Fish finder replacement

[Martin Terry]

Looking to replace our 12 year old Lowrance HDS5 with something with a larger screen and more intuitive functionality. Any recommendations please and particularly porting across existing marks that we have on the existing unit. Thanks in advance 

[great white]

I believe that the newer Lowrance units are very good.

 

Or you could give Karl Betteridge of Better Connected a call for advice, his no is 07729 399433

If he does not answer, send him a message.

[Maverick Martin]

2nd vote for Karl he's very knowledgeable and a nice guy with it. 

[plaicemat]

A vote for Charlie and Martin, I went for Lowrance which does everything I want it to and it was fitted by Karl with one or two other jobs, all professionally done. He's done several jobs for me, all very satisfactory.

 

Terry.

[Colin-58]

  Hi Martin ,All above good advice, I have three Lowrance machines.  A 9 t I 2.  Now obsolete    A f s 9  I am very pleased with  and have just obtained the new eagle 9 live sight,    suggest you check out videos , there is plenty on YouTube to study up, to get the best out of them you need to consider some good cards in them like platinum plus or equivalent, they come in around or just over £200  but if your buying new, lookout for deals, you can sometimes get them free in the deal so don't forget to ask.     Also may be worth having a word with Ashley at seatronix, he is very knowledgeable and helpful, don't know where your boat is but he is near Poole and  gets to mariners there regular.       Hope this helps.      Good luck,        Colin.

 

 

[Martin Terry]

Many thanks for the advice, we have gone with Karl and looking forward to trying the new kit.

[Colin-58]

Well done Martin ,so what did you decide on ?          

[Martin Terry]

Hi we installed the Lowrance Eagle  9 Tripple shot with the UK and Ireland CMAP card.  It works very well and is much easier to use as the screen is so much larger.  
 

However we now no longer have location information to the radio for the emergency red button so we now need either a separate antenna or new radio, typical boats!

[Rob]

Any modern plotter should have a nmea 0183 output (that's from memory so might not be quite correct).

Maybe you need to set the plotter to broadcast this data ?

R

[Rob]

Hmmm, I downloaded the manual, doesn't look good.

I remember seeing something before on this forum , where there was a cut price unit that was a standalone unit so didn't have the connectivity of more standard units.


Annoying!

R

[plaicemat]

I assume Karl fitted the option you chose?

 

Terry.

[Martin Terry]

Yes Karl did a good job and pointed out the issue.  When one of the guys in our boat share proposed upgrading the plotter/fish finder I had this partly formed thought in my head about connectivity to the radio emergency button but dismissed it thinking that newer had to be better.  Wish I’d asked !

[plaicemat]

The only reason for asking was, although I recommended Lowrance kit, unfortunately, the Eagle line are what they call their 'more accessible' series. Although somewhat cheaper than the alternatives, they are built as very good sounder/fish finders but save on some of the other features like the chart plotter and connectivity options. I went for the Elite FS9 and am absolutely delighted with it BUT, it comes in at probably £300 more than your option. As they always say, you pays your money and makes your choice.

 

Terry.

[Martin Terry]

Very true. If we go down the route of a radio upgrade, Karl recommended the M330GE which would be about £300 I think; not sure of the cost of a dedicated gps antenna ; and I don’t know if the old kit would have some resale value to someone starting out equipping a boat ?