Page 3 - Table of Contents; Installation
i Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................. 1Capabilities and Specifications: X51 and X58DF ........................ 1 Installation .................................................................................. 2 Transducer ...
Page 5 - Introduction; Thank you for buying a Lowrance; Capabilities and Specifications: X51 and X58DF; General
1 Introduction Thank you for buying a Lowrance sonar! Your unit is a high-quality sonar designed for both professional and novice fishermen. AllLowrance sonars have an automatic mode that finds and displays thebottom, fish, underwater structure and more – right out of the box. Allyou have to do is...
Page 6 - Sonar; Transducer Installation
2 Sonar Frequency: ...................... 200 kHz (or 50/200 kHz – X58DF only). Transducers: .................. A dual-frequency Skimmer transducer comes packed with the X58DF. It has 35 ° /12 ° cone angles. Single frequency models for X51with a 20 ° cone angle are sold separately. Both models off...
Page 8 - If the transducer is mounted on the transom, make sure it doesn't; Good and poor transducer locations.; How low should you go?
4 then the chosen location must be in the water at all times. If thetransducer is not placed in a smooth flow of water, interferencecaused by bubbles and turbulence will show on the sonar's display inthe form of random lines or dots whenever the boat is moving. NOTE: Some aluminum boats with strakes...
Page 9 - Align transducer centerline with hull bottom.; TRANSOM TRANSDUCER ASSEMBLY AND MOUNTING
5 Align transducer centerline with hull bottom. However, there are times when you may need to adjust the transducerslightly higher or lower. (The slots in the mounting brackets allow youto loosen the screws and slide the transducer up or down.) If you fre-quently lose bottom signal lock while runnin...
Page 10 - Align plastic ratchets in bracket.; Locate the four plastic ratchets in the trans-; Insert and align ratchets.
6 The following instructions sometimes vary depending on the mountingbracket that came with your transducer. Single frequency Skimmerscome with a one-piece stainless steel bracket, while dual frequencySkimmers come with a two-piece plastic mounting bracket. Use the set ofinstructions that fits your ...
Page 11 - Add ratchets to bracket and transducer.; Aligning the transducer on the transom.; Insert bolt and check transducer position on transom.
7 Add ratchets to bracket and transducer. 2. Aligning the transducer on the transom. A. One-piece bracket: Slide the transducer between the two ratch- ets. Temporarily slide the bolt though the transducer assembly andhold it against the transom. Looking at the transducer from the side,check to see i...
Page 12 - Assemble the transducer and bracket as shown; Once you determine the correct position for; Assemble transducer and bracket.
8 B. Two-piece bracket: Assemble the transducer and bracket as shown in the following figure. Temporarily slide the bolt though the transducerassembly but don't tighten the nut at this time. Hold the assembledtransducer and bracket against the transom. Looking at the transducerfrom the side, check t...
Page 13 - Position transducer mount on transom and mark mounting holes.; Remove the transducer from the bracket and; For single frequency Skimmer, route cable over bolt and through; Transom
9 B. Two-piece bracket: Once you determine the correct position for the ratchets, assemble the transducer as shown in the figure in step2B. Don't tighten the lock nut at this time. 4. Drilling mounting holes. Hold the transducer and bracket assembly against the transom. Thetransducer should be rough...
Page 14 - transom. Rear view of dual frequency Skimmer shown.; Bottom
10 Both bracket types: Attach the transducer to the transom. Slide the transducer up or down until it's aligned properly with the bottom ofthe hull as shown in the preceding and following figures. Tighten thebracket's mounting screws, sealing them with the caulking compound. Adjust the transducer so...
Page 15 - Attach motor mounting bracket to transducer.; Bolt
11 7. Make a test run to determine the results. If the bottom is lost at high speed, or if noise appears on the display, try sliding the trans-ducer bracket down. This puts the transducer deeper into the water,hopefully below the turbulence causing the noise. Don't allow thetransducer bracket to go ...
Page 16 - TRANSDUCER ORIENTATION AND FISH ARCHES; Transducer angles and their effects on fish arches.
12 TRANSDUCER ORIENTATION AND FISH ARCHES If you do not get good fish arches on your display, it could be becausethe transducer is not parallel with the ground when the boat is at restin the water or at slow trolling speeds. Transducer angles and their effects on fish arches. If the arch slopes up –...
Page 17 - Epoxy the transducer to a solid portion of the hull.; Fill with epoxy
13 transducer installation can be made on hulls with flotation materials(such as plywood, balsa wood or foam) between layers of fiberglass ifthe material is removed from the chosen area. Epoxy the transducer to a solid portion of the hull. For example, some (but not all) manufacturers use a layer of...
Page 18 - high speed or trolling speed operation.; Make sure the area is clean, dry and free of oil or grease, then sand; Epoxy transducer to hull.; Transducer location
14 cation that shot through the hull the best and follow the instructions onthe following pages for a shoot-thru-hull mounting. Shoot-thru-hull transducer locations for high speed or trolling speed operation. Shoot-thru-hull Installation 1. Make sure the area is clean, dry and free of oil or grease,...
Page 19 - Speed/Temperature Sensors; If a; Full Chart page showing dual temperature display.
15 Place the transducer into the epoxy, twisting and turning it to forceany air bubbles out from under the transducer face. The face of thetransducer should be parallel with the hull, with a minimum amountof epoxy between the hull and transducer. After the epoxy dries,route the cable to the sonar un...
Page 22 - POWER CONNECTIONS
18 Stern view showing good location for mounting sensor on transom. Speed sensor mounting configuration: side view (left) and rear view (right.) If the base of the transom has a radius, fill the gap between the tran-som and the sensor with the caulking compound. This will help ensurea smooth water f...
Page 23 - Power connections for the X51 and X58DF sonar unit.; as close to the power source as possible.
19 Power connections for the X51 and X58DF sonar unit. If possible, keep the power cable away from other boat wiring, espe-cially the engine's wires. This will provide the best isolation from elec-trical noise. If the cable is not long enough, splice #18 gauge wire ontoit. The power cable has two wi...
Page 24 - Bracket Installation; Top; Template; ALWAYS VERIFY DIMENSIONS
20 In-dash mounting template for X51 and X58DF sonars, showing dimen- sions. NOTE: The figure above is not printed to scale. A scaled template is available for free download from our web site, www.lowrance.com. Bracket Installation Mount the unit in any convenient location, provided there is clearan...
Page 25 - X58DF sonar unit when mounted on gimbal bracket.; Portable Sonar Installation
21 Front view (left) and side view (right) showing dimensions of X51 and X58DF sonar unit when mounted on gimbal bracket. If you wish, you can fill in the hole around the cables with a good ma-rine caulking compound. (Some marine dealers stock cable hole coversto conceal the opening.) No matter what...
Page 26 - Gimbal bracket
22 for your sonar. You can use your X51 or X58DF on your boat or take itto the dock, on a float tube, on an ice fishing trip or use it as a secondsonar in a friend's boat. The PPP-10 Portable Power Pack can be used with eight "D" cell alkalinebatteries (not included) or an optional sealed, r...
Page 27 - Operation; KEYBOARD BASICS; Lowrance X58DF Sonar, front view, showing screen and keyboard.; This key appears in the manual text simply as
23 NOTE: For optimum operation, the portable transducer should be adjustedso that it is parallel to the ground. For more information on this,see the earlier segment on Transducer Orientation and FishArches. Operation KEYBOARD BASICS The unit sounds a tone when you press any key. This tells you the u...
Page 28 - This screen shows a typical menu, the Scroll Speed menu.
24 2. MENU UP (menu up)3. MENU DOWN (menu down) These keys appears in the manual text as MENU UP or MENU DOWN . (In some units, the keys may appear as MENU FWD or MENU REV , respec- tively.) Most of the time, the instructions require you to press eithermenu key, so the text simply uses the word MENU...
Page 29 - DISPLAY – Opening Screen
25 All you have to do to leave one menu and enter another is press MENU re- peatedly. If you ever get lost in the menus, simply press the PWR key. This clears the menus from the screen. Menus change depending on the mode the unit is in. Messages may appearin menu boxes or new menus can appear, depen...
Page 30 - Chart menu. Chart is running or scrolling normally at left.; SCREEN DISPLAY MODES or PAGES; The Page menu lets you select among the display modes, or pages.; To switch from one page to another page, press; UP ARROW
26 Chart menu. Chart is running or scrolling normally at left. Chart is stopped at right, and "Stopped" warning message appears. SCREEN DISPLAY MODES or PAGES The X51 has four screen display modes, or "Pages:" Full Chart page,Split Chart page, Large Digital page and Flasher page. The...
Page 31 - Full Chart page, showing digital depth at top and speed at bottom.; SPLIT CHART; Split Chart page with normal view at right zoomed view at left.
27 the depth of fish, structure, and other targets. The line at the top of thescreen represents the surface. The bottom depth (as determined by thedigital sonar) shows in the upper left corner. If your speed sensor is con-nected, digital displays for speed and temperature will also be shown. Full Ch...
Page 32 - 0 kHz view at left and 200 kHz view at right.; MENU; Dual-Frequency Split Chart page. The 50 kHz sensitivity menu is
28 DUAL-FREQUENCY SPLIT CHART(X58DF only) This page shows sonar data from the 50 kHz transducer element on theleft side of the screen and data from the 200 kHz transducer on theright side. All other functions and features are the same as the FullChart page. Dual-Frequency Split Chart page, with 50 k...
Page 34 - PWR; From left: Use Upper Limit/Lower Limit command and limit menus.
30 RANGE When turned on for the first time, the unit automatically adjusts thedepth range according to water conditions. It always keeps the bottomdisplayed in the lower portion of the screen. You can over-ride theautomatic range control and manually select a range. To do this, press MENU until the ...
Page 35 - ZOOM; Zoom screen, showing Zoom menu and the 2X zoom
31 To set upper and lower limits, press MENU until the R ANGE menu ap- pears. Press DOWN ARROW to select U SE UL/LL , then press MENU UP to open the Upper Limit menu. Use the arrow keys to select the upper limit. In the example above, wehave selected 10 feet. With the upper limit set, press MENU UP ...
Page 39 - DOWN ARROW; Thin or no Grayline
35 NOTE: If you want to change the sensitivity in Manual Mode, first turn offAuto Sensitivity: press MENU until the S ENSITIVITY A UTOMATIC /M ANUAL menu appears. Press DOWN ARROW to select M ANUAL , then press PWR to clear the menu. To adjust the sensitivity, follow the same steps used foradjusting...
Page 40 - menu with the feature turned on.; only
36 Press UP ARROW to increase the level or press DOWN ARROW to de- crease it. The percentage of Grayline in use shows in this menu. Echoesscrolling onto the screen will also show the effects of the Graylinechange. If you reach the maximum or minimum level, a tone soundsalerting you to the limits. Pr...
Page 41 - FISHTRACKTM; Fish ID menu and symbol with FishTrack on. The fish is 44 feet deep.
37 You may see Fish I.D. symbols on the screen when actually, there are no fish.The reverse is also true — Fish I.D. can actually miss fish that are present. Does that mean Fish I.D. is broken? No — the feature is simply inter-preting sonar returns in a specific way to help take some of the workout ...
Page 42 - FISHREVEAL; At left FishReveal menu screen. The feature is off and screen is in; MENU DOWN
38 FISHREVEAL When displaying actual sonar returns, the FishReveal feature helps show fish targets hidden by surface clutter, thermoclines, weed bedsand other cover with 10 levels of gray tones. Normal operation (with FishReveal turned off) shows the weakest ech-oes as black and the strongest in...
Page 44 - Speed menu, with unit set to HyperScroll mode.
40 At right, Scroll Speed menu at default 60 percent setting. At left, Scroll Speed menu, with unit set to HyperScroll mode. If you are running fast, try a HyperScroll setting of 80 to 100 percent.When using HyperScroll, you may also need to manually decrease thesensitivity for best performance. Dep...
Page 45 - ALARMS; The sonar unit has two different types of alarms, fish and depth.
41 The ASP noise rejection feature is especially useful because it typicallylets you operate the boat at all speeds without adjusting the sensitivityor other controls. Noise Reject menu. The ASP feature has four settings — Off, Low, Medium and High.When first turned on, noise rejection is set on low...
Page 46 - Depth Alarms
42 To turn off the fish alarm without turning off fish symbols, press MENU DOWN until F ISH A LARM appears. Press DOWN ARROW to select O FF , then press PWR to clear the menu. Repeat the above steps to turn the alarm back on, but press UP ARROW to select O N before clearing the menu. Fish Alarm menu...
Page 47 - Deep Alarm
43 Press UP ARROW to increase the shallow alarm's depth setting or press DOWN ARROW to decrease it. The number in the shallow alarm’s menu box shows the current shallow alarm setting. When the number reachesthe desired setting, press PWR to clear the menu. When the bottom depth goes shallower than t...
Page 48 - SYSTEM SETUP; DISPLAY CONTRAST
44 SYSTEM SETUP To customize the display, press MENU DOWN until the S YSTEM S ETUP menu appears, then press UP ARROW . The display contrast, units of measure, temperature, and system information screens are all underthis menu. The Contrast menu appears first. Press the MENU UP or MENU DOWN keys to c...
Page 49 - Display Contrast menu.; DEPTH UNITS OF MEASURE; Depth menu controls the unit of measure used to show depth.
45 To adjust the contrast, press MENU DOWN until the S YSTEM menu ap- pears, press UP ARROW , and the C ONTRAST menu appears. To decrease screen contrast, press the DOWN ARROW key. Press the UP ARROW key to increase screen contrast. The bar graph in the Contrast menu boxshows a graph of the contrast...
Page 50 - TEMPERATURE UNITS OF MEASURE; Temperature unit of measure menu.; SPEED and DISTANCE LOG UNITS OF MEASURE
46 TEMPERATURE UNITS OF MEASURE This unit can show the temperature (if a temperature sensor is attached)in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius. To change the unit of measure, press MENU DOWN until the S YSTEM menu appears. Press UP ARROW , then press MENU until the T EMPERATURE menu appears. Use the arrow...
Page 51 - RESET DISTANCE LOG; Preset Unit menu resets all options to the factory settings.
47 RESET DISTANCE LOG You can reset the distance log to zero with this command. Press MENU DOWN until S YSTEM appears, then press UP ARROW . Press MENU until the R ESET L OG menu appears. Press UP ARROW and the log returns to zero. Press PWR to clear the menu. Reset Log menu. PRESET UNIT (reset all ...
Page 52 - SYSTEM INFO; SIMULATOR
48 SYSTEM INFO To show the operating software system information, press MENU DOWN until the S YSTEM menu appears, then press UP ARROW . Press MENU DOWN until the S YSTEM I NFO screen appears. Press PWR to clear the screen. System Info screen. SIMULATOR This unit has a built-in simulator that shows a...
Page 53 - menu appears. Press
49 NOTE: If you turn on your unit before attaching a transducer, it may entera demo mode. The words "demo mode" flash on the bottom of thescreen and a sonar chart plays much like the simulator. Unlike thesimulator, the demo mode is for demonstration only, and will auto-matically stop as soon...
Page 55 - Frequency menu with 200 kHz selected.
51 The default frequency is 200 kHz, which is best for use in shallow water(about 300 feet or less). This frequency is the best choice for about 80percent of the fresh and salt water sport fishing applications. When youget into very deep salt water, 300 to 500 feet or deeper, the 50 kHz fre-quency i...
Page 56 - Menus for changing digital number size.; SCALES; the upper and lower limits (zero and 60 in this case) are displayed
52 Menus for changing digital number size. SCALES The depth scale between the upper and lower limit on the right side ofthe screen can be turned on or off. The default is on. Scales menu, with scale on (left) and off (right). With the scale off, only the upper and lower limits (zero and 60 in this c...
Page 57 - Troubleshooting; Unit operates only in demo mode:
53 Troubleshooting If your unit is not working, or if you need technical help, please use thefollowing troubleshooting section before contacting the factory customerservice department. It may save you the trouble of returning your unitfor repair. For contact information, refer to the last page, just...
Page 59 - NOISE
55 NOISE A major cause of sonar problems is electrical noise. This usually ap-pears on the sonar's display as random patterns of dots or lines. In se-vere cases, it can completely cover the screen with black dots, or causethe unit to operate erratically, or not at all. To eliminate or minimize the e...
Page 60 - Notes
Page 61 - LOWRANCE ELECTRONICS
57 LOWRANCE ELECTRONICS FULL ONE-YEAR WARRANTY "We," "our," or "us" refers to LOWRANCE ELECTRONICS, INC., the manufacturer ofthis product. "You" or "your" refers to the first person who purchases this product as aconsumer item for personal, family or household...
Page 62 - How to Obtain Service...; ...outside Canada and the USA:; and look for the
58 How to Obtain Service… …in the USA: We back your investment in quality products with quick, expert serviceand genuine Lowrance parts. If you're in the United States and youhave technical, return or repair questions, please contact the FactoryCustomer Service Department. Before any product can be ...
Page 63 - Dealer Locator; Shipping Information
Accessory Ordering Informationfor all countries To order Lowrance GPS accessories such as computer cables or MMCcards, please contact: 1) Your local marine dealer or consumer electronics store. Most quality dealers that handle marine electronic equipment or other consumerelectronics should be able t...
