Was reading last night about some problems with marcum units some guys are having this year, gave my 2 cents and hoped it would never happen to me. Went fishing today with my vx-1p. Started fishing, got about an hour or so into the trip and the screen started acting funny. Everything was flickering a little and it was spinning about 1/4″ back and forth. Started to sweat a little praying my ducer or screen wasnt going out (only 2 years old now). Half hour later and I could barely see what was going on, everything was flickering non stop and jumping all over the place. I was really sweating now, shutting it off, checking plugs, checking connection at battery, trying new spots away from everybody else. Then all of a sudden about 2 hours into the trip, I reached down and moved the transducer and boom. Nothing. All it showed was the red line at the top. No bottom, no jig, no fish. Turned gain all the way up, nothing. I about fainted on the spot, I thought for sure the ducer went out. Packed up and went home.
Grabbed another battery off the shelf when I got home and hooked up the unit, showing “bottom” perfectly in the house. I looked at the battery I used today and I had accidentally grabbed my lighting battery last night which is a dead battery only used for LED lights since they draw near no power at all.
What an IDIOT! 
