LX-5 problem

Hello all,

Being it is Saturday I can’t call Marcum to ask so I figured the next best thing was the IDO forum. I’m having an odd problem with my LX-5. I charged the battery last night and went fishing today but when I got to the lake and was all setup all the LX-5 would do is beep and sit there, the dial was spinning and it beeped whenever you hit any of the buttons but no lights on the dial, After fiddling around I noticed that the lights would ‘come on’ for about a half a second and go out when you first turned the power on. I figured the battery was junk so on my way home I bought a new 12v 9ah battery at Farm and Fleet. Got it home and installed it but still all the LX-5 does is light up for a split second go dark and sit there like its supposed to be working (the dial is spinning and buttons beep), tried my camera battery on it with the same results…. I put my meter on the newest battery and it had 14vdc charging and when the LX-5 turned on it went down to 13.5vdc which to me means the battery is not at fault but something is wrong with the unit itself. anyone seen this and if so was it hopefully something really easy to fix or something more sinister. ???

Ice fishing just isn’t the same without a good flasher!

Did you play with the power/range knob? Sometimes just wiggling it back and forth will make it work. The knob has some metal spring contact points and sometimes temperature change will cause the metal to warp some. It’s possilbe that the metal springs may have just lost strength and is no longer making good contact. That makes your unit not work.

Boy if you have to wiggle a knob to get a 500 dollar unit to work I just may go with a hummingbird and I am not taking a shot at marcum!!!!!!!! I think there are leaps and bounds above the competitors. Is this something that is common. I am looking for a new flasher and am in between a Hummingbird Ice 55 and a LX-5.

In addition to slipperybob’s advice there maybe a connectivity problem with the spinner. Since it does light breifly the dial (led) doesn’t sound like it’s burned out.

Inside most flashers are metal prongs that ride on a disc. This provides the electrical connection from the electronics to the mechanical spinner. You could try cleaning the disc with rubbing alcohol and q-tips IF you feel comfortable taking it apart. I would not do this if the unit is on warranty.

Also, you may have a bad transducer or broken wire in the transducer cable. Maybe borrow a friends. This may not be it though because I think the dial shows zero even if disconnected.

I’m sure you checked but are all the connections good?? My old ones 5 years old nd never had a problem.

I had the same problem with my LX-3tc. This is why I went back to Vexilar. Great stuff Marcum offers, but I can only afford one flasher and I can’t have it off being serviced. I had to send mine up to Marcum to get it fixed. I forget what the problem was. Great service, just again, I can only afford one, so, it was sold and I went back to Vex. It shouldn’t be too complicated to fix and you may even get a new flasher out of the deal, just contact Marcum, it was a snap! Good luck and sorry about your misfortunes!! Steve.

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Did you play with the power/range knob? Sometimes just wiggling it back and forth will make it work.

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yeah I tried wiggling pretty much every connector and button on it, I tried re-seating the power and transducer connectors a couple of times to no avail. Just a week or two ago I had it running without the ‘ducer cable plugged in and it ran fine….now not so much. I bought the unit in the summer of 2009 so not sure if the warranty is still good or not, I would take it apart myself as I work on electronics for a living but just in case there is a warranty I don’t want to void it, anyone know of an LX1 pro for sale? I have been wanting to get a cheaper unit for a backup or spare for friends for awhile now….looks like I could use it sooner than I thought.

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Boy if you have to wiggle a knob to get a 500 dollar unit to work I just may go with a hummingbird and I am not taking a shot at marcum!!!!!!!! I think there are leaps and bounds above the competitors. Is this something that is common. I am looking for a new flasher and am in between a Hummingbird Ice 55 and a LX-5.

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It’s a common problem in all flasher units that’s gonna use a range/power knob with metal contact points. In fact gain knobs have their own problem. The only way around it is to use a different interface. Then again that may present a different set of problem. IMO, it’s a total bummer that happens to anyone, myself included. As far as I can see, the Vexilar, Marcum, and Hummingbird flashers all pretty much share a similar range and gain knob interface.

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Hello all,

Being it is Saturday I can’t call Marcum to ask so I figured the next best thing was the IDO forum. I’m having an odd problem with my LX-5. I charged the battery last night and went fishing today but when I got to the lake and was all setup all the LX-5 would do is beep and sit there, the dial was spinning and it beeped whenever you hit any of the buttons but no lights on the dial, After fiddling around I noticed that the lights would ‘come on’ for about a half a second and go out when you first turned the power on. I figured the battery was junk so on my way home I bought a new 12v 9ah battery at Farm and Fleet. Got it home and installed it but still all the LX-5 does is light up for a split second go dark and sit there like its supposed to be working (the dial is spinning and buttons beep), tried my camera battery on it with the same results…. I put my meter on the newest battery and it had 14vdc charging and when the LX-5 turned on it went down to 13.5vdc which to me means the battery is not at fault but something is wrong with the unit itself. anyone seen this and if so was it hopefully something really easy to fix or something more sinister. ???

Ice fishing just isn’t the same without a good flasher!

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Honestly it sounds like a bad battery or a connection but since you’ve eliminated those possibilities…. I’m at a loss. I’ve never seen or heard of this issue before.

Let us know how it turns out so we can add it to the knowledge base.

Well,

I called Versa this am and their having me send it in. I shipped it out overnight so with any luck I can have it back by X-mas. I’ll post back if they let me know what they fixed. Thanks for the help.

P.S. anyone have an LX1 pro for sale, I’ve kind of been wanting a backup unit and also something for my friends to use who have nothing.

Well I got the camera back last Thursday so I tried it out this past weekend and it works great! I have no idea what they did to fix it as there was nothing in the packaging to let me know what they fixed but whatever they did worked great! I’m really impressed with the extremely fast turnaround as I sent it out on Monday and got it back on Thursday…
I really didnt think I would have it back for this last weekend’s fishing.

All of us here at IDO nation are happy for you. Marcum is the best.