Thread: Project "HB Donut"

at least they let him post his opinion ,without throwing a hissy,they think we are bashing them ,they think we are saying the gps isnt accurate,false,we only want one thing fixed.

We stated our facts at bbc...and thankfully they were not deleted before we were able to break the ice...in the bass community..with the HB Donut....

We actually had some good comments from some empathetic bass fishermen......

That is always my main purpose...and the main focus of "Project HB Donut"...

State the facts....prove the "Donut" IS an issue with some people...and prove to HB they are losing customers because of the "Donut"...

We have done that everywhere we have stepped foot...especially here at CC...

Here is an interesting post from a very knowledgeable GPS guru over at the Unofficial HB website....
Unofficial Humminbird Side Image Forums www.sideimageforums.com :: View topic - "Project HB Donut"

posted by fsae99

The donut issue is to combat erratic direction arrow in chart views. The request is really to write algorithms that have the GPS puck sample the data more often and determine if the heading has really changed before changing the direction arrow displayed on the screen. So you would do something like sample the gps signal 100 times a second and if the average position still had you going in the same direction the arrow would remain pointed in the same direction.

This would be to combat what I call the the GPS drift, the real issue. If you look a plot of position of any GPS (most all commercially sold) left in 1 position for any length of time you will see plot points all over the place. You would not want to increase the freq at which the data is sent to the head unit you would end up right back where you started, erratic direction arrow.

Alternately HB could add 3 axis tilt compensated Electronic compass with 3 axis accelerometers and 3 axis rate gyros to the GPS puck. Then use electronic compass for heading arrow and accelerometers + rate gyros to stabilize position updates. AIrmar has one the GH2183 GPS & Heading I think it is $2500 USD for just the GPS puck. I think that is too much and should be able to be done for an additional $400 USD to the cost of existing HB GPS puck. I think now even if you did buy the Airmar gps puck the HB unit would still show the donut under .5 mph due to the SW change.

While it is better now than it used to be, there is room for improvement on this issue without going to the extreme of changing GPS design.

HB has done a lot for us, was a time when removing the water column from the display was never going to happen (done now). The donut, waypoint management, and user created maps (vector) are the 3 things left to make it as close to perfect as you can get for $1K, $2K, and 3K machines.

Thanks for reading.

Jim

He pretty well summed up what we have been saying all along....

The "Donut" is NOT a GPS issue...

It's a software issue...period...that can be addressed...

Rickie (an almost satisfied HB owner)

I am sure someone will gleefully hit on me. ha. I have bee accused of bashing, but if anyone has read the comparison I made of the HB and LOW can easily see and understand that I have not bashed anyone or anything. I will speak the fairly and honestly as I see it. Pitch men are not my best friend, they just want my money. Just call me determine.

Hey Moose. I knows you peeping. haha.....You still owe me a truck......

Originally Posted by mduncan62

So the owner of BBC said to stay off of there with any donut talk. Tmike and Doug are helpful to a point, but they steer people to what side they want them on, and the people over there would jump in a fire if those to commanded it.

BBC Boards: Blueball - Rnvinc - Mfbab - Re "Project Donut"

Pretty sad state of affairs if you ask me. And notice who said BBC is much better then crappie.com, it's Tom's old buddy.

I got Al to take that thread down but he literally made me remove the HB CS #'s and donut reference from my signature to do it. It is a little like N. Korea over there....

I am out of the programming business, but you can successfully guess direction and speed based on history files of previous locations. Hey, we went to the moon on a 8 Mhz processor and 128k of memory.

Hate to see c.com members stating that a few of us here are bullys, but, some folks just have complexes.

Just call me the refresh man. I been keeping HB refreshed on the donut, that's all. I been consistent too.

PS

If you don't love me, I forgive you anyhow.

Originally Posted by Release to the Grease...

I got Al to take that thread down but he literally made me remove the HB CS #'s and donut reference from my signature to do it. It is a little like N. Korea over there....

If that's how the owner of the site acts, you should have left it up, and left your sig the way it was. everyone would have seen your sig and wondered. Now it can fade away like doug and tmike want it to.

I started "Project HB Donut" to bring the facts to the forefront.....so what have we learned so far...??

1. The "Donut" is real....
2. The "Donut is NOT a GPS issue
3. The "Donut" is NOT industry standard...
4. The "Donut" could be fixed with some algorithm calculation programming...
5. The "Donut" seriously hinders some people's preferred techniques of fishing...
6. The "Donut" (by itself) is sending new customers to Lowrance....
7. There are more people every day coming into "Project HB Donut" at ALL the different forums with their own true life stories about how the "Donut" affects them....
8. There will still be more stories to be brought to bear as more people become aware and become willing to post their views about the "Donut"....
9. (I'm sure there are more facts that I am forgetting that we have proven)....

These are the issues we (as "Project HB Donut") will keep focused on...

HB is watching...
They know there is dissatisfied customers simply because of the "Donut"...
They are taking note of the lost sales to Lowrance.....
They will fix this when they see enough $$$$$ go to the competition...

Rickie (an almost satisfied HB owner)

MD - They left the original Donut thread up. I asked him to take down the one where he named Me, Rickie and Blueball in the title, like we were troublemakers or something. I really found that offensive and way over the top, pretty much a personal attack, and I told him so. Rickie and I were harassed by Al from the minute we signed on over there, it was very bizarre. I don't think you'll find anything OT or rude from either of us in that thread.

I also publicly tried to convince him to sticky the original Project Donut thread to the top, edit out what he wanted to and leave it locked but keep it stickied in the interest of full disclosure for their members and prospective buyers. That was an obvious no go, they are clearly wedded to HB in some way over there and apparently they are more interested in suppressing any information about HB that might be construed as negative than they are in sharing full disclosure with their members. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right?