WR8Y

I could not find anything in the manual on how to set the barometric altimeter to the local barometer reading. I was hopeful that the electronic altimeter would be more accurate. Also, I should not have said that it's "alwyas 75 feet off" but on the two trips to Brunswick, it spent most of it's time reading 70-80 feet as I walked along the beach. But there were times it would read as much as 110 and as little as (now get this!) -10 or -15 feet.

My unit has a barometric altimeter in it, but I am NOT getting accurate elevation readings, that was my point. Also: I found the barometric altimeter in the iFinder to be almost useless.

My Lowrance Ifinder Expedition is ALWAYS about 75 feet off, it always reads about 75 feet HIGHER than it really is. I suspected this, and proved it on two trips to the Atlantic Ocean last year. NOW: The EPE usually reads between 21 and 50 feet, but it's actual error appears to be much less. I say "appears" because I don't know if my position error is the GPS or the electronic map in the GPS. Now, I DO know that the repeatability of a position is very good: I have waypoints set along the trails in FDR Park and my waypoints SELDOM appear more than 10 feet from where I set them! They are usually less than 5 feet off and the trail itself is very close as well. I don't see the big challenge in providing similar accuracy in elevation.

Why not?

DWBur, I have found a similar bug with my Expedition C, checking/unchecking the Popup square and (cant remember which) another one as well will not work - unless you check/uncheck it and TURN IT OFF right away, it won't remember what you did. The Ifinders have some bugs in them, period. But I am still overall quite happy with my Expedition.

And there's quite of few of us here - aren't there! I see that I'm among my own kind here.

Some Motorola chargers are using rates of 1.0C - yikes! Not sure how that's gonna work out, unless there is something about NiMH chemistry that prefers high charge rates - but that goes against decades of conventional battery care teachings. For NiCads, the old "Rapid" SP50 chargers used a rate around .3C, took 3-4 hours to charge on high rate. THOSE batteries lasted a LONG time. The MT500s and others that used a .6C to 1C charge rate didnt' last as long. NiMH has been touted in my industry as being "A great improvement" over NiCAD batteries. Sounds like it IS indeed an improvement: faster charging is possible and maybe even GOOD, where with NiCADs fast rates were obviously not good for the battery. And the "Memory effect" with NiMHs is certainly less of a problem, we'v seen that here in the shop.

A 26% rate!

If the battery is over 4 years old, I don't bother, by that time the cells are old enough (and since most of our customers are public safety and use their batteries almost every day) that we replace the battery. Restoring/reconditioning such an old battery has just a temporary effect. Now, a battery of just 1-2 years age is a different story! I WILL say, that NiMH seem to not be all that prone to capacity loss as the NiCADs - NiCADs were awful about 'memory effect'. I can't say much about how well reconditioning works on NiMHs - I have not seen them suffer capacity loss very often. The few that HAVE done so, were under Motorola's 1 year warranty, so we just replace them and send the bad ones in. It sounds like the BC900 acts very much like out commercial charger/conditioners, and does all that they do - but for 10% of the cost!

105% is fine, at work, we often see new batteries, well - sometimes 6 month old batteries that go 105 to 110%. And 95% is certainly within tolerance. (We condemn a battery when it gets down to 80%, mostly because Motorola will replace a battery under warranty if it's under 52 weeks old if it tests under 80%.) I am gonna go get one of those chargers. No product is perfect,but I still want one. Impressive Charger!

I wouldn't say "overvoltage". Sure, you COULD use a strictly high voltage indication to assume a full charge, but the more commonly accepted indication is that a charging cell, (given a reasonably steady charge current) will show a slight DIP in voltage when fully charged. This is more pronounced in Ni-Cads than Ni-MHs, therefore, heat is often used to determine full charge when the NiMH is being fast charged (charge rates over 1/3 of capacity.) The most reliable way to charge a NiMH is to apply 1/10 of the rated current for 15 hours. (Say you have a 100 maH battery. Charge it as 10 ma for 15 hours - NiMH's have a charge efficiency of about 66%, so you've gotta put more INTO it than you get OUT of it.) If you insist on fast charging (and we all do!) then sensing of the cell's heat is supposedly the way to go. Well, the 'delta V' process I describe only work reliably with a low rate. Heating a battery up like that is NOT good for it, period. If the surface of the battery is getting warm, think how hot the INSIDE is getting. I tried a compromise when on vacation. I used a 2 1/2 hour charger in the truck that charges at 1000 mA. It uses heat to determine charge in addition to a timer - it cost $11 at WalMart. Since I was driving 14 hour days, and since I could time the charge (and had already measured the charge current), I let it charge my batteries (AA's at 2100 maH) for almost 3 hours - I had it plugged into my acc outlet in the direct flow of an A/C vent - the batteries never got warm! At nearly 3 hours, I pulled them from the charger. I could get 12 hours use from them with the backlight on and external antenna plugged in. Usually, I get 10 hours maximum. BTW, I use Kodak 2100 maH AA's from WalMart - the cheapest NiMHs I can find at $7 for four of them.

Boy that was easy. I haven't posted here in months - how'd I get along without you guys?

You are GOOD, man! Problem solved, now to go thru all the menus and set things up like I had them...

I'v been thru EVERY menu item - just cant find it. Ok, I guess I'll try the soft reset.

Ok, now, I'v done this before but cannot remember how I got out of it. I have an Expedition C and while driving in the dark, I somehow switched it to read (on the Sat page) "Waiting for NEMA GPS Serial Data". I'v somehow turned off the GPS receiver and have it waiting for data FROM the Comm Port! (Did this while driving, hit ENTER and EXIT a few times, among other buttons, maybe.) The manual did not help, how do I tell it to go back to being a GPS RECEIVER??? Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

80 Feet??????????????? WOW! I hike the Pine Mountain Trail near Columbus, GA. ALMOST every weekend, and certainly at least 3 times a month, I have this trail recorded in my Expedition - including the mile markers. When I hike, the mile markers are off by as much as 20 feet (altho they are usually within 5 feet). The trail is usually within 10 feet and often much closer than that. This trail is almost all under tree cover, much of it heavy, I DID find that using an external antenna helped, so much that I re-recorded all 41 miles of trails after buying the antenna (which was no big deal, like I say, I am there all the time anyway.) Now, sure, there are two areas where the accuracy suffers by as much as 50 feet, but they are both in low spots where the sats low on the horizon are simply not receivable! I found that I had to record them at times when the were 8 or 10 sats in the sky, with at least 5 or 6 high enough to be 'seen' from these two areas. I often find that roads and markers are off by 50 or 100 feet, but any waypoint I save is usually within 10 feet. What I am saying is, I think the actual position I am shown is not all that accurate, but if I save a position, my GPSr takes me back there within 5-10 feet.

I like the KODAK Ni-MH batteries in the Yellow card at Wal-Mart. They are 2100 maH. (Speaking now as a 26-year veteran of electronic repair): Just DO NOT use a quick charger if you are interested in making them last - use a 10 to 16 hour charger!

I am on my 3rd Lowrance Expedition. The second one quit after about 3 weeks - I called them and they had me box it up and send it in. It left on Wednesday, the replacement unit was here the next tuesday. Good 'nuff service for me! I also had a card reader problem, the thing simply wouldn't work right out of the box. I called 'em and the guy talked me thru some tests, took about 1/2 hour - he could not get it to work, so he simply sent me a new one - it was here in 4-5 days and worked first try! Again, good 'nuff service for me!

Do a google on MURS "Multi Use Radio Service" - it's what I use. I think I am on 154.540 mHz at 4 watts. I have never tried to talk over 3 miles, but have never FAILED to talk the distances I'v tried! As was stated before, UHF suffers from higher losses in the trees than VHF.

Just Eeducated Enough to Pa s s ?

OOOps. I missed that.

Don't say anything - and don't say anything when you come home and find that she's got a new $400 whatever; since you two don't work together financially, anyway.

More stupidity from pMSNBC. The GPS system dates back to before the 91 Gulf war. The solar cycle has been going on for billions of years; the last solar peaks were in 1990 and 1999, yet the GPS system - and the rest of our technology survived. All of science knows about the solar cycle, and our space-based communications systems have ALWAYS been designed with "solar weather" in mind. More sensational journalism - relax, everyone.

You can say that again.

The US map is done beautifully? Since when do Ifinders have anything more than that pee-poor basemap? It MIGHT be more than what is displayed for Canada - but it's still worthless without the detailed map in Mapcreate.