How about we all try to consider the possible results of our actions. Like many, I’m often on the lake with my ATV. Someone one could really get hurt if they dropped a tire into a 16″ hole while driving across the ice.
I owe this post to the folks at marcum and anyone considering buying one. To recap: The VX-1 worked great for a couple hours, then went to crap. When I adjusted my gain enough to see my jig, there was tons of “interference”. My friend went rto that spot last night with a camera. Turns out that the “interference” was indeed baitfish. Tons of them! Of course I feel like a dumb***! I would have rather stayed quit instead of admitting it, but that wouldn’t be fair to anyone.
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if you are a veteran and order it over the phone from gander ask for the 10% military discount. they will not give it at the store but will over the phone.
Damn, I forgot about that. 
If it’s working well the way it is, wait til the new program gets the bugs worked out. No sense in being on the ice with a troubled electronic
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Hey, your up to 13 posts! Sorry I was so hard on you yesterday. I hope your LX5 works as good as mine.
Yeah, I was a little annoyed. No hard feelings though. I didn’t just come here to hate. It’s a pretty cool forum. I’m looking forward to getting out on the ice with the LX-5!
Hopefully it’ll work well for you. Mine worked awesome for two hours or so. There are many really positive reviews on them. That’s why I didn’t give up on Marcum. Hopefully I’ll have better luck with the LX-5 I ordered
You could go to Gander Mountain. It’s a good excuse to drive down to Cabelas though 
I may be asking for punishment. Instead of giving up on Marcum, I just ordered an LX-5. I sure hope I have better luck with it
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The customer service rep said they have been finding that it may take 36-48 hrs. to fully charge.
Considering the chargers are low amp-trickle type this is no surprise.
The vx-1P used to come with a 500mah charger. Should take 18 hours to fully charge a 9ah battery. If you are bringing from dead it will struggle a bit and take up to 20-22 hours.
If you have the charger with the little LED light, that one is a 1amp charger and should take around 9 hours to charge a 9ah battery, 7 hours for a 7ah and so on. Add an hour or two for a dead battery to recover before charging. No battery (9ah or 7ah) should take 48 hours to charge, even after being ran dry and needing to recover.
That sounds about right.
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I would bet you were seeing baitfish down there on your unit, and your friend with the old vex was not because his is not as sensitive. If you would have told him to turn his gain up to half way he would probably have seen it too.
I only adjusted my gain enough so see my jig. He could see his jig, so his gain was right. The unit worked great for a while. Then I couldn’t see my jig anymore and had to adjust that gain to see it. by the time I adjusted my gain enough to see my jig, the screen was a mess.
If your gain was over 2-3 you had it way too high. Make sure the cord is not kinked and the transducer is below the ice. You should be able to see your minnow in 20 feet of water on about 2-2.5 gain. Minnows can be tricky though, they will swim out of the cone of your sounder and make you turn up the gain to see them, then you start picking up baitfish or plankton (like you did).
I only adjusted my gain enough so see my jig. He could see his jig, so his gain was right. The unit worked great for a while. Then I couldn’t see my jig anymore and had to adjust that gain to see it. by the time I adjusted my gain enough to see my jig, the screen was a mess.
Called again and talked to a guy there. He said I shouldn’t have performance issues til the battery gets down to 11V or so. We talked about the problems I’ve had, and he said normally the user is doing something wrong. I explained to him that it’s perfect for the first couple hours, but then my jig starts to fade and in order to see it I have to adjust my gain up to a point it mucks up the screen. He recommended I send it to them or take it back to where I got it since it’s only a couple days old. He said he had just been telling someone how few problems they have with the VX-1. I apparently have [censored] luck. 
On a good note, it sounds like they have really fast turn around in case you do need service work done.
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12.2 is charged….but nowhere close to full..12.7
Your symptoms (it mess’s up after 2 hrs)do indicate a low charge…
Try a full charge and see what happens…
Actually, mine is charging now. The red light is still on. I unplugged it for a reading, its at 13.66V. It’s not uncommon for a 12V battery to charge a little higher. I had these problems when by battery was at 12.2V. I always charged the first one I got after every time out. It seems that as soon as the power gets a little low(12.2V in a 12V battery is not low) the problems start. That’s only after about 2 hours of fishing. That’s not acceptable.
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the site is full of vex owners as well. your best bet is to call marcum. it however seems weird that your 2nd one did the same thing as well. also if you ran to gander and got another one and ran right back, chances are the battery the 2nd one was not charged. i would give it a good charging and then give it another shot. i think in 80% of all flasher problems, a battery either being shot or not charged is the culprit.
I did take it right out to the lake fishing. The owner’s manual says the battery comes fully charged so you can to that. Both worked will for a couple hours, then got bad. I suspected the battery but I tested it and had 12.2V.
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watched a buddy using his fl8 this saturday in about 15 feet of water.
his vex showed weeds/brush and about 12 feet of water. gain at 0.
“a big fish is coming in, this is a huge mark”
“dude, your tiny jig is 1/4″ red mark, that fish is probably small”
“i can’t turn the gain down anymore”
after a while of hopping i put my marcum down that same hole and i was reading 15 ft of water with a little bit of weeds
yipes. glad i made the switch.
I’d like to keep the unit. I hope it’s a mistake I’m making. This isn’t rocket science though. The thing works perfect for a while, then just goes to crap. I try playing with the gain, without any luck. I played with the IR, no luck. Had my friend turn off his Vex, nothing changed. I could tell he was envying my VX1 at fist. Not so much after a couple hours. Lots of people seem to like their VX1. Had I known this is a Marcum sponsored site, I would have know I’d get bashed for posting this. That sucks. Was hoping for some ideas on what the problem might be
I’m more disappointed, than hating. I called Marcum. Had top leave a message, hopefully they call back soon. Maybe they had a bad batch of transducers come through.
I was in 17′ of water, and the transducer was below the ice and clean. I guess maybe I’ll call marcum. The VX-1 has a great looking display, especially compared to that old Vexilar, however, that vex was looking a lot better, when it was marking his jig and fish, and I just had a bunch of garbage on my screen. The lake has few weeds. This was fishing from a permanent structure. The flasher worked great for a while, with a clean, nice display, then it went to crap.
