What are the differences between the base map, lake insight, and nautic insight units? If I bought a base map unit could I upgrade to the features of the others with a navionics chip? I'm buying my first boat tomorrow from a dealer, he has one gen 1 HDS 5 base map unit he will install if I want it. Cant decide if I should go with it, or buy one from cabelas or TW.

The Insight mapping is enhanced relative to the basemap. Nautic Insight is primarily coastal/offshore mapping. Lake Insight contains all the Fishing Hot Spots information, including access points, fishing tips, and highlighted areas of aquatic vegetation and stumps. It also includes lifelike 3D contour shading at certain zoom levels. All HDS units are compatible with Navionics mapping cards.

My HDS 5 restarts when I crank the motor, what could be causing this?

You must have the unit connected to the starter battery, the draw down from starting the motor drops the voltage lower then the HDS5 needs.

KevO, that could mean several things or a combination of things:

Your battery is too small/weak to support powering all that is hooked to it.

The battery is not completely charged.

You have resistance in the wiring connections that reduces the voltage.

You have corrosion on the battery terminals, increasing resistance.

Your battery connection is not tight.

Your wiring is too small a guage to support the unit at the lower voltage it gets when the starter is engaged.

Your fuse holder has a weak spring if you have the round glass type.

The best installation for electronics is to extend the unit power cord directly to the power supply with wires that are larger than the power cord conductors (the larger, the better). Use a spade type fuse/holder of the recommended size and solder the spliced wire connections.

Thanks guys, I figured it was probably hooked up to the starting battery, since it turns off when i start the boat. I did notice some corrosion on the battery terminals. The dealer installed the unit for me so I guess I need to check his work... other than it restarting everything else works fine.

_{KevO, print what I posted, you wil need it.}

I will thanks

Wayne, Do you mean the power cable that came with the unit is not correct? That is if the wiring is the problem. What gauge wire should be used?

KevO, that could mean several things or a combination of things:

Your battery is too small/weak to support powering all that is hooked to it.

The battery is not completely charged.

You have resistance in the wiring connections that reduces the voltage.

You have corrosion on the battery terminals, increasing resistance.

Your battery connection is not tight.

Your wiring is too small a guage to support the unit at the lower voltage it gets when the starter is engaged.

Your fuse holder has a weak spring if you have the round glass type.

The best installation for electronics is to extend the unit power cord directly to the power supply with wires that are larger than the power cord conductors (the larger, the better). Use a spade type fuse/holder of the recommended size and solder the spliced wire connections.

No the power cord is OK for it's length. If it is extended the extra wire needs to be larger to reduce voltage drop due to total distance.

OK, thanks I am far from an electrician. LOL. Hopefully it's just a loose connection at the battery or something simple and cheap.

Well I had the battery tested and was told it was good but needed to charged. So I charged it yesterday, checked the volt meter on the boat it showed 12v. I thought everything was good, I checked it this morning before I left for the lake and it read 10-11 like it did before I charged it. I got to the lake turned the HDS on, and tried to start the motor. Completely dead... nothing worked. Volt meter didn't even move? I came home, put it on the charger and an hr later it was fully charged again. Volt meter read 12, I checked it again an hr later it only read 11. Some thing is running it down, or it just won't hold a charge.

Probably need to get this battery load tested. Almost sounds like its getting a surface charge only. I'll bet its bad.

It was bad I took it back to the dealer and he replaced it. No charge!