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Posts: 1828
| I too tested mine out over the weekend. Didn't get as much focused time as I'd like, since I had my two little kids and wife with me, so I'll spend more time later on. Initial observations/opinions:
The 5" screen is big enough for me, for what I'll be doing with it. I have a small boat and when I'll be making use of the side and down imaging, I'll be sitting at the console. It was a bright sunny day when I was out, and I'd agree with others that the side/down imaging screens seem dim in direct sunlight, but I have to admit I didn't adjust the contrast or anything, which you can do, and I didn't try different color schemes. The charting and sonar screens are plenty bright in all light conditions.
Cartography - I bought the Lakemaster MN PLUS chip. The mapping is great for the lake I was on and for the few other lakes I looked at so far. I like the default color scheme, and the satellite image overlay options are awesome too. The GPS kept perfect track of my boat position even when barely moving (under 0.5 mph) - that was a big concern of mine, as I've used sonar/GPS units that lose track of you when you're moving slow. I was a little disappointed with the time it takes to update the screen when you zoom in and out. There's probably a 3 to 5 second delay.
Side imaging - at depths <25' and at slow speeds, I was surprised how well I could see what was going on. Softer bottom areas were hard to read, though. Where it shined best seemed to be in the 15-ft-range with flat, hard bottom. Actually, I could see breaks nicely too, but off the drop-off side, you don't see much for bottom features. On the "up-hill" side, you can see stuff clearly. At one point I went over a school of baitfish off to one side, then moved over and went over top and was able to get them on down-imaging. I do believe I need to adjust my transducer pitch, as both the side and down imaging weren't returning as-strong-as-expected signals. Also, when cruising fast, the transducer was spraying water into the boat, so I KNOW I have to adjust it at least for that purpose.
One big bummer is that my motor, when fully tilted down, blocks some of the portside water. Basically, I can graph anything straight down, out to maybe 40 degrees to that side. If I trim the motor up just a ways, I get the full spectrum. I had worries about this while installing the transducer. Not really sure if I can move the transducer to fix this issue - I don't think so.
The standard sonar imagery seemed great. With sonar and chart side-by-side, I felt very, very satisfied with this graph. Nice, clear screen, good cartography, great GPS tracking, nice sonar reading.
I will be tinkering with it more later.
Does anyone know what the ideal transducer installation looks like? I believe I have it placed and aligned just like the manual suggested, but it's spraying water and I THINK getting less than optimal side and down imaging signal return. | |
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