Lowrance Carbon going dark – is it my battery?

Hi all,

I took the boat out today on the first trip of the year. Cold! I had charged all the batteries up prior to taking it out. Boat started and everything functioned well, I bombed across the lake and started looking for crappies. While fishing using my trolling motor in the shallows and my big motor off, my Carbon, which was fine up to this point, went to a dark screen. If I tapped a key it would beep, but the screen was dark. If I turned it off (holding down the power button) and back on, it would be fine for a few minutes then go dark again, but still “on”. Now, if I started my big motor up, and ran to other places on the lake, the graph stayed powered and bright the whole time. It happened every time I was with the big motor off and using my tolling motor.

It seems obvious that I have a battery issue, right? Even though my onboard charger was indicated a full charge prior to taking the boat out, and my motor turned over just fine each time I started it?

They can be fussy, I had an issue with a Live 9 networked to a Live 16. The 9 would go “no source” but the 16 stayed up and in fact didn’t dim when I started the 300. Put the voltage overlay on the screen, perhaps you have some corrosion in the circuit.

I’d also make sure you’re connections are good where it’s wired to the battery and are tightened down properly.

Hopefully it’s that easy of a fix.