lx-5 excess ticking (unnormal) n’ battery question

Man I have to say I love my lx5. Nabbed some char today along with rainbows and silvers as shallow as 6′.

I do however notice that there get’s to be a progressively louder ticking noise laterly. Much louder then the typical whirr sound after it starts up. Was fishing outside today for most of the day and some ice and snow did build up on the cable. Not sure what it is but it’s definatly LOUD! (not normal!) Sometimes it’s nothing more then the transducer touching the side of the hole. It doesn’t happen immediatly, seems to come on slowly like a bad headache. Sometimes I can make an adjustment to the cable or arm and ducer but more often it just keeps on ticken.

Gonna bring a portable and heater with me tomorrow to see if I can alleviate this problem. Also going to pay more attention to where the ducer is in relation to the sides of the hole as this COULD be the culprit. Wasn’t sure if anyones experienced this or not? If you have and you still have some hearing left you’ll pick up on it quick!

I do want to ask about the batterys though. How long can you get on a fully charged battery? Figure starting at 9 or so, if I leave by 6 my battery will be down to 40%. Is this common?

Call customer service or go to http://www.marcumtech.com and see what they say. The LX-5 should run extemely quiet even in the cold. I have head of a few where nut was over tightened on the board that caused noise from the unit, but that was just a couple. That could be your issue, but I am not sure.

Even in -20 this weekend my units ran extremely quiet

About the batteries. The DCS units measure draw. So, it will read falsely low while the unit is running. To get your true reading for your battery you have to turn the unit off. You should be able to get almost two full days fishing out of your unit under normal conditions. However in extreme cold battery life in not as good as when it is warmer out.

Maybe it is just me but I think the LX-5 units run longer on a single battery charge than other MarCum units I have used in the past. I am not sure if anyone else has noticed or why it is, maybe just better batteries this year.

I don’t know what to say about the ticking- I have two lx-5’s and the only thing I can say is, they are really really quiet-

I have been able to get two full days, and a little more out of my batteries on the lx-5, which is very impressive to me-

Well went out again today. Was great for awhile, then started ticking loudly again. Picked the unit up a foot or so and the noise stopped. Sounds like the ticking is coming from the flasher, not the ducer though the ducer ticks louder then normal when the unit is ticking. contacted marcum last nite about it, they are still unsure at this point what it might be. Just relayed the same thing to them. Was sitting outside today as the wind was HOWLING. Also picked up some interference from something. Had the gain set to 1.5-2.0 to mark a jigging spoon and stil was picking up marks when the spoon was jigged hard. Also noticed some movement along the bottom at the first hard jig of very “series” if you will. Something is definatly fishy! Going to call marcum tomorrow morning before I head out for lakers again.

Is your battery strapped down tightly? I played around with mine (in the house) last night, to try and get you some help/ or try to get an idea of what could be happening. The first thing that came to my mind was maybe a vibration, would cause the unit to “tick”…if the battery is not strapped down in mine, or resting on edge, so to say- it isn’t as quiet as normal- Give that a look and let us know-

Luke,

Yup she’s strapped down tight.

AK, what you describe with your flasher, as far as performance goes is typical. When you jig a spoon with a flasher they bottom may move some, as you are changing the return signal some, that is common.

However, the ticking noise is a problem. When the unit is warm, in your house, shake the unit and see if you can hear anything that is rattling or loose.

If nothing is loose, run the unit in your house for a while and see if you can duplicate the problem. If you can, remove the power head while it is making the noise and see if you can isolate the noise. If the noise is coming from the powerhead, you have a nut that is overtightened on your board I would guess and causing the LED’s to rub I think.

Scott,

You mentioned to run it in the house to duplicate it, then remove the power head. Not sure what you mean by removing the power head. Do ya mean to remove the transducer cable and see if the powerhead itself is ticking?

I did go out again yesterday. The winds died down enough to get the portable up so I had heat. She didnt tick at all, or atleast I never noticed it. As loud as it was before I could easily hear the ticking over my truck running, heater on high and had the tunes on to boot.

Akdan

Don’t know if this will help much, but do you possibly have moisture built up inside your flasher unit. I heard of this happening before and the symptoms were that the flashers starts ticking louder.

Just my thought

Dan- what I think he meant…was to take off the side bracket holders.. I think they are knobs or t-screws, one on each side- then pull it out of the bracket, leave the cords connected-turn it on.. and put it up to your ear to tell if it is coming from the head unit, more specifically where it is coming from… I think that is what he meant..

Well moisture is a definatly possibility. The last time I fished with it I was in a heated fish house and no ticking though I wasn’t out as long.

I’ll have to give that a try Luke, thanks for the heads up on it.

Dan

Sorry, I was out of state fishing all weekend. Yes, that is what I meant. Run the unit in the house for several hours and see if you can duplicate the noise. If you can, while the unit is running, remove it from the pack with all he cables connected and see if you can see where the noise if coming from.

Well I’ve figured out the issue hands down. While pulling up the transducer from the hole while fighting a fish and setting it on top of the flasher itself (on the top flash) I didnt realize how loud the ticking had gotten throughout the day up to that point until I put it back in the hole. The noise is excessive and it is hands down coming from the transducer and NOT the flasher itself.

Thought yall might want the update. I’ve emailed Marcum today to see what they have to say about it. Unfortunatly I’m off to school for the next two weeks, no fishing for me for atleast 3 weeks due to where my weekend falls. Hopefully I wont be suffereing to badly with withdrawls