Any good deals on a depth finder?

[GregE]

The Furuno MFD12 is nice but high $$.  The screen is viewable from the aft helm though

[Hydro-Therapy]

As for Portland Marine Electronics there prices are higher than a cats back and the after purchase service is POOR to say the least. I will leave it at that .


  H-T

[Vancouvertechie]

I would agree about the pricing.  They are a few hundred dollars higher than the online retailers.  But they have quite a selection of electronics that are out on display.  It was nice to look, touch, and navigate the many manufacturers. 

VT

[amazing grace]

I wished I had a place I could go and look at a lot of units and play with some. After being out on the water yesterday and having a really old Furuno sounder and a older Lowrance X51 unit on board. I am dreaming of a new unit. The newer Furuno LS seem like the real deal, although black and white. Wonder about spending a bit more and getting the 6100 and the larger screen?
VT, did he say anymore about the Garmim 550C being a shallow water only unit. Sounds like an efffort to get you spend more $ for a unit they would rather sell. From what I can decern that unit is more than a shallow water ff.  Yes, Garmin  get's bought a lot by the bass guys I know.

Maybe my budget needs to be $500. Then what?

[woody]

You know Gracie, I'm really pleased that you are working that boat to (the) death (of the fishees).

Keep your upgrades coming, we like the expanded knowledge base.

Woody

[Vancouvertechie]

I wished I had a place I could go and look at a lot of units and play with some. After being out on the water yesterday and having a really old Furuno sounder and a older Lowrance X51 unit on board. I am dreaming of a new unit. The newer Furuno LS seem like the real deal, although black and white. Wonder about spending a bit more and getting the 6100 and the larger screen?
VT, did he say anymore about the Garmim 550C being a shallow water only unit. Sounds like an efffort to get you spend more $ for a unit they would rather sell. From what I can decern that unit is more than a shallow water ff.  Yes, Garmin  get's bought a lot by the bass guys I know.

Maybe my budget needs to be $500. Then what?

Well the guy was not pushy at all, and I was all over the place asking questions about every MFD/sounder they had and my experience with them.  I had already told him what I had and what my goal was. 

I did notice the backlight was better on the LS-6100 than the 4100.  For me I am going to stick with the LS-4100 Furuno.  Perhaps later on I will get an MFD or just the sounder, but right now this is a huge jump over the Eagle.  I have been able to still catch fish, and I guess when I can't find fish or go through a huge dry spell then maybe I will upgrade.  But that is after saving up for the device.  I have a pretty full freezer right now. 

I am also looking really hard at getting a wifi multiplexer and getting AIS, and other NMEA data to the tablet.  I just seems that is going to be the future.  At least for me. 

VT

[Threeweight]

Grace, I don't know about the Garmin 500, but on the 300 the sonar's adjustment options were really minimal.  As I recall, about the only thing I could change on the one I played with was the screen color, the frequency of the transducer, and fish ID vs. arches in the display.

The higher end units from Raymarine, Lowrance, etc... have a ton of tweaks you can make like noise reduction (useful for filtering out false echoes due to junk in the water), adjusting gain and power (to reduce clutter on the screen, and alter the threshold for displaying an echo), interference rejection (in case you are running two sonars at once), settings to take advantage of different aftermarket transducer options, etc...  For saltwater, my Raymarine has pre-sets that alter signal strength, noise reduction, etc... to fit different situations (deep water, shallow water, split screen, etc...)  I also love that it lets me set the depth I want to scan (top 300' of the water column, ideal for Tuna!, or locked on the bottom 20', ideal for halibut).  

That said, units like the Garmin will be really simple and easy to use, and figuring out my Raymarine is often a giant pain in the butt.

Sort of the difference between a basic cell phone and a I phone.  Both work to make phone calls, but one can do a lot more than the basic functions.

$500 gets you into the stand-alone sonar version of the Lowrance HDS and Humminbird's units.  For $600 you get into the combo sonar/chartplotter units from both makers.  If you can find a place that still has them, $600 is in the ball park for the Raymarine A50D and A57D units.

For bang for the $$, I think VT is on to something with the basic black and white Furuno.

[R42itus]

VT - Mileage varies. I had very good experiences with Portland Marine Electronics. They even hooked up and configured stuff I didn't buy from them for what I considered a reasonable fee. I hired Todd to train me to use my TR1, money well spent.

[woody]

Not sure VT, but have you looked at the Brookhouse iMux which is an wifi NMEA multiplexer for iPad/Pod/Phone?

Looks like if you had an old plotter without AIS support this would be ideal.

Haven't been able to get reliable pricing though.

Of of course Ship Model, Pambo and Comar are also in the market.  I think Comar's at $300 is attractive.  Assuming you have iPhone/Pad/Pod it makes setting up a iNAUX on your i's very conservatively priced compared to a good chart plotter.
wifi Multiphexers are getting to be very attractive for the recreational fisherman.  Plus you get extra hugs from kids and wife when you bring home an iPad. Since I have Apple (and Dell) I'm taking a good look.

Any input would be appreciated.

Woody

[amazing grace]

Thanks guys for the info. Sorry Woody, no help on the techno ipad thingy mcbob. All that stuff is not my thing right now. Also, I do not want or need a $50 a month fee for and ipad and/or smart phone and use it for a ff/gps.

Threeweight, some good thoughts and I agree with you. The lack of tweaks on the Garmin unit might not be a bad thing for me

I am a little leary of Lowrance. Is there customer service support any better these day? How is there quality?

Raymarine, if I buy one of their units will they be around in two or three years?

While I have a hummingbird 597 I do not find it all the intuitive to use.

That is why I am looking a Furuno and Garmin. Is there someone else I should be looking at?

right now I am thinking of going with two seperate units.. One FF and one Gps. Is this a bad idea?

I have about $800 to $900 for a total budget.

Thoughts please.

[bluearima]

i have a lowrance hds8 gen 2.used it for four months with no trouble,it has been great! i thought i should download the new update for it even though i wasent having any problems with it.when i loaded the memory card into my unit and turned it on i thought everything went ok until i turned it off and took the sd card out. i turned it on and i had no control over it. the only screen it would go to was the start up screen that says hds 8 gen2. i could not even turn it off without cutting power at the main switch. i called lowrance the next morning with my problem.it took less than two minutes to talk to a service person. after explaining what gps was doing he asked me a couple of questions  he told me that it was an internal problem and i had to send it to them. i had two choices that i could do return it for a brand new unit just like it or for $200.00 i could upgrade it for the next better model. i gave him my credit card number, he charged $220.00 on it and i get hds 10 next gen unit that sells for $600.00 more. there customer service is outstanding from talking to a real person to resolving the problem.

[Threeweight]

I hear you on simplicity... there have been several occasions when I have had to use the "restore factory defaults" option in my Raymarine where I adjusted something then couldn't figure out how to undo it  :whistle:

I have had a Lowrance HDS 5 in my boat for three years now, and it has never given me a problem.  I think a lot of folks here on the Arima site have them.  I know a some of the early HDS units had issues with condensation getting in them, but I have not really seen a ton of complaints lately.  The screen quality on the HDS units is hard to beat, and the sonar seems pretty good.  They use Navionics chips for mapping, which is quite a plus for me (more detail, cover broader area, and are less $$ than Garmin chips).  If I were buying one on your budget, I'd get the HDS-5 plotter/sonar combo with the Nautic Insight maps built in.  Those maps are pretty good for saltwater in the northwest, and can save you the $200 or so you'd need for a chip.  Have West Marine price match the best price you can find online, then get their extended warranty.

I haven't used a Humminbird in 20 years, so not much to offer there.

Raymarine was bought out by Flir Industries a few years ago (a giant US defense contractor based in Oregon, who makes high-end night vision devices, sonar, and other electronics for the Navy, Air Force, etc...).  I don't think Raymarine is going anywhere... if anything, they are probably pushing the technology envelop much further than other manufacturers.  Their newer stuff is big $$$$$.  I was only able to afford my A57 because they were being discontinued--I got mine for about 60% off the original price.  While I love the power and detail it shows, I would not recommend it to someone looking for a simple to operate unit.

The only other brands I know of that are out there are in the Raymarine/Furuno $$$$ range (Sitex, Simrad).

I don't see a lot of value in going w/ two separate units.  A few years ago, there was a huge $$ difference  between a basic sonar and a sonar/chartplotter combo.  Now the difference is maybe $100-150.  Both of my units are combos (Lowrance and the Raymarine).  I like redundancy... if one breaks down I can salvage a trip by using the other.  Normally, I use the Lowrance as a plotter, and the Ray as a sonar.  The other big factor in an Arima is dash space... not a lot of room for multiple devices.

[amazing grace]

Thanks again Threeweight.

[Threeweight]

Here's how I handle my limited dash space problem:

[amazing grace]

Nice set up. What is the gizzy between the radio and the mic?
Looks like the HDS is on a Ram mount? That looks like the best spot for the chartplotter. I am thinking of mounting my unit on the right hand side of the dash. About in front of where your little guage is, over to where your white basket is. I do not have a small guage there currently.  Since I have a skip tower I could go overhead with some kind of mount?

[Threeweight]

The black box is the Trollmaster throttle control for my kicker.

W/ a skip tower, I'd mount my radio to the roof.  W/ a 5" screen sonar or plotter mounted there, you might have a hard time seeing the screen while sitting.

[FISHSTALKER]

Garmin is not a hot buy for sonar. It has been several years now since they have made any advanced technical upgrades compared to other manufacturers. But ...... for GPS mapping they are good and the prices are palatable. Many times I have read that the sonar is okay in shallow areas but not so good at depth. I was going to buy their 10"  plotter until some people on the board here turned me onto the touch pad market. I ended up buying the 10" Toshiba Thrive touch pad. It needs no peripheral accessories. Everything is built into it. I bought it for $350 compared to the $1500 the Garmin would cost. The Google shop had the Navionics Mapping to download for $35.
This is the avenue I took. I don't say it is right for everyone. The Thrive is full function and like a computer has all kinds of varied uses.
For my sonar I chose a Furuno unit.
Dale

[Vancouvertechie]

Amazing grace,

You don't need a tablet with a wireless plan to get GPS navigation.  There are several tablets out there with an internal GPS chip and work great.  So you don't need the subscription service.  That's if you want to look at going that way.  I am looking at the Motorola Xoom at this time.  There are some used ones for around 200.00 and it has built in GPS, WIFI, and 4G. 

3WT mentioned some other brands that are worth noting, but I have no experience with and they are SITEX and SIMRAD.  Right now you can get a 7" MFD from Sitex for around $600.00.  That would get you GPS/Sounder/Radar capable unit with added expense of adding the sounder module and a radar down the line.  I am also not too familiar with the C-MAP charts, but I am sure they are just as good as everyone else.  This is one route I am thinking about too because the SITEX 12" radar is reasonably priced and a fairly light unit.  And I think you can even get Radar overlay, but I would have to confirm that. 

VT

[Salmon King]

AG...You have a Humminbird 597 and you want to upgrade?
Is there something you don't like about it? 
I ask because tha's one of the units I'm considering if one comes up on the used market.
Tell ya what...you upgrade from your 597 and give me a great price on yours...we'll both come out way ahead!


Fishstalker...

Would you happen to have any pictures of your 10" setup in the boat as a chartplotter?
How do you even mount the tablet?

I was also under the impression that I would need more than just a tablet and a sdcard...
Wish there was someone close to me using that type of setup so I could see it in action. 
Cost-wise it sounds like it would suit me just perfect!


Acutally something like that and and a stand alone color FF with a 7-8" screen would be perfect!

S.K.

[amazing grace]

All for $600 SK? Ummm, not!

Yes, I do have the 597 hd ci di in my Wooldridge. Good unit, although the gps I have not spent much time in figuring it out. I am not going that route for my Arima though. I think I would like a 6" screen. SFF's really looks right, does'nt it?

[FISHSTALKER]

I have a combination leather type cover that folds over into a stand. I have Velcro'd it to the dash. I also bought a 2.0 amp cigarette lighter USB cable power plug for full time use.
Some time ago I had posted on here about my purchase and added some photos.

Let me say that the downside is that the touchpad is not waterproof. Though there are products out there to take care of that problem.  It is really hard for some folks to wrap their mind around using a product like this. Most will view it as a toy. It isn't! I take mine in the truck for road GPS and also into the house for web search, office forms and movies on our big screen TV, etc. It's best to read up on all the features of these devices.

It can be tied into MNSE system. You can store your routes, marks and photos of the area when using the Navionics SD Card. I bought the inland Lakes Card for myself and that covers the total USA and Canada. $35 at the Google Store.
Hope this is of some help.
Dale

http://arimaboatownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=2007.0

[FISHSTALKER]

I saw a Furuno FCV 582L for sale on BD Outdoors. http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/boat-accessories/458552-furuno-582l-fishfinder.html

Also a FCV600 http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/boat-accessories/459260-furuno-fcv-600l-lcd.html

[Salmon King]

I called about tha 600 model.
It is not a chart plotter but it looks and works like new according to the seller.

S.K.

[FISHSTALKER]

In the subject you stated you were looking for a depth finder......... Not a plotter?

[Salmon King]

VT is looking for a DF...this is actually HIS thread, it just happens I'm also looking.

 I am looking for a combo unit...or (if I have to) 2 seperate units that are of decent quality.
I know a NEW "top-of-the-line unit  is well beyond my budget so I'm hoping for someone to upgrade and list their used unit at a price I can do.
 As for seperate units...I am tired of "just getting by" with old, outdated units so I still need to find a good buy on used equipment from someone that just has to have the latest thing.  
 Technically ll I really need is the plotter (assuming I got my DF working again...got to put the boat back in the water one of these days to check that).


BTW...RAIMO (a.k.a. finnfin) has a inoperative unit (I think it is an hds5) he's been trying to get to me for sometime now.  We're hoping that it will get to me via the "grapevine" at the planned get together.  As a retired Navy electronics tech I'm hoping I can repair it.

Thank you FS (and others) for keeping your eyes out for both myself & VT,
S.K.