Lowrance 540C GPS Maintenance

[uphill]

I always preach about not relying on GPS, etc. And I'm true to my word in that I always have charts/maps and a lensatic compass.

However, I've come to rely on my Lowrance 540C and I love the beast. The Shadow Mount that put it where my R/V mirror was keeps my position in easy view at all times.

In Death Valley a week or so ago, while minding my own business the GPS suddenly stopped tracking.

I saw a "?" in the cursor. The message was "GPS Module not responding".

That never happened before. So I started playing with it. No luck. I fiddled with the antenna on the roof.




The connection seemed to be good. I checked to see how many satellites I was receiving. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was hot on 9 satellites.

So for the rest of the trip I fell back to maps and NEVADAESH, the Death Valley Pathfinder who was leading the group. But I was frustrated, irritated and annoyed.

When I got home I bought some Radio Shack "Precision Electronics Cleaner" and undid the connections in the back of the unit. I sprayed them, let them dry, screwed the connections back together -- and it worked.

So if it doesn't work, blast the electrical connections with cleaner. That might be your problem.

[StHarris]

Glad you got it working again, and it was only a bad connection . . . not a bad unit.

[puulboy]

In the instructions, it says to use dielectric grease for each union, Did you do that initially? Just curious if that is attracting dust.
thanks
Don

[uphill]

puulboy previously said:

In the instructions, it says to use dielectric grease for each union, Did you do that initially? Just curious if that is attracting dust.
thanks
Don

I think that was the problem. I used the grease at the point of installation and then for the past year or so, I've been running in horrible southwestern dust. I used the contact cleaner to clean the connection points and then put the can in the toolbox I keep in the rig.

[JoeUser]

I had a similar thing happen on my Garmin 2620, which I use on my Harley. It's exposed to the elements, and it started behaving strangely (not accepting inputs, randomly losing route info, popping into screen alignment mode, etc.).

Since the connector is not sealed, corrosion was causing a poor connection. Cleaned the connector contacts on the cable and on the GPS itself, and all was normal again.

So, keeping a small bottle of denatured alcohol on the bike from now on. Lesson learned...