Newbee to electronics

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hello all,
I plan on getting a boat the first of the year and will need to get some electronics for it if I buy new which I think I will be doing. I will be using this boat mainly for fishing out of San Francisco, Moss Landing, Bodega Bay areas of Northern California. I am looking at the 22' Cruiser or the Marinaut 215. I am guessing a vhf radio for sure, radar and some type of unit with gps, fish finder, etc. I will need to learn how to use this stuff some looking for user friendly equipment. I have talked to Dave Thompson and he did recommend the Garmin 7208 I believe. If I am missing something please let me know. Thanks for any advice.
 
The Garmin 5208 GPS Map system has worked very well for us on the Cdory's that we are building. It is a very compact yet highly efficient package that has everything you need, plotter, sounder, radar and gps all in one head. Let me know if you would like more information on it and I will gladly send it to you.

Sincerely,

Scott
 
Many decisions are based on your budget. A large screen gps/chartplotter/FF is ideal and you need to budget for maps if not built-in. There are several transducer types that require additonal consideration for your fishing and boating needs. Keep in mind, the new models will not be released until early 2011. ex I bought a Garmin unit in Oct last year and the new improved units were released in early 2010. When boating season slows down in your area, many units will be discounted or wait until the new models are released

Most users feel Garmin units are easy to use. m2cw is go to West Marine, boating superstore, etc and operate the demo units and look at all models before purchasing along asking other boaters. It reminds me of early electronic calculators. You are RPN or need an = button person, which maybe a poor example in this posting. Your needs will change in short order and many systems are network ready allowing you to add new items like radar, XM radio, AIS, fuel flow meters, etc without starting over. The PANBO site is good reading and showcases leading edge technology and many of the new features trickle down to popular units. Nearly all units have the product manuals online for reference and studying b/c they have many features and settings that can be overlooked in a catalog

For backup, there are new VHF handheld radios with built-in GPS and chartplotting for less than $250.
I was just looking at Garmin NUVI 550 for the autos and it accepts G2 marine maps and it would be useful dual puprose portable handheld GPS/Chartplotter
 
Also look at Furuno- they are the industry leader in radar and sounder technology.

Garmin is fairly intuitive and easy to learn, although I am not sold on their touch screen units yet, and their menu system requires too many keystrokes to change simple settings.

Lowrance has a series of units that we have installed a few of, and they look pretty good.

SImrad has a new multi function display series that looks interesting and is receiving good reviews in the industry.
 
I have a Garmin in my boat (22CD), have spent many hours using a Raymarine in two other people's boat and spent about 30 mins playing with a Lowrance in the boat I just purchased (TomCat 255). As far as ease of use, between these 3 the Garmin wins hands down. The user interface (UI) on the Garmin is intuitive an easy to use. The Raymarine seems to be the most complicated with the Lowrance being someplace in between (but closer to Raymarine in terms of difficulty in the UI). I haven't tried a Furuno unit other than my 1713 radar. That's also easy to use and very intuitive. I don't know how easy their chart plotters are. Furuno and Lowrance are both industry leaders in radar and fish finders and the side imaging sonars look quite interesting to me.
 
I've had all the brands on my boat. Garmin does a nice job with GPS but I feel lacks a little in Sounder/Fishfinder. I have a Furuno 1623 which is a nice, inexpensive, independent radar for peace of mind in the fog. Raymarine S1000 wireless autopilot which is a good entry level AP. Finally, a Lowrance GPS/Fishfinder unit which I like because it allows me to use Navionics charts, which I really like and the fishfinder is very good.

The newer models of Lowrance, the HDS models with built-in broadband sounder have had very positive reviews from fisherman, important because they were going through some big customer service issues for awhile which I've heard have been resolved.

Good choices all, it just depends on how you want to use your boat. I like the idea of redundancy and still use my Garmin 188c for backup, sitting right next to the Lowrance unit with the separate Furuno 1623 for radar. Some might think it's overkill but it works for me.
 
I've used the Raymarine C-80 system including radar/fishfinder and I've used a Lowrance high end (at that time) chart plotter/fishfinder with Furuno radar. Unfortunately my Garmin experience has been limited to Streetpilots and Nuvi's. :?

Gotta agree with Roger. The Raymarine is absolutely the most complicated to use and the learning curve is long and tedious - requiring younger brain synapsis than I have to memorize and call up procedures, but it's a workhorse.

The Lowrance was far easier to use and the one feature I depended upon a lot was tracking as well as recording the fishfinder such that I could take my flash card home and replay my trip on the computer. Any fish "honey holes" I may not have seen (often) could be flagged and turned into a waypoint for the next trip. The track on the screen while on a trip was handy for returning. Just "follow the yellow brick road" home. Furuno radar albeit monochrome and low end, was more than adequate.

I can't speak from experience re: Garmin, but if their other products are any reflection, it's probably VERY intuitive and easy to "Guess" through operations. The store displays just don't make up for actual time staring at something. If the Garmin can do that computer replay and track like Lowrance, I'd probably jump on it.

Don
 
I have Furuno and it is excellent equipment but not user friendly like my previous Garmin. You need to have a Furuno manual nearby unless you constantly use it. Garmin and others don't repair equipment after their new models come out. If you have trouble they may or may not give you credit towards their newest model. Furuno on the other hand must maintain their previous NavNet systems for the next twenty years since Homeland Security uses Furuno Navnet 2 systems and they must maintain them as part of their contract. If your Furuno has trouble, you will be able to get it repaired. If you go to any marina where there are people who make their living on the water look at their boats. Odds are they are using Furuno by a large majority. Damn they're tough to use compared to the Garmin though. Also I would never buy any unit that has a touch screen. Since I fish, I always have smelly jelly and fish slime on my hands. I can't imagine what the screen would look like after a day of fishing. Also sun screen would be hard to clean off since it is not readily water soluble since it is sweat proof.
Forrest
 
B²":3ocpauzc said:
Garmin has Homeport software for $30
very useful and fun to explore new places on your PC
Click to expand...

Ahh but do they have the equivalent of this software? I truly enjoyed viewing my sonar information on the big screen PC and picking off GPS coordinates to play with on the next trip. If they do, Garmin would probably move up on my wish list. 'Till then, the Lowrance Elite-5 DSI will sit high on my limited space list.

Don
 
Back
Top