First off, let me start by saying this is a fantastic Cheat Sheet by PCI, and I use it on a regular basis. It was included in my Lowrance Baja 840 purchase, and I absolutely love it.
I have about 5 yrs experience using the Lowrance units, and I highly recommend them for anyone chasing, or just playing in the desert. Most folks will say it isnt needed, but until you use one, you will have no idea how great they truly are.
That being said, this is a cheat sheet that is for the Lowrance GlobalMap and Baja style units.
Lowrance cheat sheet
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tcm glx
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Setting up your new GPS
Use these settings for racing and making trails.
1. Make sure your Map Orientation is set to “Track up.” With the unit turned on from the map screen, press Menu go down to Map Orientation. Make sure the track up box is checked. If North up is selected, turns will be confusing.
2. Zoom in to 0.6 miles. This will show you what is coming up one half mile before you get there. If you lose the course, zoom out until you see where you made your mistake, then follow your line being extra careful that someone else did not make the same mistake and you meet head on!
3. PCI recommends a large speedometer on your screen so you can monitor your Highway speeds. Menu, Overlay Data, GPS Data*, (*some units will have the antenna model listed instead of GPS Data, it is always at the top of the list and will not be visible if you are not connected to your antenna) Ground Speed, Exit, Cursor right to change size.
4. For the larger GPS sizes you can customize your map data on the left side of the screen. Pages, digital data, exit. Menu, customize and now you change your GPS to the data you want.
If you are loading this info into a brand new unit make sure the antenna is hooked up so the unit is out of simulation/demo mode. Any changes made while in this mode will be lost when you turn the unit off. This only applies to new units that have not been hooked up to the antenna properly.
A new GPS that has a blue or red end on the power cord or antenna requires TWO power cords to be connected to power. If your unit says GPS module not responding or is stuck in Simulator/Demo mode - this is your problem. The old gray power cords are not compatible and will power the screen, but you will never acquire a signal.
Use these settings for racing and making trails.
1. Make sure your Map Orientation is set to “Track up.” With the unit turned on from the map screen, press Menu go down to Map Orientation. Make sure the track up box is checked. If North up is selected, turns will be confusing.
2. Zoom in to 0.6 miles. This will show you what is coming up one half mile before you get there. If you lose the course, zoom out until you see where you made your mistake, then follow your line being extra careful that someone else did not make the same mistake and you meet head on!
3. PCI recommends a large speedometer on your screen so you can monitor your Highway speeds. Menu, Overlay Data, GPS Data*, (*some units will have the antenna model listed instead of GPS Data, it is always at the top of the list and will not be visible if you are not connected to your antenna) Ground Speed, Exit, Cursor right to change size.
4. For the larger GPS sizes you can customize your map data on the left side of the screen. Pages, digital data, exit. Menu, customize and now you change your GPS to the data you want.
If you are loading this info into a brand new unit make sure the antenna is hooked up so the unit is out of simulation/demo mode. Any changes made while in this mode will be lost when you turn the unit off. This only applies to new units that have not been hooked up to the antenna properly.
A new GPS that has a blue or red end on the power cord or antenna requires TWO power cords to be connected to power. If your unit says GPS module not responding or is stuck in Simulator/Demo mode - this is your problem. The old gray power cords are not compatible and will power the screen, but you will never acquire a signal.
Last edited by tcm glx on Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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tcm glx
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
How to Remove old data from your GPS
If you are prerunning a race so you can transfer data to your race truck, always start with an “empty” GPS before beginning. Always remove all data before transferring data to a GPS.
1. Delete your icons - Menu, Delete my icons, Delete All, Yes
2. Delete your trails - Menu, Menu, my trails, delete all trails, yes
3. Delete your waypoints - Menu, Menu, System Setup, Delete my waypoints, delete all, yes
How to Load Data from a chip to your gps
1. If you have the file on your computer (or sanctioning body website), you will first need to save it to an SD MMC card.
2. Place the card in any open drive in your GPS.
3. Menu, Menu, system set up, transfer my data, load, enter, select “yourfile.usr”, enter, load, enter, the unit should say user data loaded successfully.
4. Menu, menu, my trails, junk/race, enter, cursor over to “active” box, enter.
Always leave the GPS on Junk/ Race. Never make any of your actual race trails active or you will erase them! If the file you transferred was not a PCI Hi Def course and it didn’t contain a “junk” trail, make one! Menu, Menu, My Trails, New Trail, name the trail “Junk” or “Race” and make sure the arrows are pointing to this one or the ‘Active’ box is checked.
How to Save Data to a chip from your gps
This is how you can move your prerun notes from your prerunner to other vehicles.
1. Place the card in any open drive in your GPS.
2. Menu, Menu, system set up, transfer my data, save, enter, name your file with the cursor, enter, Save Data.
3. You are sending ALL data on the GPS; this is why it’s important to start with an ‘empty’ GPS.
Color Units
Make different trails different colors so you can navigate faster! This is extremely helpful with courses that have chase roads and highways. Make your race courses one color and your chase roads another.
1. Menu, Menu, My Trails, “select the trail”, Enter, Color, Change this to “select color”.
If you are prerunning a race so you can transfer data to your race truck, always start with an “empty” GPS before beginning. Always remove all data before transferring data to a GPS.
1. Delete your icons - Menu, Delete my icons, Delete All, Yes
2. Delete your trails - Menu, Menu, my trails, delete all trails, yes
3. Delete your waypoints - Menu, Menu, System Setup, Delete my waypoints, delete all, yes
How to Load Data from a chip to your gps
1. If you have the file on your computer (or sanctioning body website), you will first need to save it to an SD MMC card.
2. Place the card in any open drive in your GPS.
3. Menu, Menu, system set up, transfer my data, load, enter, select “yourfile.usr”, enter, load, enter, the unit should say user data loaded successfully.
4. Menu, menu, my trails, junk/race, enter, cursor over to “active” box, enter.
Always leave the GPS on Junk/ Race. Never make any of your actual race trails active or you will erase them! If the file you transferred was not a PCI Hi Def course and it didn’t contain a “junk” trail, make one! Menu, Menu, My Trails, New Trail, name the trail “Junk” or “Race” and make sure the arrows are pointing to this one or the ‘Active’ box is checked.
How to Save Data to a chip from your gps
This is how you can move your prerun notes from your prerunner to other vehicles.
1. Place the card in any open drive in your GPS.
2. Menu, Menu, system set up, transfer my data, save, enter, name your file with the cursor, enter, Save Data.
3. You are sending ALL data on the GPS; this is why it’s important to start with an ‘empty’ GPS.
Color Units
Make different trails different colors so you can navigate faster! This is extremely helpful with courses that have chase roads and highways. Make your race courses one color and your chase roads another.
1. Menu, Menu, My Trails, “select the trail”, Enter, Color, Change this to “select color”.
Last edited by tcm glx on Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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tcm glx
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Adding your own Icons
Icons are simple images that just leave an image over the spot you choose. They can be deleted but cannot be moved or changed. Follow step one below if you are directly on the spot you wish to leave an icon, or use the cursor to move the crosshairs over the spot you want to drop the icon.
1. Enter, select the icon you like, Enter. To drop the same icon next time, just press enter, enter.
2. To Delete: Menu, delete my icons, delete from map, enter, move the cursor over the mark you would like (it will get larger when selected) to remove and then hit enter. Exit, Exit will put the unit back into normal mode.
Adding your own Waypoints
Waypoints can be entered from your current location, a location you pull up with the cursor or by entering latitude and longitude. They can be edited, named and different images selected. These take up a lot more space than an icon and are more time consuming, icons you can leave “on the fly”.
1. WPT, follow the direction on the screen.
Adding your own lines/Trails
Follow these instructions if you are plotting a course you want to save.
1. Always start with an empty GPS, see ‘remove data from GPS.’
2. Create a new trail. Menu, Menu, My Trails, New Trail, Enter, rename the file to the desired name with cursor, Enter. Cursor down to Maximum Points and change this to be 9,999. Exit back out to the map screen. Drive the line/trail you want to make. Before you leave the course, stop moving and make the junk/race trail active so you do not add lines where you do not want them.
Tips for Making Trails (prerunning):
• Each trail only holds a maximum of 10,000 points. While prerunning, frequently check back to the ‘My Trails’ screen and make sure you have plenty of points remaining. When you exceed 8,000 points, find a landmark/town of some sort and make a new trail at that point. We usually call the new trail the landmark you are at. Make sure you up the maximum points of the new trail to 9,999.
• Each new trail defaults to 2,000 maximum points. That is why we increase it to 9,999. If you leave it at 2,000, when you get to the 2,000th point, you will start deleting point 1. It will only hold 2,000. It will not make you a new trail; you have to manually do this. If you select 9,999 points, when you get to the 10,000th point, you will start deleting point 1, then 2, etc. always deleting your tail.
Tips for Race Day:
• If you have crosshairs in your screen, you are looking somewhere else than your current position. To see your current position, press exit.
• By making your ‘junk’ trail a different color than your recorded race trail, you can see different lines you have taken. This can be helpful during a lap race.
• Reset your trip distance so your maximum speed and trip distance calculators are at zero. Menu, Menu, Trip Calculator, Reset Trip.
• The odometer will never reset, it measures the life of the GPS. Make sure if you are looking for race miles on the overlay data or customized data on the left side of the screen that you select ‘trip distance.’ You can reset this with the above step.
Icons are simple images that just leave an image over the spot you choose. They can be deleted but cannot be moved or changed. Follow step one below if you are directly on the spot you wish to leave an icon, or use the cursor to move the crosshairs over the spot you want to drop the icon.
1. Enter, select the icon you like, Enter. To drop the same icon next time, just press enter, enter.
2. To Delete: Menu, delete my icons, delete from map, enter, move the cursor over the mark you would like (it will get larger when selected) to remove and then hit enter. Exit, Exit will put the unit back into normal mode.
Adding your own Waypoints
Waypoints can be entered from your current location, a location you pull up with the cursor or by entering latitude and longitude. They can be edited, named and different images selected. These take up a lot more space than an icon and are more time consuming, icons you can leave “on the fly”.
1. WPT, follow the direction on the screen.
Adding your own lines/Trails
Follow these instructions if you are plotting a course you want to save.
1. Always start with an empty GPS, see ‘remove data from GPS.’
2. Create a new trail. Menu, Menu, My Trails, New Trail, Enter, rename the file to the desired name with cursor, Enter. Cursor down to Maximum Points and change this to be 9,999. Exit back out to the map screen. Drive the line/trail you want to make. Before you leave the course, stop moving and make the junk/race trail active so you do not add lines where you do not want them.
Tips for Making Trails (prerunning):
• Each trail only holds a maximum of 10,000 points. While prerunning, frequently check back to the ‘My Trails’ screen and make sure you have plenty of points remaining. When you exceed 8,000 points, find a landmark/town of some sort and make a new trail at that point. We usually call the new trail the landmark you are at. Make sure you up the maximum points of the new trail to 9,999.
• Each new trail defaults to 2,000 maximum points. That is why we increase it to 9,999. If you leave it at 2,000, when you get to the 2,000th point, you will start deleting point 1. It will only hold 2,000. It will not make you a new trail; you have to manually do this. If you select 9,999 points, when you get to the 10,000th point, you will start deleting point 1, then 2, etc. always deleting your tail.
Tips for Race Day:
• If you have crosshairs in your screen, you are looking somewhere else than your current position. To see your current position, press exit.
• By making your ‘junk’ trail a different color than your recorded race trail, you can see different lines you have taken. This can be helpful during a lap race.
• Reset your trip distance so your maximum speed and trip distance calculators are at zero. Menu, Menu, Trip Calculator, Reset Trip.
• The odometer will never reset, it measures the life of the GPS. Make sure if you are looking for race miles on the overlay data or customized data on the left side of the screen that you select ‘trip distance.’ You can reset this with the above step.
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AussieRod
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Great post!! I wish the Lowrance had Aussie maps so I can use one here. Does this info work for any Lowrance GPS or just the BAJA 840?
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ChaseTruck754
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
It works on any lowrance. I have messed with no less than 10 different units and they all pretty much function the same...
Owner of only dead and forgotten projects
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tcm glx
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Steve is correct, these work on all NO HD units. I have the HD units cheat sheat as well, I will post that up later.
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Nick
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Thanks for posting this up T!
"If at first you don't succeed, it may be cheaper to buy it."
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AussieRod
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Cool. ThanksChaseTruck754 wrote:It works on any lowrance. I have messed with no less than 10 different units and they all pretty much function the same...
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SuperSixAxis
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Any way this would or could work on the XOG?
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BDKW1
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
I like having the Bullseye rings up in the race car also. Helps with judging distances.......
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Nick
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
No. But PCI does have a cheat sheet for the XOG.93Mojo wrote:Any way this would or could work on the XOG?
"If at first you don't succeed, it may be cheaper to buy it."
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shockseals.com
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Range rings are the goods...I am surprised when I see race cars not using range rings on their GPSBDKW1 wrote:I like having the Bullseye rings up in the race car also. Helps with judging distances.......
Kris Hernandez
shockseals.com
shockseals.com
Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
How to Save Data to a chip from your gps
This is how you can move your prerun notes from your prerunner to other vehicles.
1. Place the card in any open drive in your GPS.
2. Menu, Menu, system set up, transfer my data, save, enter, name your file with the cursor, enter, Save Data.
3. You are sending ALL data on the GPS; this is why it’s important to start with an ‘empty’ GPS.
=======
Ha --- And if you forget to give the track a name , both in 'my trails' and in the save sequence to replace 'Data' then you will have multiple "data" files and never be able to sort them all out.
PaulW
This is how you can move your prerun notes from your prerunner to other vehicles.
1. Place the card in any open drive in your GPS.
2. Menu, Menu, system set up, transfer my data, save, enter, name your file with the cursor, enter, Save Data.
3. You are sending ALL data on the GPS; this is why it’s important to start with an ‘empty’ GPS.
=======
Ha --- And if you forget to give the track a name , both in 'my trails' and in the save sequence to replace 'Data' then you will have multiple "data" files and never be able to sort them all out.
PaulW
Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Tips are pretty general and definately work for all GM units, IFinder, XOG, etc. Playing around an slight unimportant details are noticed. What I do for all saved tracks is cuoose the option "do not save underwater details" (or similar) Then all saved trails work on all units I have tried. If you dont find that option then no worry (like in the hand helds you wont find the option).AusBroncodoc wrote:Great post!! I wish the Lowrance had Aussie maps so I can use one here. Does this info work for any Lowrance GPS or just the BAJA 840?
Ausie maps
Hard to believe you cannot find the maps for a Lowrance. You are in the place where oziexplorer was created and that SW is the standard for GPS manlipulation.
Google is your firend. Just search for lowrance background maps. These maps are in the format of ".LCM" whereas trails are in the format of ".USR"
And if all fails make your own LCM files allthough you will have to have lots of time and geek help.
PaulW
Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Once you have .lcm and/or .usr files they will work on all Lowrance units inclucing HDS. Pretty sure old .LCM files made from MapCreate 7 - same. Garmin users can easily convert .usr files to .gps, but lots of breadcrums will be lost.
PW
PW
Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
======Nick wrote:No. But PCI does have a cheat sheet for the XOG.93Mojo wrote:Any way this would or could work on the XOG?
And a quick search reveals many tip sheets and detailed instructions for the XOG from various sources.
PW
PS stay away from the Elite unit as the SW is not up to speed To bad. PW
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AussieRod
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Paul, Lowrance doesnt sell the ground units here, only fish finders. VERY few racers use GPS, as its not allowed in our off road racing here. We are forced to navigate from maps and pace / chase notes. Thats how far they are behind here.PaulW wrote:Tips are pretty general and definately work for all GM units, IFinder, XOG, etc. Playing around an slight unimportant details are noticed. What I do for all saved tracks is cuoose the option "do not save underwater details" (or similar) Then all saved trails work on all units I have tried. If you dont find that option then no worry (like in the hand helds you wont find the option).AusBroncodoc wrote:Great post!! I wish the Lowrance had Aussie maps so I can use one here. Does this info work for any Lowrance GPS or just the BAJA 840?
Ausie maps
Hard to believe you cannot find the maps for a Lowrance. You are in the place where oziexplorer was created and that SW is the standard for GPS manlipulation.
Google is your firend. Just search for lowrance background maps. These maps are in the format of ".LCM" whereas trails are in the format of ".USR"
And if all fails make your own LCM files allthough you will have to have lots of time and geek help.
PaulW
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ChaseTruck754
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Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
Not "far behind" but keeping true to tradition & the "manliness" behind off road racing. Yes GPS has lead to faster times/more speed in Baja, etc. but sometimes I'm bummed it's not a "who can find their way" race anymore.
Owner of only dead and forgotten projects
Re: Lowrance cheat sheet
=======AusBroncodoc wrote:[
Paul, Lowrance doesnt sell the ground units here, only fish finders. VERY few racers use GPS, as its not allowed in our off road racing here. We are forced to navigate from maps and pace / chase notes. Thats how far they are behind here.
First of all the Lowrance units sold in AU are exactly the same units they offer in the US.
Maybe we have misled you. All Lowrance units with exceptions below are marine units.
Here are the discontinued products you would find most useful. You buy them off the web.
http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Legacy ... Globalmap/
All these units work as a fish finder with the required transponder. In fact my last boat trip had a GM5” installed and I put in my .lcm card and bingo all the ground info around the lake was there. Then I switched from ”map” to whatever the transponder mode was and there were the fish and the underwater depth and terrain we used to avoid grounding.
XOG is a true ground unit that is compatible with our ground .lcm maps and our .usr trails. Discontinued and hard to find new/unused ones. PCI Race radios has new ones in stock.
Ifinder is a hand held works like the Global map series that are discontinued. Discontinued easier to find new/unused units.
Endura is another touch screen hand held for hiking. Forget about it.
Elite is another one that has defective software. Maybe they will fix it ??
All current HDS units $$ are true marine units with all the fish finder capabilities work fine just like the GM units.
If you buy a fish finder unit I am not sure that it will work as we like it to. Find a boat guy and play with his fish finder.
PW