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saw where amazon has these for 309.00 . figured it might be worth 200.00 from a local trying to sell . Anybody running this unit? Other than small screen and discontinued what are its shortcomings ?Already bought it so a pig in the poke it may be . Attachment 230305
May not be best comparison, but a friend of mine has the 7 on the bow of his boat and really likes it. Very clear picture, and the on the Lowrance is as good or better than the HB. And for the money you payed that is a nice unit.
I have one on my trolling motor, love it
I paid 300 at bass pro a while back when they came out with the replacement.
It's not the easiest to navigate to a waypoint (I don't think the internal gps updates fast enough at trolling speeds) but having 2d sonar next to DI has really been nice and educational
I'm still running 'Birds because from what I read they own Lakemaster and Lakemaster chips are no longer compatible with Lowrance and Garmin products. I had a Navionics chip and found it nearly useless. Those are still very good units though.
Have a 7 HDI up front and it does a good job for me. Also use mine to record data and make maps using the Insight Genesis software. uaagr mentioned the gps update speed and I would have to concur that it is slower than molasses most days. But, it is spot on though (as civilian gps can be). All in all, pretty good unit and you got a good price to boot. :)
Riptide, I wasn't aware the 7 would record data to make a map, do u know if the 5 will? Does lowrance have an external gps puck to fix the gps update issue?Quote:
Originally Posted by riptide
I don't know about a external antenna, but I do know they had a slow processor in the earlier models that caused them to be slow to react and do some funny stuff when Navionics cards were used. They came out with some updates that supposedly helped that. Might want to check your unit and see what version it's running then check their web site to see if yours is the latest version.Quote:
Originally Posted by uaagr
Like cray just said, the processor is the problem with the speed issue. The puck will only get you a little bit more accuracy which does help in the mapping department. Again, make sure you've downloaded the update for the unit for the best use. I don't worry much about the slow response. It's not enough to break the bank or worry me about navigating. I just know that it is slow and I need to slow down to get the best results.
Back to your question about recording. Yes, you can use an empty micro - SD card in the card slot, which most use for Navionics or Lakemaster cards, and using the menu button, on the screen select Record. It will store the data from the down imaging and regular sonar. Every so often, you will have to start a new recording. When you are done for the day, you can take the card inside to your computer and download it using the Insight Genesis software. When you're done, it will tell you that it will compile the data and send you an email when it's done. Usually an hour or two, could be over night, you can view it. There's a lot more detail than what little I described but it is all fairly easy to do.