Hi guys,

Have been looking at a few sounders combos and have thinned it down to the Furuno 1670F combo or the Lowrance HDS-5 or 7 combo.

Does anyone have any direct feedback on the Furuno combo, fitted on board your own boat or been on a rig that does ?
http://www.furuno.com.au/products/viewProduct/product/26/158

Will be used for the 20-60m's along the west coast and a bit deeper down Albany way or up Exmouth at times.

My only concern with the Furuno unit would be the inbuilt GPS antenna. It's to go into a 4.5m tinny tiller and would be planning to mount it hard up under the side decks within an Ali case to keep it out of the salt spray/splashes. Would this block the GPS side of things or is there an external aerial lead ?

Have read plenty about the HDS Gen 2 units and it would just be a matter of sizing up the 5 and 7 for best fit if was to go down the Lowrance path.

Thanks guys

Matt

Hi all,

I currently have a Lowrance plotter with the function of "event icons".  That is, I can hit one button to put an icon on a screen with its own lat/long but not classified as a waypoint.

Very handy for pinging flare ups while travelling or even when we pick up good fish while off the waypoint.

Do any other brands have this function?

Thank you

Chris

I would like to borrow a yellow plug Lowrance Ethernet cable to test my BSM-1 Sounder Module. I live in Dianella so someone close by would be great.

Thanks

Dougie

Hi all,

I have a lowrance HDS8 with the standard 50/200kHz HST-DFSBL transducer and have been happy enough with the results we have been getting in depths <100m.  Lately however, the sounder has been malfunctioning soon after I engage the boat into reverse - it stops reading bottom and the depth jumps to <1.0m (see picture for example).  It's not like it's a brief turbulence issue, as the sounder stays like this for 30 minutes to 1 hour.  It doesn't happen when we're driving - even if the conditions are pretty bad.  Each time it happens I try turning the unit off, resetting functions, clearing the transducer and pretty much everything in between; all to avail.  It just sorts itself out after a long while and acts like nothing happened.  I like to try and hold the boat on a spot whilst looking at the sounder readings, so as you can imagine, this is extremely frustrating and makes it very difficult to fish!  I can't even go into reverse to line up a drift with the sea anchor for fear of the sounder dropping out.

Does anyone more electronically minded than me have any ideas as to what may be causing the problem?  In the long run i want to replace the transducer with a 1kW TM260, but don't want to jump into this if the problem is with the unit itself.

Thanks for any help!

Alex

 I recently got my first boat & now need to get a fishfinder with GPS. Whats the best one around ? Budget aint a problem (within reason) Whats the most reliable, easiest to use ? Combo unit or two seperate units ? Advise please. Richy

Hi
Has anyone installed a Airmar R209 in a wetbox through fibreglass before and does it work fine?? I bought it to be mounted external but for various reasons it can't be, so it needs to be installed in-hull.

Thanks
Russell

 Hi guy , did purchase a new sounder for the tinnie a few months back , have got a brief concept on how to use it and what it's reading, 

just wanted to see what anyone else thought of the photo I got the last time I was out. 

Not sure what the trail to the surface is suppose to be telling me .

cheers aidos

Hi Guys,

Got a little bored and got sick of converting GPS Coords so I created my own converter if anyone was interested.

Converts Degrees decimal, Degrees Minutes Seconds & Degree Minutes-decimal.

can download from link:

http://www.filedropper.com/lat-longconversioncalculator

And its all FREE!

 So my Northstar 121 may need replacing. White screen of death. Last resort is a guy down freo way but not confident.

So ive been looking at the Lowrance hds 10 gen2. Has anybody got one and if so how is it performing?

Was having a look on the navionics website and stumbled across a page that lets you use their map online. Might come in handy for people looking for new ground before heading offshore (can zoom in/out, shows depths, contour lines etc). Here's the link.... http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp

 Just recently had probs with navman gps not acquiring sats. Aussie day weekend crabbing fishing planned!  Holy crap batman wat do I do? I get the wobbles if I leave home without a good plotter and sounder. NEVER FEAR NAVIONICS IS HERE!

downloaded the app and grudgingly paid money for an app for the first time in my life!

Best 17 bucks I ever spent! What a lifesaver. Works likea charm and my smartphones screen is about same size as my navman so nothing lost. Chews battery a bit but only coz I have screen illuminated all the time. 12v plug fixes that prob. Honestly guys for the money this thing was better than serviceable.

Pulled me out if the proverbial so my reputation is still intact as a master navigator with friends and family.

Nice to know its there as a backup if ever I need it.

No iam not connected to the makers in any way but credit where credit is due!

Hi Guys

looking at one of these which has the built in antenna

anyone got one and in particular do they really work well under a hard cover canopy without an external dome on the roof ?

cheers

 HI there me  cousin has given me the task off find a sounder for his 20ft fiberglass boat  and with a budget off around the grand mark not to much over and doesn't really need the GPS was thinking off the furuno 627 can get that from the states for about  1150 wit out  looking to hard  but wat are some other options  any help would be appreciated 

thanks chris 

Anybody had any luck calibrating a Lowrance fuel flow meter on a HDS 9????

Full 100lt tank,sensor measured 80lt when pumping it out via an electric pump.

I followed the on screen prompts,it doesnt seem to go past the info box.

I will admit I havent told the HDS that I have filled the tank yet,its siting empty on my workshop bench.Perhaps you can only calibrate if the HDS THINKS its got a full tank????

Andrew

 Finally got a decent day to get out on the new boat into the 40s after heading out from Woodies. The sounder is a bit more hardcore than my old hds7 and was wondering if anyone could offer any opinions on what I am looking at.

 Hey guys I currently have a tm260 with the furuno plug and looking at changing out the 585 has anyone found an adaptor plug so I can use it on my hds9 (will it work) an if so how did you do it. Reason for it is I'm looking at installing a in hull chirp unit as primary sounder any ideas be appreaciated

Going to upgrade to 1kw in a cruisecraft 625 outsider would appreciate some advice thanks.

 Howdy

A little while ago I purchased an e7d to replace a a65d, thats where the trouble started. I have had endless dramas with touchscreen alignment and position fixes as well as the sounder changing transducer settings without letting me know. I am getting a little sick of this thing and having to constantly muck around with it just to use it. When it works its great but it is a hassle. I have read a heap of stuff since about touchscreen issues and I have updated software as recently as last week and performed the recommended factory reset and the issues still persist. 

Has anyone got one of these and had similar issues and solved the porblem. I have tried the Raymarine technical forum and followed all instructions there and on their website and I have contacted Raymarines Australian support people on four occassions and no one has done me the courtesy of a reply. 

Any help would be appreciated.

Mick

Anyone know if you can put this transducer into a wetbox , or has anyone done it . Was thinking of making a wetbox and giving it a go . Not sure if I can do it as my hull has quite a deep V but willing to give it a go if its possible .
Thanks
Paul

Looking for a standard mounting bracket for lowrance elite 7, if anyone has dash mounted there's and want to sell the bracket let me know.

Located in Perth

Does anybody use Lowrance's GDM6 to manage/backup their waypoints?

I can not get the software to read points from the sounders SD card and recognise it.

I have updated the Elite5 software to the latest Version3.6, Saved the data from the Elite5 to the SD card in version 2 format, Tried two different 2Gb cards(Kingston and Sandisk), installed the software on two different computers running vista and xp and didley squat.

The software reads the data (goes to 100%) then nothing.... no waypoints, trails or routes...?

Next stop would be to try a Windows 98 computer?

Any info on getting this working would be greatly appreciated

Steve.

hey im having trouble getting my unit to show my tracks when i head out ive got it set on auto in the tracks menu but cant seem to get it to show up any gurus out there can help

Hi guys just wondering if anyone has purchased the 751xs and is running the chirp sonar ?? and what are your thoughts on the unit.

 Apologies for the rant.

With the weather looking ordinary for the Christmas break we decided to give the annual Abrolhos dash a miss and look for a new spot closer to town and do a bit of camping.

Mates old man has a nice little 4.3 Cc that just needed a new sounder installed. He had got a good deal on an elite 7 at the Mandurah boat show so figured we had that all sorted. Took a few hours to pull the floor up and do a spot on job of the install. Fired up in the driveway. All good so far.

Pull up at the campsite and get ready to go drop the pots in. Unit fires up and I enter a couple of marks. Drop the boat in and the sounder decides to not fire up. Start up screen saying Elite 7/ Lowrance and that's it. Won't boot up.

Day 1 of a 3 day trip and the brand new Lowrance electronics fail.

Make a couple of phone calls from the highest hill in the area and find that it is a comman problem and they need a software upgrade and reboot. Are you kidding me? It's a brand new unit. No chance of that happening with no Internet, laptop, sd-micro sd cards etc. 

If you have one of these units I would recommend you update the software ASAP. It seems it is a know problem but dealers don't seem to be too proactive about fixing the issues. 

If you are in the market for a similar unit I would recommend something more reliable, anything else. Really put a downer on my sons first away trip with the men.

 Hey guys wondering if anyone had an hds10 and switched over to the new hds 12 touch im thinking about buying one wondering if its really worth spending the money on it 

is there much difference between them cheers azza

Hi All,

Tried to browse the forum to see if any topics had answered this, so apologies if going over old stuff.

Racked out the savings and picked up a HDS7 touch with structure. Used it for two weeks and I was stoked, then one morning the structure faulted, still got the option of "structure" but just appears really dark and changing contrast or any settings didn't help. Took the unit in to the dealer and he bench ran it with no dramas (but didn't connect up a structure scan transducer), didn't get heaps of support and walked out not knowing where to go next. Tried all the resets, trans seems all in tact and complete and played with all the head unit settings I'm scratching for any other options. 

Not sure if anyone has had similar? ideas?

Cheers,

Ben

 Hey guys I was wondering if u could put the transducer of a garmin 350c  inside the hull if a boat 

Hi There,

I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I am chasing some advice on a new sounder/chart plotter combo. I have recently purchased my first boat (4.75m quintrex bayhunter) to take fishing around Warnbro, Cockburn and Mandurah. I am looking to upgrade the GPS and sounder on the boat as they are quiet old black and white units, and not knowing a great deal about how to read sounders properly, i figure investing in a decent colour sounder will help me to learn quicker and find more fish!

I have been looking at the Raymarine Dragonfly and was just wondering if any other users have had any experience with this unit and if so, what your thoughts are? or for around $700-$800, are there any better units on the market?

Any information is good information!

Thanks Guys 

 G'day fellas I've had this sounder for a couple months now and still finding it hard to use and find or know what hard ground looks like ,I'm after some info on the best settings,I've been running general use fishin mode, white background with brown bottom track,some feedback would be great cheers 

Guys can I get some feedback on apps to integrate a HDS 10 combo unit running a navionics gold card. Are there any android(Samsung phone appps) apps worth downloading.
Can you communicate between phone and gps..
Was hoping to use it to back up sounder and as a backup if the GPS IN THE BOAT WAS TO GO DOWN.

thanks