Marcum LX-5 issues

I have been using an LX-5 for years and have found myself becoming dependent, so I know my way around their features. My buddy “the IDO lurker” bought one last year during the infamous $299 special. He asked me to help him run it this ice season and I just cannot get it to perfrom like the other LX-5s I have had my hands on. I set it up in 7 feet of water today in order to begin teaching him the basics. To my suprise, I couldn’t adequately find the bottom. I could locate it, but not like on my graph. I had the red line at the surface, and I found yellow lines beginning at the bottom with the gain turned at 2. I began increasing the gain to turn the bottom red, but it just never showed up. I had the gain maxed out at 10 and I couldn’t get a solide “red” bottom. The best I could get was yellow with a glimpse of occasionaly green. I thought perhaps it may be a strange bottom, so I replaced his Marcum with mine in that hole. Mine performed flawlessly and I resumed teaching him the basics using my graph. I checked all of the settings and the battery. It was a brand new battery and the settings were correct. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong or whom he should contact to get the problem resolved?

Good fishing,
Justin

sounds to me that he has a ducer problem it more than likely has a bad crystal in it.

We could run to perch puddle and try my Transducer with the unit to see if that is the trouble.
Give me a shout if that would help

That would be my guess!

The 2500w LX5 will display slightly different than the 2000w LX5. I didn’t see any mention of checking jig signal strength. Also didn’t see any mentioning of checking battery voltage or just looking at the battery meter on the unit. You can have a brand new battery sitting in the unit untouched for a whole year go bad. Turning the gain up to max will do exactly like described with weak battery.

Thanks for the ideas. The battery was good at 100% on the meter. Something is definitely wrong with how it is behaving and it sounds like the transducer is the culprit.

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We could run to perch puddle and try my Transducer

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Thanks for the offer Bret. I have an LX 5 as well, so I will try my transducer on the unit when I get a chance. Perch puddle… ive yet to catch a Perch in that slew However, so far this ice season, anytime the Marcum finds a ledge dropping down to ~17 ft, there seems to be tasty critters that are hungry I’ve tried dozens of different jigs and baits, but I find myslef always returing to the Gil Pil with a spike when I want to put them topside!

Hello everyone,
This is my first post from Toronto Canada. Anyone knows what’s wrong with my LX-5. The other day while fishing I noticed the display/screen shifting up and down for about 5-6 seconds. It did that about 7 times during the day, but more frequently toward the end of the day. The battery was still 50% on the meter. Thank you all in advance.

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Hello everyone,

This is my first post from Toronto Canada. Anyone knows what’s wrong with my LX-5. The other day while fishing I noticed the display/screen shifting up and down for about 5-6 seconds. It did that about 7 times during the day, but more frequently toward the end of the day. The battery was still 50% on the meter. Thank you all in advance.

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Welcome to IDO.

Could be one of two things.

1) your battery needs to be replaced or you have a poor connection at the battery terminals.

2) Sounds like the timing might be off. It is an easy fix but requires a trip back to the factory to have it done. Most guys fish through the ice season if the problem is mild and inconsistent then send the unit in over the summer. If the issue is severe and / or negatively impacting your ability to fish… you’ll need to get it in sooner.

If you’re POSITIVE #1 isn’t the issue then you’ll need to judge for yourself if problem #2 is severe enough to warrant immediate repair.

When it comes to flashers ALWAYS rule out the battery. Even if the meter says everything is fine. My first suggestion would be to borrow a different battery from a buddy and get a few hours out on the ice with a different power source to get a better feel for where the issue might lie.

Hope this helps.

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Hello everyone,
This is my first post from Toronto Canada. Anyone knows what’s wrong with my LX-5. The other day while fishing I noticed the display/screen shifting up and down for about 5-6 seconds. It did that about 7 times during the day, but more frequently toward the end of the day. The battery was still 50% on the meter. Thank you all in advance.

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I had the same issue with mine last year. With mine, the zoom also wouldn’t work on the two deeper settings. I believe the issue was #2 from James’ post. I had to send it in, but it has worked flawlessly since I got it back.

Thank you gentlemen. I called Marcum tech. today and the gentleman there said it could be timing issue. He advised me to send it in so I did. Hope to get it back in time for whitefish and laketrout on Lake Simcoe.