HB 899ci HD SI & 859ci HD DI vs. Lowrance HDS 7 & Elite 7 for crappie rig

[bandchaser]

Well, I'm wanting to upgrade electronics. Never had DI or SI and ready to jump on the wagon. A few things that are critical for me: internal gps because I take my electronics off the boat for ducks season, color is always better and at least 7 inch screens. Also, can each set mentioned commincate with the other? For example, I mark a spot in rear of boat, I want to be able to see that waypoint on the front.
Any pros and cons between the 2 sets? I fish various depths from 20-30 to 1-8-10fow.
Thanks,
Brian

[BobB]

Well, I'll chime in, but these kind of questions almost always start an argument.

It is my opinion that there is general agreement that Humminbird has better Si, while Lowrance has the edge with DI because they have an extra element dedicated to DI. The filtering necessary to utilize this DI element are what causes the reduced SI range on the Lowrance units.
This range reduction wouldn't be too big an issue in deeper water, but in shallower water, the Humminbird SI is a LOT better and you pretty much get a full 180deg coverage.
On the Humminbirds, the DI is derived from the SI beams via software instead of via a dedicated crystal for DI. The Humminbird DI is still pretty good, but Lowrance has the edge there. Kosmo and others have posted a lot of images on this forum if you do some searching.
Since you are also considering the 859 HD DI, you will have good DI from it.

To get the dedicated DI crystal in a Humminbird SI unit you would have to go to the ONIX which isn't shipping yet.

The primary 2 factors that keep me with Humminbird is the better SI and that they are owned and manufactured in the USA. They also have a very good customer service reputation.....register with Humminbird Select and get 2 years warranty.

[Cane Pole]

Lowrance is made in Mexico. That's justa wade across the RIO, you know the lower US. I bet most of the parts for both manufs come from some country of Asia. I bet, I bet.

When u run the Elite with HDS, you must use NMEA 2000 buss to share waypoints. I would use HDS to HDS for more functional flexibility.

Which ever unit you buy will be the best. You can then fall in line and brag on the best unit posts.

[Jcogburn]

I have the HDS7 and Elite 7 setup which I like a lot. But I like the HDS so much I would go with two if I had the money. In order for the HDS to share way points withe the elite 7 you need a nmea backbone. Other than that I think the setup is rock solid.

[Kenny]

Which ever unit you buy will be the best. You can then fall in line and brag on the best unit posts.[/QUOTE]

LOL...isn't that the truth!!!

[bandchaser]

I appreciate all the replies. When you have never used either brands new SI and needing a lawyer to help convince the wife that this much money gets you this, but this much more will get you that! Its a lot of coin to be dropping and like everybody else wants the best that they can afford. The biggest selling point for me is internal gps. Again, thanks gentlemen.

[Jcogburn]

What ever you decide to but will be the right decision for you. You mentioned the GPS and just yesterday I came to the conclusion that the internal GPS antenna's dont completely meet my needs trying to fish a way point I am now looking to upgrade to an external GPS antenna. I think it will make fishing for crappie around marked trees or brush piles that much easier.

[bandchaser]

What ever you decide to but will be the right decision for you. You mentioned the GPS and just yesterday I came to the conclusion that the internal GPS antenna's dont completely meet my needs trying to fish a way point I am now looking to upgrade to an external GPS antenna. I think it will make fishing for crappie around marked trees or brush piles that much easier.

I've had a 385c since they came out and have never had a problem with signal. There were 2 times that the signal was screwy and ech of those times I was high tailing back to the ramp in very bad conditions. Fishing ky lake and barkley with no problems, and fished grenada and sardis this fall for the first time and again no problems.
Again, as everyone agrees we all have different preferences and needs, and we are all doing what we all love, enjoying the outdoors. Thank you for the info!

[Humminbird_Greg]

It’s not the signal – it is the difference in the location of the GPS Receiver and the transducer the unit is using. With the 385ci most of what you saw on the display was under the boat/transducer. So any structures that you marked were also under the boat/transducer so the waypoints were fairly accurate. With a Side imaging unit what you see on display could be hundreds of feet off to one side or the other. The system assumes that the transducer and GPS Receiver are in the same location so that when you Mark a waypoint the unit calculates where it is based on the GPS Receiver location. If your transducer is not in that same location you may have introduced a positional error for that waypoint. That error could be off by up to a multiple of 2X when you come back looking for the same structure later on. Installing an external GPS Receiver as close as you can to the transducer helps minimize this error.

[Jiggermaxx]

Good infor....