Humminbird Fish Finders

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Alyssa Jean

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2005
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Alyssa Jean
The Humminbird Wide-Eye, vintage 1996 went kaput on my 16. Since I am going to learn how to salt water fish and am indeed ready to at least try, I need to replace the before mentioned equipment.

Anyone out there that can suggest which model I might want. I don't need GPS compatible or anything fancy, just a good model fishfinder to find fish. I probably would like to stick to Humminbird if possible to keep the same or similar mounting footprint on the port dash.

Alyssa_Jean_2_004.sized.jpg
 
The 323 is a decent monochome fishfinder, that I am using on the CD 25. I don't really have the need for color on that boat--on the TC, I do have a Lowrance color.
 
Our CD has the Wide Vision, not sure if they even make that anymore, but it came on our boat. I have the exact model on my fish-n-ski (new in 1996)...both still work great. I bought 2 cheap 525's for our pontoon and my fishing kayak, simple, basic, inexpensive, never used anything other than Humminbird.
 
I use the Matrix 97 and love the thing. Probably more than you're looking for though.
 
I had a Humminbird Matrix ff/gps on my old whaler and it was great. I wouldn't have chosen it if I was buying new as I didn't think the quality was there because of previous experience, but it turned out to be way better than I imagined.
 
I'm on my fourth Humminbird. I've got a 141C on my open boat that works great. I recently bought the 797C2 for the CD and really like it also. Humminbird has great customer service. I had a older model (70's)don't remember the type but the power cable went back from the salt. I contacted Humminbird and the particuliar model was discontinued and they gave me a upgraded model at a reduced price. Don't remember the numbers but it was a great deal at the time.
 
If you are planning on learning to fish the salt I would highly recommend getting a combo unit with a color screen. Something like the Lowrance 525 would work very well there and I don't believe it is overkill! You will get much better definition of the bait balls with color. Having the GPS allows you to troll along the contour lines. This is especially desired when fishing for Blackmouth as they will often be found on underwater points at a specific depth feeding on bait.

I'm not knocking Humminbird (I have a Legend 2000 on my sled that works fine), I just know the Lowrance line better since I have been trying to figure out what I'm going to put on the 27'. I'll probably go with a lms-525c at the rear helm station and a LCX-38C HD at the main helm.
 
gljjr":131bugpx said:
I just know the Lowrance line better since I have been trying to figure out what I'm going to put on the 27'. I'll probably go with a lms-525c at the rear helm station and a LCX-38C HD at the main helm.
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How do you get one transducer to feed two displays? From the (admittedly confusing and sometimes contradictory) information I have received about the Raymarine family, you can't drive two displays from one transducer. I would love to be proven wrong on this, though.

Warren
 
Lori Ann":1903kz7w said:
gljjr":1903kz7w said:
I just know the Lowrance line better since I have been trying to figure out what I'm going to put on the 27'. I'll probably go with a lms-525c at the rear helm station and a LCX-38C HD at the main helm.
Click to expand...

How do you get one transducer to feed two displays? From the (admittedly confusing and sometimes contradictory) information I have received about the Raymarine family, you can't drive two displays from one transducer. I would love to be proven wrong on this, though.

Warren
Click to expand...

Warren,

With Lowrance you can buy an "A/B" switch to manually change what unit drives the transducer (See Lowtance SB-10BL). With RayMarine, if you have the E Series units you can use the same transducer since it is digital and goes through the eithernet network. I prefer Lowrances Fishfinder as I like the analog over the digital for now. I've found that the Raymarine digital is OK but you have more control with the Lowrance.
 
The great thing about hummingbirds is that you can move the unit with a push of a buttom for one location to another. the unit just slips on to the mount with all the wiring mounted in already. this allows you to hav two or more mounts, one at the wheel, one at the back for fishing. I have fished on boats with this set up, easy to do,and its great to have the finder in the back with you next to the kicker.
 
Thomas, Wouldn't you need two transducer with two stations?
 
gljjr":vtgu48w9 said:
With Lowrance you can buy an "A/B" switch to manually change what unit drives the transducer (See Lowtance SB-10BL). With RayMarine, if you have the E Series units you can use the same transducer since it is digital and goes through the eithernet network. I prefer Lowrances Fishfinder as I like the analog over the digital for now. I've found that the Raymarine digital is OK but you have more control with the Lowrance.
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I already have the Raymarine but I am trying to figure out the best way to get a second fishfinder back at my aft helm. From what a tech from the company that installed my electronics told me, the digital data (# of feet, etc.) will be sent by the transducer on the ethernet but the actual fishfinder display will go on a dedicated cable. I need to call Raymarine directly and get a straight answer on this.

Thanks,
Warren
 
Warren,

If you have the E-80 then you need the SeaTalk HS cable. On this Page you can go to the "E-Series Product Tour" link. And on the second page after the intro you can see how the network would need to be done.

If you have the C Series unit then you can't network the units at all. According to the Raymarine Tech I talked to last year, they flash "Upgrade" the sounder unit to lock out the networking capabilities for it to be able to work with the C-Series units.
 
Two observations-- first, you really should get a color unit because the definition and display are so much better, especially in low-light and saltwater situations. Second, I would get a unit that also has GPS. While you might not want it for mapping or finding your way back, it's a great way to keep track of your trolling pattern, going back to the rockpile where you caught the rockfish, etc. I've grown to really like the Humminbird units I have, and don't think I'd change brands for what I do.

For your use, fishing in saltwater, I'd choose either the 787c or 757c...the 757c should be a little less money and has nearly all the features. If you are adamant about not wanting GPS, then I'd look at the 747c.
 
Thataway, sorry for the slow reply. No you dont need two sending unit. You can order a switch from hummingbird that allows you to switch from one unit to another. you can have two head units or just move the screen head from one locationto another. I have helped rig a boat this way.
 
I just received a reply from Lowrance related to the above. Here is what I asked

I have a Raymarine E-80 with an Airmar shoot-through transducer on my boat. I am interested in adding a Lowrance NMEA2000-compatible GPS/Sonar with its own transom transducer. I would like to be able to move the Lowrance display from the forward to the aft steering station and back. I have some questions about this:

1. Will there be any problems in running the two sonars together?

2. Can I connect LowranceNet and SeaTalk so that they can share data?

3. What is required to install the Lowrance transducer so that it can be used both forward and aft? The build-your-own app on the website does not show a transducer as one of the items you can plug into LowranceNet. Does that mean a dedicated cable must be run to the display from the transducer?

4. Are there any other issues that I should be aware of?
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Here is the answer I received:

Thank you for your inquiry.

Question #1: If both sonar's are running at a common frequency of 200kHz, then yes they will interfere with each other

#2 The 2 networks are not compatible with each other for several reasons

#3 The transducer DOES have a dedicated line going directly to the head unit and is cannot be plugged into the NMEA 2000 network.

#4 The issues have already been discussed above

Please let me know if you need further support.
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Unlike Lowrance, Raymarine specifically states that the output of the DSM300 Digital Sounder Module can be sent via SeaTalk to multiple displays. Because of the interference problem I think I will forget about implementing redundancy in my depthsounder transducers.

Warren
 
Warren,

The Lowrance units have dual frequency transducers. You could run 1 on 50mhz while running the Raymarine on 200mhz or vise versa. The two frequencies have different uses and different cone angles so depending on what you are doing you might want to use over the other. Also, you might be able to minimize the interfernce by playing with the ping speed on the Lowrance unit. Yes you will still get the verticle lines but you will likely be able to limit the problem to an acceptable level. Just be sure to mount the transducers as far apart as possible. :)
 
A point of clarification about selecting the frequency on which your transponder is working. My Humminbird 987c can be made to stop transmitting althgether, but otherwise, the transducer "talks" on both frequencies (50/200), and you just select listening to one, the other, or both. Therefore, even if your unit's head is listening one frequency, there is the potential to interfere with another head trying to listen on the other frequency. If two transducers are operating in this fashion, each has the potential to interfere with the other, even if the heads are listening for different frequencies. The interference will be occasional, and periodic, because it only occurs when one unit listens to the other's returns. When they're out of that phase of the talk/listen cycle, there is no interference.

Patience, and go for transducer separation and narrow beam width settings.
 
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