Eagle Seachamp 2000c Installation

[Bob F]

Started installing the Eagle SeaChamp 2000C Combo unit and thought I'd keep a record of my findings.

 

Overall, I'm very pleased with the unit, but there are some areas where slight modifications by Lowrance/Eagle could make the units even better.

 

- unit doesn't have a low battery alarm. Got quite used to having this on my old Garmin unit which was useful. Fortunately, I have a digital LED battery display which I will install instead.

[Lowrance/Eagle should add this feature]

 

- The mounting bracket is a bit clumsy for adjusting the angle of the display. The ratchet has square shaped notches instead of triangle shaped, so you have to fully undo the side knobs to unlock the mechanism. On the Garmin unit you could easily alter the angle of the unit. Having said that, with such a large display and a supurb range of view I'm not sure I'll need to keep adjusting the dsiplay angle like I had to with the B/W Garmin. Removing the unit is a little clumsy, too.

[Lowrance/Eagle should look at the Garmin rachet. It would be a fairly small modification to reshape the knotches. Better still, take a look at the quick disconnect feature on the Standard Horizon Combo unit].

 

- The GPS antenna has a short 4 wire cable attached to it with a 4 pin sealed plug on the end. This then connects to another much longer cable which plugs into the back of the unit. The GPS antenna screws onto my existing GPS mounting but the plug is too large to go through the center hole in the mounting bracket. The old Garmin unit just had a coaxial cable which was easy to remove the plug and feed the wire through the small hole. I dont want to drill a larger hole in my cuddy roof so I cut off the Eagle plug, fed the wire through the GPS mounting, and then resoldered the cable togeather. This will void the warranty on the GPS antenna, but what the heck!

[Lowrance/Eagle should either fit smaller plugs or allow the plugs to be removed and allow the cables to pass through the standard GPS mounts]

 

 

- I will have to buy an optional nmea cable to allow the unit to be wired to the DSC radio. This nmea cable splices into one of the existing cables to allow input/output nmea signals to be sent to/from the unit. Without this I will not get GPS co-ordinates on the DSC radio. Lowrance/Eagle don't supply details of the pin connections so I can't make up a cable.

[Lowrance/Eagle should provide the cable as standard now that DSC radios are the norm]

 

- Transducer was easy to install. Has a small narrow plug on the end which makes it easy to route the cable. Same applies to the water speed senor. Nice!

 

- Connection of the DC power to the boat power buses was straight forward. There's two bare wires for the + and -, so making your own connections to suit your boat was simple.

 

- unit powered up first time and acquired satellites very quickly, including the WAAS satellite. Very nice!

 

- interestingly, I can hear an audible clicking from the 50/200KHz transducer unit at a repitition rate of around 2Hz. Never heard this from the Garmin single freq unit. Will it scare fish??? Is it just because the unit is out of water? What is causing the click? It can't be the transmitting freq because that is 50KHz or 2000KHz.

 

- fantastic display with great resolution. Very easy to see text, and text can to altered to an even larger scale and moved around.

 

So, everything is loosely installed right now, and all appears to be working fine, so, I will route all the cables and neatly tie them in tomorrow and button it all up.

 

Can't wait for its first try at sea. Just waiting for the Navionics Map to arrive. Was supposed to be here yesterday!

 

I'll let you know how things go when used at sea. And I'll be honest and candid about the good and bad points.

 

cheers

 

BF

 

[shytalk]

BUT will it catch any more fish

[Bob F]

Not betting on that Pete, but I hope to at least see one on this unit.

 

If it gets me back to port in the fog, I'll be happy. Got caught in the fog last year with just a GPS and that wasn't fun.

 

BF

[shytalk]

call me picky if you will but wouldnt a radar be a good investment for such an eventuality

[Bob F]

Now you're rubbing it in, Picky.

 

I knew I should've bought the new Lowrance units with NMEA 2000 which means you can fit their new radar later.

 

Poor old Splash-Out will be struggling to get on the plane with all the new gizmo's and the bank of batteries to run it all.

 

You'll be having me buying one of your big boats next, so I can fit all the gear in.

 

...hmmmm...not such a bad idea...."Karen, you know that holiday you wanted..."

[great white]

sound like you are up and running Bob

 

The lowrance soundes transducer also clicks as do both of my fuso sounders transducers.

 

I think its the transmision of the signal ?????

it gets slower when you get into deeper water and faster in shallow water so maybe I am wrong.

 

I am sure you will find the sets easy to use and the navionics chart very usefull

 

 

Not sure if they have caught me any fish, but bottom definition is very good

 

Enjoy

Charlie