side image question about HB & Lowrance units....

I am considering a side imagining unit, looking at either the HB 798 or the lowrance HDS-5, I'm not looking to start a debate over what ones best or hear about who doesent work for who any longer, just a few simple questions.

first is there an advantage of one that has an external or internal antenna for the gps? I have a unit w/a external puck now and have the puck mounted right over the transducer that seems to work well but just wondering.

second with the side image or structure scan, lets say I mark structure on the SI view thats away from the boat, is there a way to save a way point on that structure i see on the screen, or does it just save the position of the boat, im a little un-clear on this.

third how does real shallow water affect this view, my thoughts are it would be way better for shallow water than a conventional single or daul beam, but I dont know a whole lot about it all so its just a thought

lastly I currently have a Eagle fish elite 480 on the rear of my boat that would be moved to the front troller if i make this purchase, I know eagle is made by lowrance, is there a way to network the two to share the way points?

any info would be great, hope you all have a great week, God bless all

Go to Bass boat central and you can get all your questions answered. I know someone here probably answer them also. I will tell you this, the HDS 5 screen is to small.

to be honest the 798 screen didnt look real big either, but it would be mounted close to where i am in the boat so i dont know how big a deal it would be. I just dont want to fork out that kind of money and be dissapointed, I dont think i would with either one, but just doing alot of reading and studying.

I can answer most of your questions relative to Humminbird SI. First, GPS internal or external. Always go with external if possible - internal is convenient, but the GPS will perform much better with an external puck. Second, marking structure. If you run the cursor out to some structure and mark it, that is where the waypoint will be. Then you can navigate to it. Third, shallow water. SI works very well in shallow water. An example: if you are fishing a weed line in shallow water, you will be able to see exactly where the weeds are. Standard down looking 2d sonar will be almost useless in very shallow water, no matter the brand. And last, Eagle - sorry, I can't help you there, but there are others on here that can. Good luck.

bob baldwin
bryan, texas
997c SI
1197c SI
AS GRHA GPS

I can answer your questions concerning the HDS5. I have a HDS 5 in my dash as well as two HDS 7's on the front and back.

1. Yes the external antenna (4000) will aquire satellites faster and track better and improve your accuracy. I highly recomend it. Do you have to have it?...No, but it really improves performance and is worth the extra money in my opinion.

2. Yes. You simply move your curser over the object you want to mark and push enter and that object (not the boat position) is marked. You can even scan back to something you ran over but is already off the screen and mark it. To utilize this feature best is where the external antenna comes into play. Locate your external antenna as close to your sidescan transducer as you can. Mine is mounted directly above my transducer on the top of the boat. If you don't do this, you will automatically induce a 10 feet error into your waypoint. The reason this occurs is because your internal antenna on your unit is where ever your unit is mounted. If its on your dash and your transducer is on the back of the boat, you will have an error of the distance the unit is away from the transducer. My unit is 10 feet away from the transducer so I mounted an antenna directly above the transducer to stop this error. ( I know it sounds complicated but its not).

3. Shallow water does reduce your range. On my HDS units I simply adjust my frequency to 455Hz ( I usually run in 800Hz because it provides a more detailed picture) and I can read out to about 60 feet on each side of the boat in 5 feet of water and get a clear picture. i can scan farther but the image beyond the 60 starts to get dark.

4. I'm not real sure on this but I don't think that the Eagle will network with it. If you have an Nema 2K plug on the back you probably will be able to but you will only be able to share waypoints. Again, I'm not real sure about this.

Hope this helps you in your decision. One more thing, the HDS 5 is really small for sidescanning. You can do it but the image is reallly hard to see. It will however do great on downscanning but to each his own. I suggest going out with someone that has one and see for yourself before you spend the money. Any more questions.. I will be glad to answer if I can.

Good info Sixfin, I was out the other day learning my HDS 7 and when I came across a brush pile I would hit the way point button. Would this be the same as using the cursor to mark brush piles?

Cuzzin,
As long as the transducer was over the top of it, that will work. If it was off to the side, you will have to use your curser or you will only be marking the position of the boat.

Jeepguy,
If I'm not mistaken, your eagle 480 is just a fishfinder, right? If its the one I'm thinking of, it will not network with the HDS units.

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Originally Posted by sixfin

Jeepguy,
If I'm not mistaken, your eagle 480 is just a fishfinder, right? If its the one I'm thinking of, it will not network with the HDS units.

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No sir it has gps with and external puck, the only thing I was wondering is if there is a way to share way points between the 2, its not a huge deal in all honesty, if it doesent work that way couldn't I just get the cords off of the back unit and punch em in to the front unit? My setup (if I make this purchase) would be the eagle on the front, trolling motor mount with the puck right on the front deck as close to the transducer as possible and the HB or the lorwrance in the rear of the boat. My eagle has a slot for an SD card is there a way to share way points using that? I appreicate you fellas taking the time to share info with me. It really does help a tremendous amount, and is much appreicated. Its a lot of money (for me) yo drop on a FF unit and I want to make sure I educate myself about em before I make the purchase. Thanks again for the responses. God bless all.

If your unit has the SD card slot, you can share waypoints by moving that card from one unit to the next. This might be something to weigh into your decision. If you have an Eagle and a Humingbird, its gonna be hard to share waypoints.

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Originally Posted by sixfin

Cuzzin,
As long as the transducer was over the top of it, that will work. If it was off to the side, you will have to use your curser or you will only be marking the position of the boat.

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Sounds good, I was using the side scan and the down imaging and when a brush pile was shown in the down imaging I would mark it. I hope it was done right. I am not using a card to store it on is there anyway to put a card in and then save what I already have onto card? Thanks

Actually sharing them on the HB will be easy as well...several options include transfering them by SD card, or if you have two HB's you can use an interlink and it will store and transfer on the fly.

If I were buying another side image it would be Humminbird because there service is hands down the best between the two.

For a transom mounted Si unit I would go with the external GPS Receiver mounted at the rear of the boat as close to your transducer as you can get it. Otherwise you can introduce a position error in your waypoints that you mark using the sonar of up to twice the linear distance between the transducer and GPS Receiver that the unit is using. Make sure you get the 798c Si model and not the 798ci Si model as the extra “I” indicates that it is an internal GPS model unit. With either though you get the faster GPS refresh rate.

Yes, if you are using the cursor to mark the waypoint (in either Si or 2D sonar) it will mark the position of the cursor and not the boat’s position (even works when reviewing sonar recordings).

Not sure what you consider shallow water but it should not be a problem. I’ve seen Si images that show 100 feet outwards from the boat when in 3.5 feet of water. Some of this will depend on the lay of the land so to speak as any bottom that drops away from the transducer will not be imaged. You can look on the Yahoo side Imaging Group web site and some others for shallow water images.

There is no way to network the 480 to a Humminbird unit but converting waypoints from Lowrance to Humminbird is easy. There is a sticky post about this that points to a “how-to” video:
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/fishi...waypoints.html
If needed you can also convert Humminbird waypoints to the Lowrance format by using the GPSBabel software.

Like fishindude said: sharing waypoint data between Humminbird units is as easy as downloading the waypoints to an SD card on one unit and loading the SD card in a second Humminbird unit or you could connect both with the InterLink module and it will do so automatically.

when using the interlink will it tell you witch FF initiated the waypoint??Asking because if I am marking waypoints from the Trollingmotor FF and also the console FF then the GPS puck will be in different places and I would need to know where the GPS host is(front or back)

Cuzzin,
As far as using downscan, you will have to use the curser if the brushpile has already moved to the left on your display. If the brushpile is directly below the transducer and is showing up on the extreme right hand of your display, then you can just use the waypoint button. As far as saving waypoints to the card, you page to the Waypoints page and then go to files.

The eagle will have a different connection and would require an adapter if there even is such a thing. I dont know of one, but the eagles dont have the screw in connections on the back, or at least the ones I have seen dont.

Crappiehnt,
It won’t matter which unit the waypoint was marked on as the coordinates for the GPS Receiver that the unit was using will be saved (or the location of the waypoint if you used the cursor to mark a waypoint in one of the sonar views). The coordinates would get shared to the second unit much like what you may do with a friend whom you swapped waypoints with – it is just done automatically is all. Since these coordinates are based on your position on the earth, they can be referenced with any other GPS Receiver as they are all reference from the satellites.

Hummingbird Greg, I have a 788ci combo (internal gps) and am getting ready to pull the trigger on a 998, are you saying that I should get a 998 without the internal gps or adding an external puck. If so how do you hook the external to the 998?

fellas Thanks for the info for sure, looking I think i am gonna put the purchase off a few months till i can afford the bigger screen of either model, looking at em and reading about em i think thats my best bet

You are making a VERY WISE decision on waiting to get a larger screen. <*)}}}><

Majflyboy,
The 998 does not have the internal GPS option so your only 998 choice would be with the external GPS Receiver. If the 788ci is going to be moved to the bow than this would be your best option anyways because you can mount the 998’s external GPS Receiver back on the rear of the boat as close to the HDSi transducer it will be using (and get more accurate waypoint marking for doing so). The GPS Receiver will just plug into the communications connector on the back of the 998 unit. If you are using an InterLink than you would need to also use the AS-YC Y-cable that comes with the 998 unit. The GPS Receiver would get plugged into the Y-cables “NMEA-COM” connector end and the InterLink’s connection cable gets plugged into the ACCY-COM connector end. The third connector gets plugged into the back of the 998 along with the power cable and transducer.

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Originally Posted by Humminbird_Greg

Majflyboy,
The 998 does not have the internal GPS option so your only 998 choice would be with the external GPS Receiver. If the 788ci is going to be moved to the bow than this would be your best option anyways because you can mount the 998’s external GPS Receiver back on the rear of the boat as close to the HDSi transducer it will be using (and get more accurate waypoint marking for doing so). The GPS Receiver will just plug into the communications connector on the back of the 998 unit. If you are using an InterLink than you would need to also use the AS-YC Y-cable that comes with the 998 unit. The GPS Receiver would get plugged into the Y-cables “NMEA-COM” connector end and the InterLink’s connection cable gets plugged into the ACCY-COM connector end. The third connector gets plugged into the back of the 998 along with the power cable and transducer.

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Thanks Greg, does the other end of the Y go to the 788?

No. If you are using the InterLink it will have a second connection cable to go to the 788ci unit. The 788ci will be able to use its own internal GPS Receiver. In fact if you use an InterLink I would go into the menus of each unit and set them to always use their own local internal (788ci) or local external (998) GPS Receiver.

If you are not using the InterLink than there are no connections between the 998 and the 788ci units.

Thanks again Greg.

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Originally Posted by Crappie Chatt

You are making a VERY WISE decision on waiting to get a larger screen. <*)}}}><

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yea after looking at them real good in person I think so also, would hate to spend that kind of money and want somthing else in a month or so.....but man I want one SSSSOOOOOOOOOO BAD :D

If i use the interlink and link the 788 & 998 and am sitting at the bow looking at the 788 FF and wanted to use a waypoint marked by the 998 external puck how would I know the waypoint was marked by the 998?? If the waypoint was marked by the 998 then the coordinates were taking from where the puck was located. But I would need to know that to in order to compensate sitting on the bow??

Crappiehnt,
You would not know which unit marked each waypoint and you would not need to know. When you mark a waypoint you are saving the coordinates of the GPS Receiver or the cursor (which are still derived from the same GPS Receiver. These coordinates are good no matter if you use them in another GPS unit on your boat or give them to someone else that uses a GPS unit. So you don’t have to know which waypoints were created with which unit unless the GPS Receiver that you are using is not mounted close to the transducer that the same unit is using. Kind of hard to get your head around this sometimes. Your best setup would be for each unit to be using its own GPS Receiver, with that GPS Receiver mounted as close to the transducer as you can get it.

See if this example helps crappiehnt. I put two antennas on my boat. One is mounted very close to the trolling motor with its respective unit and the other right above the sidescan transducer and its unit in the back. I then programmed each unit to look at its own antenna. That way when I mark a waypoint with either unit, the transducer is directly over the bed and I know the coordinates are accurate.

Right, and when the console unit shows you are right on the coordinates the bow unit will show you off by a boat length as it will not be showing the same coordinates. Same thing would happen if the bow unit shows you right on the coordinate numbers - the console unit will show you off by a boat length.

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Originally Posted by jeepguyjames

yea after looking at them real good in person I think so also, would hate to spend that kind of money and want somthing else in a month or so.....but man I want one SSSSOOOOOOOOOO BAD :D

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I have a 798ci. The small screen it is difficult to pick up fish against the ground. In the water coloumn you can see fish. I mostly use my sidescan to find brush or ledges channels. Mark them by cursor then GPS over to them. It is great for finding brush and structure fast. But to see more detail I think the bigger screens is what you need.

Just to find structure and wood the 798 does a great job.