# Lowrance external antenna



## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

I just bought a brand new Lowrance 522.A boat place out west had it for 2-3 years and never used it.The 522 has a built in antenna but you can also use a external LGC 2000 puck.Well this unit came with a puck and seeing it is suppose to be better I hooked it up.I followed the book to switch from the internal to the puck but the unit only shows the internal antenna to use so I can't choose the puck.
Do I need a up grade or what.


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## Rednek (Nov 6, 2006)

Mark, Are you connecting it directly to the unit or part of an existing NMEA network?

If connecting directly to the unit are you using a splitter cable with the terminator attached?


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## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

Directly to the unit .Mounted the puck and the cable was not long enough but it came with a 2' foot extension cable so I put that on and then pluged it into the back of the unit in the red connection spot.
It's a new unit and has the old 1.5 version in it, maybe I need to up grade the unit?????


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## Hetfieldinn (May 17, 2004)

Looks like version 2.5 is available.


http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products...iGPS/Downloads/LMS-522C-iGPS-Software-Update/


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## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

I'm headed to Erie Outfitter Monday to get the up grade,thanks guys.


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## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

Well that didn't work.Up graded to the 2.5 version and it's the same way.Book says I might need a NMEA 2000 up grade?I wonder if I'm going to have to hook all those NEMA wires up also.What a pain man nothing is simple!!!!Been calling Lowrance for 2 days with know answer.
Anybody out there that has hooked a GPS module on a 522 or 520??


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## SPOONFEEDER (Jul 6, 2006)

I had a 520 on my previous boat. If I remember correctly you need to have the NEMA connections all hooked up, should have a "T" connector and a terminating resistor, and you will also have to make sure you have the NEMA power hooked up ,on a switch, so you can turn the NEMA network off, or it will drain your batteries. When powering up, you will need to power on the NEMA network before you power on the head unit. This is all from memory (5 years ago) so I may be wrong.


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## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

Your right,I had it hooked up all wrong.Thanks


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## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

Bigmtman said:


> Your right,I had it hooked up all wrong.Thanks


If I remember correctly, the 522 uses red NMEA-2000 network connectors. The LGC-2000 uses blue network connectors. The LGC-3000 and 4000 are red network antennas. If you use the LGC-2000 antenna you will need an adapter cable to transition from blue to red. Also, you will need either a "Y" cable with a 60 ohm terminator, or two "T" connectors with appropriate cables and 2 120 ohm terminators, or a cable with an internal 120 ohm terminator. If the power/data bundle to your gps has an NMEA power cable, you will need to power the antenna thru that. Otherwise you will need to get another "T" and have a separate power wire to power up the NMEA-2000 network (of which your external antenna is a part). This is easier than it sounds, it's just that Lowrance NMEA-2000 network info sucks. If you have continued problems, PM me and I can help you. Been there, done that.


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## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

Guys thanks for the help.I had the lgc 2000 hooked into the 2' jumper cord and then going straight into the unit and I didn't have the nema wires hooked up.
From the picture in the book it looks like I'm going to need to get a double t connector with two 120-ohn on it,is this right and does any place around here carry these.I got or the unit came with-lgc puck,2' extension cord that plugs into the head unit and a 18' long cord that has 2 blue connectors on both ends and at one end has a 120ohn in it.


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## Papascott (Apr 22, 2004)

IS the internal gps antenna not working? If it works good I would just keep the external for just incase or sell it.


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## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

Back in 2009 I wrote a tutorial for NMEA-2000 networks. Give this a read: http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=114491 Unfortunately, most of the links do not work because the dumbasses at Lowrance keep changing the URLs to their (lack of) help sites.

Your LMS 522C iGPS uses a RED NMEA network configuration. The LGC-2000 antenna is of the BLUE NMEA-2000 network config. That means you will need an adapter cable to make them compatible. What I want to make sure is, you say you have a 2' jumper cord that you connected from the LGC-2000 gps puck to the unit. If this is so, that means you must have the adapter cable already. So, I'll assume this is the case. If the RED end of the adapter can fit into your unit, then it must be able to go into the bottom of a RED "T". As a little history, when Lowrance first got into the NMEA-2000 network business, they came up with a proprietary (BLUE) network cable architecture. They have since gone to a RED (or black) network cable architecture which is compatible with Garmin and others.

You connect your LGC-2000 gps puck to the adapter cable, and the adapter cable into the bottom leg of a RED "T." If you need to move the LGC-2000 gps puck further from the unit, you could add in the 18' blue cable between the puck and the adapter cable. You will need either a double RED "T" or two single RED "T"s (N2K-T-RD) (which you connect together by one arm of each "T"). You will connect the adapter from the puck into the bottom of one leg of the "T"(s). That will leave the bottom leg of one "T" open and the opposite arms of the two connected "T"s open (one will be a male connection and one will be a female connection). If your existing 120 ohm terminator is currently connected to the blue 18' cable, it won't work with your new RED NMEA-2000 network. Therefore, you will need to buy two RED 120 ohm terminators, a male and a female (TR-120-KIT). These new terminators will be plugged into opposite ends of the RED "T"s. That leaves only the bottom leg of a "T" open. You will need to buy a 2' RED extension cable (N2KEXT-2RD) to go from the bottom leg of the "T" to your 522 unit. That should be all you need for NMEA-2000 configuration.

Two last things. Your 522 unit's power/data cable has three branches. One is NMEA-0183 and can be disregarded. One of the remaining two is power for the 522 unit, and the last is power for the NMEA-2000 network. You must have power to the network (your simple network only consists of the unit and the puck, but, it is still a network). Lowrance recommends you have a switch on both unit and network power cables. Since I have Perko switches which shut off all boat power, I use that as my switch. The last thing you must do to get the functionality of the external gps antenna is to go into the software of the unit and switch to the external antenna.

Hope this helps, but if you run into problems post it. You can buy parts at this site: http://www.lei-extras.com/store/search.asp?SearchType=Category&Category=LowranceNET+Red


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## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

Thank you so much Workdog this help me out big time.

Here is what I did this a.m.
(1.)made sure I had the nema 2000 wires hooked up 
(2.)the 2' jumper cord had a red end that I plug into the head unit and the other end was blue that I connected to one end of that 18' cord.
(3.)on the puck side,pluged that into the other end of the 18' cord which had another plug by it which had a 120 ohn term. in it.
Turned the unit on and finaly it seen I had an external puck hooked up so I picked it and activated it and positoin is found in 2-3 seconds now.Turned unit on/off3 times and it found postion very fast.
*DID I DO IT RIGHT,it seems to be working.*


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## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

Bigmtman said:


> Thank you so much Workdog this help me out big time.
> 
> Here is what I did this a.m.
> (1.)made sure I had the nema 2000 wires hooked up
> ...


It wasn't clear from your original description of connectors and cables exactly what you had. As I said in my first post, two of the options for a simple network is a "Y" cable or cable with an in-line 120 ohm terminator to hook your antenna to the unit. It sounds like you got one of those. If it's a "Y" cable, this must be a slightly different design than I'm used to, because "Y" cables usually require a 60 ohm terminator. Hell, if it works run it like ya stole it.  Sounds like you did it right. One end of the "Y" has a terminator, you got the adapter to bridge between your "Blue" network LGC-2000 and "Red" network 522, and you got the network power hooked up. Bottomline... the 522 sees satelites now!

P.S. If you ever want to add to your NMEA-2000 network (such as by adding another gps or fuel flow indicator, etc.), you will need to go with the "T"s like I described in my previous response.


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## Bigmtman (Feb 4, 2008)

Thanks,with your posts I would have not had a clue what to even look for.I went a head and called Lowrance today driving to work and the rep said I had it hooked up right and that Y cable I had is the same thing but called some thing else.To think one cable and a 120 ohm terminator caused all these problems.Thanks again because this drove me nuts!!!!!


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## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

Great! Glad it worked for you.


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## surffishn (Jan 20, 2010)

I bought A lowrance LMS 525c. A couple of years ago.Never got the 2000 antenna to work. And I sure was not impress with the depth finder.In my opiniom Lowrance and A few other Mfg's units.Are pure scrap.I now use Furuno 585 sonar and A Standard Horizon cp 300 chart plotter.That Lowrance is in the back of my garage I think.Or it may of went in the garbage.


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## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

surffishn said:


> I bought A lowrance LMS 525c. A couple of years ago.Never got the 2000 antenna to work. And I sure was not impress with the depth finder.In my opiniom Lowrance and A few other Mfg's units.Are pure scrap.I now use Furuno 585 sonar and A Standard Horizon cp 300 chart plotter.That Lowrance is in the back of my garage I think.Or it may of went in the garbage.


The LGC-2000 antenna had some issues. Most worked but some didn't last long. Mine has worked since I bought it over 6 years ago. You could have returned the antenna, or, I think you may just have not had it hooked up correctly. As I said above, the instructions for hooking up an NMEA-2000 network pretty much sucks from every manufacturer. And, any external Lowrance antenna (LGC-2000, 3000, or 4000) utilizes the NMEA-2000 network regardless whether it is a "simple" network or expanded (multiple devices).


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