INSTALLATION AND OPERATION MANUAL X-50 Cl LCG RECORDER • LOWRANCE ELECTRONICS, INC. LITHO IN USA. 988-0105-11 Rev.A 12000 E.SKELLY DR.,TULSA, OKLA.
NOTES ©Copyright1987Lowrance Electronics, Inc.All Rights Reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS NOTES .
The Lowrance X-50 Liquid Crystal Sonar (LCG) is the most sophisticated and reliable instrument of its kind. Its high resolution display gives the sharpest definition ever. Thisunit is so advanced,you can just press the "ON" button and let it do all the work. However, taking manual control enables you to open up a whole world of features not available in other sonars. To get started with your X-50, firstreadthe installation section.
NOTES Thepower cable has two wires, red is the positive lead and black is negative or ground. An in-line fuse holder containing a 4 amp fuse is supplied with the X-50c This attaches to the red wire on the power cable with the crimp connector.The other end of the fuse holder attaches to the battery or accessory buss. if the cable is not long enough, splice ordinary #18 gauge wire onto Be certain that the fuse holder is as close to the power source (batteryor accessory buss) as possible.
TEMPERATURESENSOR INSTALLATION The temperature sensor should be mountedin a location that allows contactwiththe waterat all times.Thediagram in Figure2 shows a typical location. Once a suitable place is found, mountthe sensor to the hull with two #8 stainless steel screws.Above the water line drill a ¾" hole for the connector to passthrough. Route the cable via the shortest path to the X-50's power cable. Plug the sensor's cable into the in-lineconnector on the X-50's power cable.
The temperatureof water in the lake is seldom constant from top to bottom. Layersof different temperaturesform, and the junction of a warm and cool layer ofwater is called a thermocline.Thedepth and thickness of the thermocline can vary with the season or time of day. In deep lakes theremay be two or more at differentdepths.Thermoclinesare important to fishermen because theyare areas where fish are acti ye.
KEYBOARDBASICS ET1 SENSITIVITY These keys control thegraph's sensitivity. Thedigital's sensitivityisalways automaticallyadjusted, while the graph's senstivityis automatiCallyadjusted whenthe X-50 is inAutomatic.Thereceiver sensitivity has 31 steps which allows adjusbnentfora wide range ofconditions. The left arrowkeydecreases the sensitivity,the right arrowkey increases it. ________________ t.
FISH SIGNALS The signals displayed on the X-50 by fish can be identified by var- iOUs shaped markings in certain patterns,as opposed to random marks Created by noise, or the solid, continuousmarkings made by the bottom. IF$IlL'AIl' I— Individualfish can, at times, be distinguishedby a characteristic arch thatseparatesthem from their stationarysurroundings.Thereason for this is shown below.Thedistance to afish when it movesinto the sonar's cone of sound is shown as "A" Figure 32.
OPERATION When the X-50 is first turned on, it automaticallyfinds and displays the bottom depth,sets the sensitivity level, and much more. If desired,the X-50 can be left in this automatic mode to find fish and the bottom conditions they prefer. However, virtually every function of the X-50 can be manually adjusted so that "fine tuning" of the unit to the surrounding conditions canbe made.Takethis manualouton thewateras a reference guide to helpyou getthe mostout of your X-50.
18= TOTALSYSTEM RESET I [CLEAR The X-50 has an internal battery that keeps power supplied to the memory circuits even whenthe power cable is removed from the unit To resetthe X-50's functions to theirfactory settings, use theTOTALSYSTEM RESET function.TheX-50will restartas if power had been turned oft and backon again.
Automatic Sensitivity When the X-50is in the automaticmode,the sensitivityofthe receiver will be adjusted abovethe minimum required to pick up the bottom signal. This enables the X-50 to display fish, structure, and other small targets while in the automatic mode. Thesensitivitylevel canbe changed whilethe X-50is in theautomatic mode. This may bedesirable ifthe level of sensitivitychosen bythe X-50is not enough to show fish or other small detail.
A new menu will appear: SPEED CORRECTION 0% ENTER VALUE IN PERCENT THEN PRESS UPPER LIMIT FOR NEGATIVE CORRECTION *c OR LOWER LIMIT FOR POSITIVE CORRECTION Run the boat at a steac' speed through a measured mile. At the end of the mile, check the stopwatchto see how long it took. From that you can calculate the speed that the boat travelled. If the speedometer is correct, then no correction needsto be made. Ifthe speedometer reading is off, then enterthe percentagethat itis off.
8= ENABLE DIGITAL AVERAGING 9= DISABLE DIGITALAVERAGING $ENSfliV!TY I The digital sonar in the X-50 is a highly sensitive sonar that gives extremely rapid updates of the water depth. Under most conditions,the bottom contour changes so rapidly that the depth display can appear to "jitter". In otherwords, the displaywill change the depth so quickly that it can be difficult to determine the actual bottom depth.
2= GRAYLINECHECKERBOARD 3= GRAYLINELINES GRAYLINE can be displayedon theX-50with a checkerboard pattern or with lines and spaces. When the X-50 is shipped from the factory,the checkerboard pattern is enabled. To change to lines, press the 3 key. To switch back,press the 2 key. 4 = SPEAKERVOLUME Thevolume of the speaker can be changed by pressing the 4 key. A message will be displayed on the screen: USE SENS.
To use the scale markers with azoom, simplysubtractthe upper limit from the lower limit, then divide that number by ten to get the number of feet per line. For example,if atargetis on the third line and the upper limit is 120 feet with a lower limitof 160 feet, then subtract 120 from 160 which equals 40. To get the number of feet per mark, divide 40 feet by 10 lines which equals 4. Now multiply4 times 3 (targetis at the third line) and you get 12.
COMMAND The X-50 has many more features than available keys. The COMMAND key lets you access 'menus" of other functions. A typical menu looks like figure 29. To find the desired function, press 2nd, DISC (COMMAND). The first menu will appear for six seconds as shown in figure 29. If you don't see the desired function, press the DISC (COMMAND) key again. Continue pressing it until the desired function is shown on the display.All of the functions will be numbered.
To change the upper limit of the display,firstmake certainthe X-50 is in the manual mode. Then simply press the desired depth (any number between 0 and 6490 feet) and then the UPPER LIMIT key. Remember, the only restriction on the upper limit is that it must not be closer to the lower limit than 10 feet In other words, if the lower limit is set to 80 feet, the upper limit cannot be set any closerthan 70 feet. A ten foot segment or larger is required.
PULSE In sonar,thereis a relationship betweentransmitterpulse length and resolution. Resolution, in this case, is the ability of a sonar to separate targets.The shorter the pulse length,the better thesonar's abilityto separate targets. However, in deep water, the shorter the pulse length, the less likely a return echo will be received. In fact, the X-50 automatically increases the pulse length as the depth increases.
When the X-50 is first turned on, the digital will flash "0" until it has "lockedon" to the bottomsignal. Once it has acquired the bottom depth, it will display the depth in the lower left of the display. I [I Figure 26 Figure 14 DIGITAL BO1TOM DEPTH Figure 15 There are three different sizesof the digital numbersfor the display, small, medium,and large. When first turned on, the digital numbersize is medium. To change to a different size, press 2nd, 7.
DIGITAL BO1TOMDEPTh Figure 16 8CC OFF SCCADJUSTED PROPERLY Figure 24 Figure 25 To viewthe 5CC level, simply press 2nd, 3 (5CC). To turn 5CC off, press 0, 2nd, 3 (5CC). SPEED If the optional speed transducer, model LSS-5 is installed, then the X-50 is capable of displayingboat speed and distance travelled or log. To display the boat speed, press 2nd, 4 (SPEED). The current boat speed in statue miles per hour will be displayed immediatelyabove the digital bottom depth.
The depth alarm has upper and lower limits, but they do not have to be usedtogether. Only the bottom signal will trigger the depth alarm. Fish, noise, or any othertargets will not set it off. Thedepth alarm sounds with a fastbeep whenever the bottom echo is detected shallower than the alarm upper limit and a slow beep when the bottom is deeper than the alarm's lowerlimit Thewords"DEPTHALM" flashes on the display whenever the depth alarm is triggered. It4I —enIIsiu;LcI SHALLOWI LAJA.
To adjust the shallow (top) alarm,press the SHALLOWSET key, then press the up arrow key to move the top of the alarm window up, or the down arrow key to move the top of the zone deeper.The longer you hold the arrow key, the faster the end of the zone alarm bar will travel. The bottom of the zone can be set in the same manner using the DEEP SET key.
Note: The digital must be on in order for the Depth Alarm to function. By setting both the shallow and deep alarms,a window can be positioned between the surface and the bottom. Ifthe boat goes into water that is shallower than the shallow alarm's setpoint, the alarm will sound. The same will happen ifthe boat goes into water deeper than the deep alarm setpoint. Thismakes a usefulanchorwatch or whennavigatingthrough a channel. To use the Shallow Alarm, press the desired depth, then the SHALLOWALARM key.