I am looking at upgrading the Chartplotter on my boat. The boat is 6.2 metre Centre Cab with a solid Aluminium roof. Currently I have a Furuno LS 4100 sounder which is working well and Navman Tracker 5100.

The Navman tracker has 2 good features 1. it has an external antenna and 2. it has has a fuel flow sensor. Apart from those the Navman is a pile of faeces, the mapping is poor and the speed of processing is glacially slow.

I am looking at getting a Hummingbird 858CX (it has an external antenna) to operate as a chartplotter with the sounder as an nice bonus). The Hummingbird website shows a NMEA 2000 starter kit but I have not been able to find a NMEA 2000 fuel sensor. I have found from Google searhing that Lowrance and Garmin both make NMEA 2000 fuel flow sensors. This means they should plug into a Hummingbird NMEA 2000 network.

Will a either of these fuel flow sensors work in a Hummingbird NMEA 2000 network in reallity?

 Hi people i have the old lowrance 525c sounder/gps combo can i use the tranaducer thats comes with it 50-200

on the HDS 7?

Fellas,

I'm after a bit of info on the performance of the TM260 operating at 50kHz to use the wider 19deg beam angle.

There's no doubting the performance of the 200kHz setting out deep, but with a 6deg beam angle it's only going to be covering a relatively small area in shallower water.

eg at 40m depth, the 200kHz is covering 4.2m width,  vs 13.5m wide @ 50kHz

So what I was hoping to achieve was running at 50kHz and holding bottom at decent cruise speed looking for new ground, then repass @ 200kHz and fine tune to the location & bottom detail.

The detail will be reduced at 50kHz, but as long as it holds bottom and can identify lumps.

Out deeper the 200kHz will do well covering a decent area due to the depth, so the main query is just relating to performance in the 30-60m range.

Obviously transom mount isn't ideal, so holding bottom will be reliant on a good installation.

It'd be good if M260 owners can chip in too, as the beam angles are the same.

(M260 installation may still be an option for me - just have to weigh up whether I want to cut the floor to access the bilge or not)

Taking it to the next level, how does the 50kHz go for detail vs 200kHz at slower speeds ?

aaaaand,

How does the 50kHz go for trolling etc ?   (assuming the narrow 200kHz is pretty much useless)

I've looked at the TM270W, but reckon the beam is TOO wide for general use.

Any good info appreciated,

Dizz.

 just wondering whether anyone has any experiences for/against the side imaging on the humminbird 898/998 cx's?

im looking at getting one of these combos, and just want to know if they are worth the extra money, or just to go with the down image. 

looking at something for all purpose use, deep and shallow...

thanks 

Gday all, just posting this up to see if anyone has bought a Navionics Card for their Lowrance HDS 5 or Larger HDS unit, that was an alright price.

I am interested in the Gold 32XG. This is mainly to be used as a 'backup' or secondary plotter to my Navman i am currently running. Dont want a Silver as i do alont of offshore work, and dont need a platinum as it will only ever be used as a basic plotter/sounder.

Just from what i have seen online it seems prices can vary from Perth retailers being around $350-400 to ebay sellers(Australian) being around $180-200.

So just wondering at that price difference has anyone bought one of ebay/online sellers?, Does it work all good? and what seller/company did you get it off?

Or alternativley if anyone has one they are wanting to sell let me know  :-)

Cheers, Buz.

 Hi all,

Got a new hobie pro angler coming in the next week or so and I'm obviously looking to deck it out with some gear to get out amongst it ... My question is what units are most kayakers running on theirs and also with a boat coming in the not to distant future is it feasable to get one unit for the both rigs (obviously with there own transducer fitted to each hull )

Im new to the whole fishfinder gps thing as I've always fished visible structure/landmarks etc so if you could dumb it down for me that'd be great ... 

Not to concerned about going a bit overboard for a kayak sounder if it can double as the sounder in the boat ??

Cheers

Luke 

Edited a few spelling mistakes ! 

Just when I was considering getting another NSS, Simrad have released these cool gadgets to add to existing setups. View screen from iPhone or full touch-screen control from iPad. 

Due out later in November. - price will be Interesting

http://www.simrad-yachting.com/en-US/Products/GoFree-Wireless-Technology/

Pretty stoked with the continued development and release of firmware upgrades from Simrad. 

This photo is from Luke R's for sale post. My question is, that sustantial school showing on the lowrance, why does it look much less impressive on the furuno? I would have figured the furuno being on low freq / wider cone, should have the fish in the beam for longer and would show more streaks that the hds has. Is it because the page advance is halved?

hi

ive got a hds7 gen 2 and ive heard you can get extra power cords for them

i want to be able to sit at home turn on the device and muck around with it etc without having to connect it to the boat

ive had a quick search and couldnt see any cords that can plug into a wall but ive heard they are out there

or are they a cord that plugs into one of those small 12v batteries? and not the actual wall

anyone actually have one of these?

and can you point me in the right direction?

thanks

 Hi

Has anyone had much to do with broadband radars like the lowrance or Simrad one. I'm thinking about getting one as I do long distance night time runs back from fishing grounds. With all the large vessel traffic up here it can be a nightmare. Just to get through all the ships at anchor(about 50 iron ore carriers at anchor) is bad enough.

I'm not interested in features like spotting flocks of birds like some of the high powered units can do. More interested in spotting other vessels and being able to set perimeter guards so I dont get run over while drifting at night. Its amazing how quite these large vessels can be.

looking forward to hearing your experiances

Cheers

CCC

Just wondering, i have seen a few sounder shots in the latest image section and was wondering if there was anywhere in this site that shows them all together. like to look at all the brands and the pictures to see how they read.