HDS Gen 1 networking problems?

Have a hds8 and 2 hds5’s and got a structure scan lss1 last year. All worked great till now. They are all networked together through ethernet cables and through the structure scan module.

Every time out have to auto configure everything again and sometimes the GPS works on the hds8 on the counsel and sometimes it doesn’t. The hds5’s GPS’s work fine.

Sometimes it reads the other unit’s, sometimes it doesn’t.

Getting very frustrated.

Have done soft resets.

Not against hard resets and have done them before. Have updated software before but have had some apprehensions about doing that again.

Could my structure scan module be part of the problem? Any easy way to isolate that as the issue?

The hds8 is having trouble reading map cards too. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

Any help or insight would greatly be appreciated, thanks.

Sounds like they are fighting each other for control. Try this take your map cards out. Soft reset all 3 units. Power them all up and auto configure. Now go to networking on each unit and hit data source. Set GPS to local by clicking on the X on the right side of GPS setting. Set sonar to local for front locator and HDS 8 rear transducer. You can do the same for water temp. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that are very helpful ( networking Lowrance HDS). Have you updated the software on all 3 units? The last update is a few years back but if they were never updated it might help.

Appreciate it. Will go the the process and see what it does.

I have gen 3 HDS but the menus should be pretty close. I learned most of this on YouTube. Good luck

Were you having issues and if so what kind?

Thanks

Crappy Fisherman,

Appreciate the help!

Did laps around the boat after soft resets, yes that’s plural. It kept switching back and forth no matter what I did with the auto configure and data sources, from GPS issues, to not reading map cards properly or continuously switching back and forth between transducers even when off the auto settings. One hds5 is on the starboard side, one hds5 is on the bow and the hds8 is on the counsel. Couldn’t get them all to work properly when networked.

After a lot of hair pulling, for some reason going through the sonar source menu on the hds8, not the data device menu, noticed it was set on the one of the hds5’s, hmm. Set that to the hds8 on the hds8 and now it’s working correctly. Interesting how glitchy the whole system got off that? Curious if that’s a glitch not covered in the latest update or if I should update them again. Will test it out and hopefully shutting it on and off multiple times doesn’t throw it again, but at least everything is working properly for now and know what’s possibly throwing it off. But time will tell.

Greatly appreciate the insight!

Glad to hear it’s working, that was my next suggestion. Also make sure your battery is strong enough to run all that stuff, they pull a lot of juice and are very sensitive to low power sources.