Lowrance GPS Owners??

[zacheus007]

I have the Lowrance 25c and getting a message the GPS is not responding. I was told that the GPS unit needs to be powered but from what I can gather the NMEA 2000 unit needs to be powered, which I do not have. Has anyone had similar issues or have an idea on this?

Thankks.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

I suspect that the connection on your GPS is NEMA2000 based. Nema 2000 simply is the "language" that your GPS comunicates with. Given thgis, I suspect that it wants you to plug the transducer into the Lowrance 25C. It could also mean that the GPS itself is not working. If the GPS is properly connected and powered up, it may mean that the GPS has not initialized itself. Are you outdoors and in a clear area? If not, your GPS may not be getting a signal. Is there an external antenna for the GPS? Is it installed and connected?

I am not especially familiar with that unit, but these are all possible failure modes for a GPS.

Terry

 

[Boydski]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

The GPS antenna should get its power from the NMEA 2000 bus. You should have connected two power wires to get your 25c and your antenna working. One (red) wire powers the 25c and one (red) wire powers the NMEA bus (providing power to any accessories on the bus). It sounds like you may need to connect the bus to a power source, so the antenna will power up and announce itself/talk on the NMEA bus.

Good Luck,

 

[tommays]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

http://www.lowrance.com/en/Self-Service-Support/?searchText=25c



The wireing is a bit tricky and the manual needs to be followed on this but there is unit power and NEMA2000 power that are on two different fuses

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

Is this an occasional problem or a hard problem? I have a similar Lowrance unit and unplugging and plugging back in the network does the trick. You have an external GPS antenna unit right?

Make sure you have all the updates for your unit. Updates need to be downloaded from lowrance, uploaded onto a flash memory card and then put in your unit to update it.

 

[zacheus007]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

I thought the NMEA 2000 was a piece of hardware and did not understand it as teh network. I have the power for the "NMEA 2000" that I am going to attach. Hopefully it is that simple. I will let yall know how I did. Thanks for your help.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

Yah, it's that simple.

The newer versions of the lowrance antennas are "smart"... there's a whole GPS unit built into the white hockey puck. They're not just antennas.

You have to power that GPS somehow, and it gets its power from the NMEA network (which is nice, since you don't have to run power to it or any other sensor device on the network, which cuts down on power wire runs) so you need to power the NMEA network. You only need to power it ONCE... IE if you install a fuel flow sensor or similar you don't need to do it again.

Also, it helps to have a separate switch for the NMEA power, since it'll draw power as long as it's plugged in, which can cause a dead battery if you don't expect it and leave it parked for a long time.

Erik

 

[Boatist]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

Without knowing the complete model number can not be sure but the network need to have power applied for the GPS external antenna to work. If it is an internal antenna then just the GPS Unit need power. See the link that has an example of a large network.

Notice in this link that both head units have power and the network also has power that powers the GPS antenna, fuel flow sensor, ect.

http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products...ing-System/Sample-LowranceNET-Marine-Network/

 

[zacheus007]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

It was as simple as powering the "NMEA 2000" unit which is like, erikgreen said the white hockey puck. Worked great and it was a good thing because the fog was like pea soup off the Maine coast. Thanks for all the input.

 

[jennis9]

Re: Lowrance GPS Owners??

Z - don't feel bad. we had the same issue and felt a little silly when we just had to power the puck (especially since we were getting sonar). From the instruction book - it seems like we would need to terminate the NEMA 2000 wire... not realizing that the PUCK has NEMA200 printed on it - and we just installed it minutes before doing the wiring!

This must be a common install problem, since there is a recorded message on the lowrance customer service phone line and it's listed first on the website. it really is not clear to us in the instruction book, but the web illustration made more sense. easy fix. have fun with your working GPS!