Lowrance Elite 5m and Lowrance Mark 5x $600 with rebates

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ferret30

New member
I've currently got a mix of dated electronics that I'd like to replace. I have a gigantic Humminbird 8000 fishfinder blocking the middle window and I don't fish. I've got a tiny Furuno GPS display (no maps, just low res tracks and waypoints, etc.). And I have a good Furuno 1750 radar/display that I'll keep.

I'm thinking of getting the Lowrance Elite 5m Gold (chartplotter with Navionics Gold chart card) and Lowrance Mark 5x (grayscale sounder). The plotter is $460 (after $100 rebate) and the sounder is $150 (after $10 rebate).

Or would I be better off just getting a sounder and using the iPad with Navionics and Ram mount as the primary plotter?

PS - The Lowrance rebate I'm mentioning is a mfg. rebate and expires sometime in Feb '12 in case you were wondering what rebate I was talking about.
 
There are a number of rebates on Lowrance products currently. The word on the street is that Lowarance is coming out with a new series of products (may only be slight upgrades)--but that there will be/are some great deals on the current product.

The Elite 5 is a lower end of Lowrance plotters, but very satisfactory unit. The Navionics gold is similar to what the "insite" chatrs on the HDS series are. There has been a "buy" at Cabelas for the HDS 5 base map (need to buy the chip) with transom transducer for $699, with a rebate). The HDS series allows you to add Broad band radar or sonar or structure scan later if you want.

I feel that you want as much screen real estate as possible, so your plan with two 5" units is good. Not a lot to be gained with color (unless you go to the broad band or structure scan-and are a serious fisherman). Thus the gray scale is find. I have the Gray scale X4 Pro on the Caracal and it is a good depth sounder.
 
I think the 5x and 5m will be a good choice, but I need to figure out more about the NMEA 2000 vs NMEA 0183 (the HDS supports both). My 2006 Suzuki DF90 might interface with the HDS option.

One thing I'm trying to figure out right now is about the external GPS input. My boat has a Furuno GPS receiver on the arch, and I have a Garmin receiver that came with the boat. I'm guessing they aren't compatible among brands, but I can't tell for sure. The 5m has an internal receiver, but I don't know if that performs well from inside a cabin or if it's intended for open boats.

Lots of stuff to think about. Thanks Bob.
 
I doubt you'll have any problem with the internal GPS getting a good signal in the cabin. The GPS antenna for my Raymarine system is mounted on the electronics shelf as is the Sirius antenna and both get good reception. Additionally, my iPhone, iPad, SPOT, and several Garmin handhelds all work perfectly from inside the cabin.
 
ferret30":1u61z110 said:
I think the 5x and 5m will be a good choice, but I need to figure out more about the NMEA 2000 vs NMEA 0183 (the HDS supports both). My 2006 Suzuki DF90 might interface with the HDS option.

One thing I'm trying to figure out right now is about the external GPS input. My boat has a Furuno GPS receiver on the arch, and I have a Garmin receiver that came with the boat. I'm guessing they aren't compatible among brands, but I can't tell for sure. The 5m has an internal receiver, but I don't know if that performs well from inside a cabin or if it's intended for open boats.

Lots of stuff to think about. Thanks Bob.
Click to expand...

Unless you have the digital SMIS gauges on your Suzuki, it will not interface with any NMEA 2000 equipment. The SMIS gauges are NMEA 2000 units built by Lowrance for Suzuki (they build the same gauge for Evinrude using BRP cables and software), but you can't just plug into the engine to get NMEA 2000. You need the digital gauge, and you can't mix the digital system with the analogue system.

I'm not quite clear why there is this huge desire to cram engine data onto a 6" screen with GPS / Chart / Sounder data, when perfectly legible analogue gauges are already installed. If it's for fuel management, you're better off to have two of the 4" digilat gauges, and leave your Chartplotter free to view, I dunno, charts? :wink:
 
Matt, you're right about wanting to see charts, and that's why I'm preferring separate chart and sounder screens (each 480 square) instead of a shared 480x480 or 640x480.

My interest in having some engine info displayed is really just because the Suzuki (Faria) hours meter crapped out after 76h so I was considering other means of getting engine info. But I have a new Teleflex hours meter waiting to be installed and I just need to figure out my motor's true hours and figure out a nifty way of rolling the new meter up to that amount without accidentally going over.

Thanks
 
Your local dealer can hook their computer up to the diagnostic port and get actual engine hours for you.

Also, if you pay attention to the Suzuki tach, it will indicate approximate hours. When the key is turned on, the tach needle will jump up to a number and hold for a moment. This will give approximate hours (2000 rpm is 200 hours, 1500 rpm is 150 hours, etc).
 
That function of the Suzuki tach happens after the 50 hour mark is reached .
A nifty way to get a mechanical hour meter to show close to real hours would involve a plug in styleintermatictimer and a battery charger. Get close to the hours you need and then set the timer to insure it turns off when it needs to . I use one of those timers for my Bradley Smoker so I can set it and forget it .
Marc
 
The other option for the Suzuki is the Lowrance LMF 200 (2") or 400 (4") round gauges, which will read most if not all of the NMEA 2000 information from the engine directly.
 
The Suzuki SMIS Gauges, and the Evinrude I-Command Gauges are versions of the Lowrance 200/400 units. The issue is tsill getting the NMEA 2000 data out of teh Suzuki, which requires the Suzuki network adapter, which isn't compatible with analog gauges as it uses the analog gauge harness for the data cabling, and the harness can't do both the analog and digital functions at the same time.
 
Both the analogue and NMEA 2000 can be used on the Suzuki's. Brownspoint and several others have adaptor cables which plug into the diagnostic port, and allow both. There are instructions for making your own connections on "The Hull Truth".
 
I haven't placed an order yet and I already have the upgrade-itis. boemarine.com has the HDS-7m with USA Insight maps for $700 after rebate. I think even with a HDS-7 series I'd still go with a separate sounder -- I hate it when part of an all-in-one type device breaks and the whole thing goes in the trash.

The one thing that seems better about the Elite 5m in this case though is that Elites have the Gold option which is USA and Canada coverage. Insight is only available for US coverage for some reason. Since we're planning on exploring past the Puget Sound someday, it would be nice to have the option for slightly wider coverage.

Also, the HDS models seem to have double the warrantly (2y vs 1yr), so...
 
Bob, if you've got a part number that would be a huge help, as we haven't found anything that works with analog gaues in place, short of fabricating one's own cable. We don't normally recomend home made cables for warranty purposes. A mis wired cable could damage the EMM, which is an expensive repair.

We've had a number of people say they saw online that a cable was available, but we have found nothing in the Suzuki parts catalog that would appear to be the cable needed.
 
http://tinyurl.com/826patw Is a link to a an 18 month thread in THT which deals with this issue. One of the recent posts:
"Just so you are aware, the reason we have elected to keep the analogue tacho running and connect into the diagnostic port is that there is a view that Suzuki may not cover warranty issues if the tacho and its warning lights/alarms system are disconnected. So connecting NMEA via the diagnostic port overcomes this issue."

I can understand your reluctance as a dealer to recommend something which is not in the "manual" but there are many folks who are doing this successfully. The above link (and you really should read the entire series of posts if you are going to do this)--goes into the details. There are also a number of older posts which I have followed with the issue. I have been following this issue since July of 2006 and there are a number of owners who have made this conversion.

The general gauges and cables are at:

http://store.brownspoint.com/suzuki_page_31.asp

The specific of the adaptor seems to be discussed at the Suzuki Marine Division Boat Builder Bulletin Bulletin No. 004
August 15, 2007

Quoting from the THT "Suzuki engine interface cable 990C0-88134 to work you need to plug it into the adapter cable 990CO-88136 and then plug that into the diagnostic port on the engine. There is nothing more that you need to do on the engine.

At the other end the interface cables must each be plugged into the "leg" part of the T connector on the network, so make sure you have them connected to the correct part of the T!

Once you have done this and the network is turned on, you must ALSO then turn the Suzuki engines key to "on" (the engine "beeps", but they do not need to be actually started and running) and then you should start the HDS and in the Network menu you should then see the interfaces on the "Network Devices" menu on the HDS. You can then select each device and configure it - set your engine year, hp etc."

Again, I have put a few simple quotes out of a very long thread--where the principles began making their own connectors to the round diagnostic port.
As I understand it Suzuki now has that cable.
 
I'll be installing the Lowrance Elite 5m and Mark 5x soon. Neither came with fuse housings attached to the power leads. What type of housing is practical to install, and how do I determine what fuse to use for each? Maybe the manual(s) covered it -- I'm going to double check.
 
Scratch that last question. The manual has a diagram that includes a 3A fuse inline on the positive side. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't included, but maybe these are treated like car stereos and they're assuming professional installation in most cases.

It's interesting, I like the chartplotter so far (playing with it hooked up to a battery) but the manual is missing some obvious things. It came bundled with a Navionics Gold chip, but no instructions on using it. It's on a MicroSD that came inserted in a regular SD adapter (hard to see it), but the GPS accepts the micro size.

I'm considering avoiding more holes in the dashboard by mounting the new items (chartplotter, sounder) and relocated items (radar, 2nd GPS, compass) to strips of HDPE (cutting board) and then mounting those to the dashboard via the many existing holes.

Or I might just try temporary placement of the components using some 3M outdoor heavy duty double sided tape. It's really strong stuff, and should hold long enough to make sure I like the layout.
 
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