Posts: 437
| Fishysam - 7/21/2016 10:41 AM
Hb mapping when paired to lakemaster is oodles superior to gen 2 hds units because of depth highlight features.
This is available on HDS units with a SW upgrade that came out a year or so ago.
The Elite or now Hook series from Lowrance are much simpler to use than an HDS. This doesn't mean the HDS units are difficult because you get out of them what you put in or want in regards to setup, networking, etc.
In the end you will need to decide if you want multiple units in the boat. If you do, do you want them to be able to share information. If you do, there are two methods to share information between units but they each have limitations and there isn't overlap.
Example: Ethernet allows you to share waypoints, sonar, GPS source, etc. NMEA2000 will share on board diagnostics and many other more detailed features that most guys do not use.
NMEA2000 is how Motorguide xi5 units connect to HDS units with the Pinpoint gateway to allow you to interface or control the trolling motor from an HDS unit. VERY AWESOME feature, been using it for 2 years now.
I currently have 3 HDS units in my boat, but only two of them are networked together. One is only used for sonar/side/down imaging so I didn't network that with the others.
Having them networked via Ethernet is slick. I enter a waypoint on one unit and it instantly displays on the other one. |
