Thread: Hey HB owners

sounds interesting

Sounds like a logical next step and a big help in staying on a spot.

This makes me wonder about something: Just how far out into the future does Lowrance and Humminbird work and plan? I have a friend who used to work for GM in drawing and planning automobiles into a 10or 15 or 20 yr future, so that they knew long before a new car or design was released just when they would release it for sale to the public. Now I know technology changes quickly these days, but it just seems that just about the time a new depth finder, or trolling motor, or whatever is released, then quickly on the heels of it they come out with something better. Gosh, the Concepts Department (or whatever they call it) at Humminbird and Lowrance must be some interesting place to work. I'm sure those companies already know what technologies they are going to unveil in the next few months and even years. Can you imagine what depth finders and trolling motors (even "fishing" in general) will be like in 5 yrs? 10 yrs? 20 yrs??? Wow!

wonder if this new thing could be applied to existing HB units to eliminate the "red circle" as HG referred to it. LOL.

Originally Posted by jimp

wonder if this new thing could be applied to existing HB units to eliminate the "red circle" as HG referred to it. LOL.

I'd about expect so. What it does is figure position based on movement from the last GPS fix. It would seem like they could do an update to the unit to handle the extra data.

Originally Posted by kyfishman

This makes me wonder about something: Just how far out into the future does Lowrance and Humminbird work and plan?

Electronics is a little different. Most parts have a lifecycle of around 2 to 5 years before they are replaced by something newer/better/faster/smaller. About 50 electronic components become obsolete every day. That's 1500 a month or 18,000 a year. When you figure all the parts in a unit, things go obsolete pretty often and it drives manufacturers to redesign their products around every 18 months or so to accomodate new parts. They can't just stock up on parts because then they will be wasted if their competition forces them to update their units to include a new feature, though obsolescence notices do allow you to buy enough parts to keep you going until you think your next version will be ready. If you have to redesign, and you have a new feature ready, you include it in the redesign. If you are a big player like Sony or Samsung, you can stretch it out because you are ordering enough parts to make it worthwhile for a manufacturer to stay in production on an older technology. Even the largest of fishing electronics makers isn't close to big enough to carry that kind of weight.

Originally Posted by CatFan

I'd about expect so. What it does is figure position based on movement from the last GPS fix. It would seem like they could do an update to the unit to handle the extra data.

I'm not really sure about this being satilite based technology ...

It almost sounds like the round GPS antenna itself contains this "Heading Sensor" at a certain point on the front edge of the puck... And then the head unit takes that position of the "Heading Sensor" to display the way the boat is pointing...(it's may just be the head unit "knowing" where this "Heading Sensor" is... Instead of the earth's satilites knowing where the GPS antenna is...)...does that make sense..??

Greg mentions ..."the way the boat is pointing...not necessarily the direction of travel"...

If this is true then the boat could be drifting (or moving) in any direction at "donut" speed...but the arrow on the chart will still point the way the boat is facing...

An example would be in my spider riggin....I slow troll "forward" up to a brushpile...let off the TM...the boat (and the icon on the chart view) drift "backwards"...but the direction arrow still points "forward" on the chart view...

While this may replace the Red Circle (donut) with a "boat orientation arrow"... It's still to be determined if this new development will satisfy slow troller's need...(I sure hope so)..

Another point that comes to mind is that this development seems to be a hardware replacement...the GPS antenna itself...

This could put me personally into a difficult decision...

Give up my AS GR HA antenna "vs" no donut..that may be a tough decision for me...

Technology is so interesting....

Rickie

As with MOST electronic equipment once it is available for purchase by the public (customers) the unit is already out of date by at least 2 or 3 newer units developed in the lab. No , you can't buy them either because as soon as you buy it, you may find that it isn't any better ( faster, more accurate, better suited ) than what's already on the market. 30 years with IBM taught me this.