouldn’t you like to know that? What if you didn’t realize it while trying to navigate at night? There’s a reason they have those messages in the GPS units, I don’t believe it’s utterly foolish at all. It’s in there for your safety. I do believe you can turn off the WAAS message, but not the overall “Lost Signal” message.

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Again, I understand the need for an alarm if signals are lost for more than a couple seconds. The alarm on the 334 C seemed to be triggered by a lapse in signal that seemed to last a fraction of a second.

If you could turn off your position lost alarm, I’m not sure if you can or not since all I did was turn off the WAS alarm, all your digital data flashes non-stop if position is lost until it is reaquired. I’d notice that.

Thoughts on the sonar portion of this unit…

I’m a DAMN picky electronics guy and I had run into some serious issues with an X-15 that weren’t addressed to my satisfaction. I chose to run Pin-Point 7400 & 7500 finders after that. This 334C is my first major lowrance addition to my boat since that time. The sonar unit is exceptional. The definition achieved with the color display is incredible and the ease of use of this unit makes this a great unit for someone that doesn’t have a bunch of experience adjusting settings to get the desired display.

I look forward to getting it up on mille lacs to see how it handles mudflat edge walleyes. From what I’ve seen so far I think it will be one heck of a tool locating bottom hugging walters.

OK James….you have my attention. gonna try turning off the WAAS alarm, and see what happens. What settings have you been playing with to fine-tune the sonar capabilities for different conditions?? Just trying to speed up my learning curve, with my more limited on-the-water time.

James…I was out quite a bit this past weekend, and the gps worked a lot better. I only had the signal lost alarm go off once in 6+ hours of fishing . Just wanted to post that for everyone out there looking at this unit. I am still having some issues as far as mounting my transducer though. I keep losing bottom while on plane. I’ve adjusted it 4 or 5 times and I’m still getting a fairly big rooster tail and losing bottom . Anyone out there know what I’m doing wrong?

Bear with me here, because I have only glanced over this thread and not read it in its entirety.

Wade might add to what I have to say, and I hope he does.

The 334 has an internal antenna that is what is called a “horizonal polarized” antenna. Most anntenas are a circular poilarized design. Basically what it boils down to is that if your unit is not verticle, you have a greater chance to loose signal because the antenna is not positioned for optimal reception. The more you tilt your unit away from verticle, the greater chance you have to loose signal.

My WAAS alarm and lost position alarm was going off every minute on my 3600C. I almost did a Fuad Reviez and put it through the uprights. After turn the alarm off it worked better.

I finally got a chance to put my new 334C to the test for a week of fishing in the UP of Michigan. Sonar worked great. The unit is mounted on the dash under the windshield with nothing but glass above it. I was careful to position the unit straight up. GPS was an issue some of the time. After acquiring good signal and following routes and trails, I would lose the signal. This happened frequently. It would acquire the signal then I’d lose it 10 minutes later. I will be calling Lowrance to see what they have to say, but I’d say they have a few bugs to work out with the internal antenna. The thing that was the biggest frusration was getting into a fish and setting a new waypoint only to find the signal was lost. I wonder if lowrance will trade take this one back and replace it with the 332. thanks Dave

Dave, I think they will. Give Lowrance a call and explain the issues. They should either give you a newer 334C to try or exchange it for the 332C with external antenna. You’re under warranty for a year and deserve to have a working unit. I’m a little baffled at what’s going on with these because along with the negative reports there are many good reports on the 334C as well. Call them and let us know how it goes please.

Wade,
I called Lowrance. They basically narrowed it down to 2 possible options.
1. Re-set the unit -With unit off holding down the pages key, and then power key held at same time to power up the unit. This resets the unit and won’t lose any waypoints I already have entered. I didn’t have WAAS checked as required on the GPS set-up, but they did tell me this is an issue if it had been checked. The unit should be operating with “WAAS Required” unchecked. I explained what was hapenning with trails showing up as intermitent and they said this indicated the regular satelite signal was off and on. I’m going to give it one more shot this weekend and reset to orignal setting, But I really don’t think that was the issue.

2. Send the unit back into Lowrance and they will go over it with a tech. This is really bad timing as you can imagine. They would replace it with another 334, or I could opt to replace it with the 332 w/external antenna model.
They told me “in-stock” for either unit is an issue right now. A replacement might take a lot longer than I would like. In any instance here it is early June, and I’d rather have a sonar unit than nothing at all. Sonar worked incredibly well. I will keep you posted Dave

Thanks Dave. Maybe you can wait until you have a break in your fishing schedule. Let us know how it goes.

After emailing Lowrance with a detailed description of what mine was doing a few weeks back, they asked me to send in in, and told me it would only take about 9 days to troubleshoot and fix or exchange. Will report on their findings when I hear. Luckily, have a portable sonar to use in the meatime, and a handheld gps if I need it. They have been very responsive… I just hope they can solve the problem, because would rather not have to go to the 332C with remote antennae.

Just an update for those with signal retention problems. As mentioned, Lowrance asked me to send in my unit after i gave them a detailed description of problems I was experiencing. I used it for the first time yesterday on Lake Michigan, and it worked flawlessly…never lost the signal once, and absolutely no gaps in the track. So I’m pretty sure that the problem was solved. Another outing or two will tell for sure but this was the first time I had no signal loss . There was no explanation of the repair, but i did inquire via email for an explanation. I got the unit back about 2 weeks after I sent it in….very good service, as would be expected from Lowrance. And this sonar finds fish when they’re there……see my Lake Michigan report.

Oh yeah, incidently, the lost position alarm (or lost signal alarm?) is the problem I was having. Not the same as the lost WAAS alarm…I am still losing the WAAS now and then, but did dis-able that alarm.

Just talked to Lowrance yesterday and they are fixing mine as well… they told me it’s an “antenna modification” to the internal antenna. They are doing it at no charge, not even shipping with with factory warranty.

Fingers are crossed — hope the fix works as well as yours.

I’ll bet yours is going to work well..still waiting to hear from them about what the fix was on mine.

Please keep us posted.

OK Here’s the skinny. Heard back from Lowrance in response to my email question about what they did to fix my unit. The message said that “it appears that some additional shielding was added to modify the GPS strength”. I’m not sure what exactly that means, but was out again yesterday, and never lost the signal once…..so I’m a happy camper.