Thread: talked to a HB engineer today

Originally Posted by chaunc

When they make a version without GPS, i'm all over it.

I was just reading back through this thread and wanted to comment. The beauty of a side imaging unit with gps is that when you see some structure, let's just say 70' to the left of your boat, you can stop the screen and cursor over to the structure and create a waypoint. You can now navigate to that structure at whatever point in time you so choose. Without gps you would have to guess as to where 70' from your boat is and when you passed by it. I would imagine it would take you some time to find this structure. I have spotted structure 150' from my boat (with Side Imaging) and without creating a waypoint with the gps feature, it would take me forever to find it. My Garmin handheld is much more accurate then HB's gps so for the time being I use both. Sometimes my 997's gps puts me right on, other times I'm 40' off. I certainly do understand anyone that decides to wait to purchase a unit until HB fixes the gps problem but the gps feature is a must to get the most out of this product.

A lot of folks will just cruise around for an hour or so marking structure with waypoints and come back to fish them another day. You can go for miles doing nothing but creating waypoints. It really is a neat unit, here's hoping they iron out the gps issues.

My question is:

Does the unit seem to work better at a higher rate of speed, say over 5 mph?

My 787c2i is on the front of my boat and at very slow trolling speeds it's very difficult to stay on the contour of a ledge, or a series of brushpiles by looking at the GPS. I drop markers when it is fessible but marking the whole ledge is not functional way to spend my day. Before you say, split the screen and watch the water depth, I already do. The problem is, if you start to drift off the ledge to the flat side you can be 500 yds. from the ledge because the water is the same depth once you are on top.

Someone made a comment that they don't need the GPS function to get them to thier fishing spot. Well, when you are two miles from the nearest bank it certainly helps to have a guide. No way your going to find that stuff unless you go back to the ole' traingulation method.

These units were touted as being better "for the fishermen". You assume the more money you spend the less time your gonna waste looking for stuff that you have either dropped or was there already. That I think was/is the draw for most fisheremen. They thought that these unit were going to give them great pics. of underwater structure AND lead them back to those spots with minimun time loss.

If you're retired and can spend 18 days out of the month on the water, then time may not be your top priority. It doesn't matter if it takes you 15 minutes to find your spot. Hey, if I don't find it today...well, there's always tomm. Me, I don't have that kind of time and won't for the next, oh, 20 years.

Another thing I read on this thread was someone saying that, "it's not bad enough for you to take off your boat". I guess for some people, they have the economic means to change out units whenever they like. I would assume that most of us guys on here have saved up our money to buy units that range from $800-3,000.00. I'm not interested in pulling it out at my expense(time) and buying another unit and installing. I makes no sense. I have an $800.00 machine that should get the job done.

And just let me say this. I am not typically one that walks around all day displaying a negative and complaining attitude. Life is too short for that kind of nonsense. I will say though that if we, as a people, continue to just "take in on the chin" and say you're right, I should be happy no matter what I was told, then we my friends are in a serious state of affairs. If you don't think that kind of thinking is dangerous just look at the two people that we have running for president. Out of all the people in the U.S., this is the best we could do. We will settle for anything.

I am confident that HB will get it right and until then I will just wait or buy me a cheap Garmin handheld.

It ain't all bad...I could have no boat at all! :D

The Hound

I just put the boat icon over the waypoint icon on the GPS display at a high zoom level.

PanMan...thanks for this tip. I will try it out once I get back on the water. How high do you zoom?

The Hound

Originally Posted by CrappieHound

PanMan...thanks for this tip. I will try it out once I get back on the water. How high do you zoom?

The Hound

All the way or close to it. I continue to increase the zoom to just keep the waypoint on the screen until I arrive. Large objects don't need maximum zoom to find on the SONAR. Small ones do. I also move in very slowly to keep the slow refresh rate from causing problems. Keep the side scan running at a narrow range as well. If you miss your target a little left or right, throw a marker out to the side about the distance the object is from the boat when you see it on the SONAR. It only takes a minute or two to circle the marker and find the target.

Its not perfect but it will work until a firmware update comes out that corrects the issue.

Thanks...that sounds like a quick fix until HB saves the "day". LOL!

The Hound