Cost effective upgrade to NNS7/P66

 Hey Lads,

After less than great results cray fishing so far this season I'm looking to upgrade my set up. My reasoning is that with the NNS7 and P66(non chirp 50/200) I'm struggling to easily identify differing bottom types (Sand, weedy sand, weedy rock and rock)

It makes pot placement difficult.

CHSmith currently offer the Sonar hub and LSS2 transducer for $499. The guy on the phone say that this addition will drastically improve my ability to differenciate bottom types and help improve pot placement. He says that the chirp capable sonar hub will most likely improve the P66 image and the LSS2 will give a much clearer image of bottom types, IE weed or sand, in bith down and side scan view.

I understand that LSS2 is only good for shallow <25m water but seeking dive spots and pot placements is my goal.

I don't want to over capitalise in a Gen1 system but I'm thinking if $500 will get me much better results with the crays and dive spots, I'm probably in....

The hook up will be as follows: Currently have Mercury Vesselview 7 and NNS7 networked via a network splitter with stand alone GPS on the network for the vesselview. The plan is to bring the current network cable for the NNS7 through the sonar hub and back to the NNS7 and take the P66 off the NNS7 and onto the sonar hub and obviously the LLS2 to the sonar hub.

Does anyone out there run this setup?

Will it work well for me?

Will it drastically improve my bottom clarification/discrimination?

Will there be any limitations?

Can I run a split screen on one unit with two sounder images either downscan with the LLS2 and the P66?

Will I get an overlay on my map screen showing the scan area?

Anything else I need to know before commiting to this purchase?

Is downscan just the same as the view I get now on my standard sounder but just using the LSS2 transducer?

How deep will I get if I ever decide to go out to the trench (if I ever get the day off and weather window)?

 

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JohnF's picture

Posts: 2837

Date Joined: 07/07/10

To be honest, a P66 with a

Thu, 2016-12-15 16:17

To be honest, a P66 with a Furuno 620 will probably be the cheapest BEST option to show bottom.

Chirp is not good at bottom discrimination.

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Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.

Posts: 6454

Date Joined: 08/08/11

 I run the NSS7 and lowrance

Thu, 2016-12-15 16:34

 I run the NSS7 and lowrance transducer and have no issue distinguishing hard or soft bottoms.

 

Cheapest option might be to get a copy of john adams book on fish finders and make sure your interpretations are right.

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Fish! HARD!

ChrisG's picture

Posts: 558

Date Joined: 30/12/11

 Mate, you're more than

Sat, 2016-12-17 20:23

 Mate, you're more than welcome to come have a play with my set up if you want

have a simrad nss9. Have is networked thru a vessel view 7.

I run a tm150 chirp,

LSS structure scan,

airmar P79 (50/200) (600w), and recently installed a

airmar m260 (50/200) (1kw)

i only only recently installed the m260 for deep dropping when up north and is best I can do without going the to a bsm type module.

i switch all thru a manual switch I've installed on dash - I just switch it over to the next transducer and then select it on the head unit

cant say we've had any trouble distinguishing bottom types etc once we figured out how to use it properly ... I reckon your set up should smash what you're trying to do....without trying to sound like a smart arse, it might be the settings rather than the set up....

PM me and I can go thru a few things with you if you want (I'm no expert but have learnt plenty over last couple of years).

Posts: 6454

Date Joined: 08/08/11

 One thing i thought of is,

Sat, 2016-12-17 21:44

 One thing i thought of is, have you got the right transducer selected in settings?

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Fish! HARD!