Here's your chance to tell me what's the best.

We went out yesterday afternoon and my Hbird Helix 7 started acting up again. At the beginning of this year it was giving me some weird images and stronger images on one side vs the other in SI mode. That seemed to have cleared up and then last night It would not give a depth reading on any view or chart image. It was still giving SI or DI images and seemed to be tracking along but no depth. As the afternoon progressed the screen became increasingly pixelated. I know the battery is good and the connections are good, no corrosion or loose terminals. It is on and independent ground and the ground is good. I have to that this is the first HB product I have been a bit underwhelmed with. I strayed from HB once and got a Garmin chartplotter for out family boat many years back. It was a Garman 636 and I hated that unit. I found it to be very clunky and slow, kind of like the Ford Sync before they abandoned it. I am going to reach out to HB and see if they can offer some insight but I think a new unit is coming. My wife asked the other day "why doesn't our fish finder shoe the fish moving like that guys?" and I told her because he spent way more on his than I did lol. She then asked if one of those would help us catch more fish. I don't really need another rabbit hole lol. I do want opinions and testimonies of what you guys have and why you love it or hate it.

`My small 5" screen Lowrance unit (2D with maps) started getting black in upper corner and I knew it was a matter of time before that screen was gone. So...thru a points program at work I got a HB Helix 9 with SI,DI, 2D and Maps for free. Ive grown to like the 9" screen as it's easier to see when you have split screens up. I usually only use maps and 2D but sometimes I also run DI. I also like the simplicity of running BH over the Lowrance unit. If I was buying again today I'd take a good look at the Garmin units.

The first thing i would suggest is get it to clean power and see if anything changes. Run it straight to a small 12v battery both pos and neg.

If its not that, its probably the transducer going/gone bad. The actual head units are pretty much bulletproof, all problems are usually power or transducer related.

When you are looking for a new transducer, consider the lvs34 with a garmin head unit to go with it [emoji1] just kidding of course

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

So, is Livescope a feature of some Garmin units or is it a stand alone thing that you can add to a Garmin unit?

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Originally Posted by Kevin22

The first thing i would suggest is get it to clean power and see if anything changes. Run it straight to a small 12v battery both pos and neg.

If its not that, its probably the transducer going/gone bad. The actual head units are pretty much bulletproof, all problems are usually power or transducer related.

When you are looking for a new transducer, consider the lvs34 with a garmin head unit to go with it [emoji1] just kidding of course

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

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I apologize, I don't think I made it clear in my post. It is on an independent battery, a 20ah lithium, I did that a while back when I figured out that the clutter on my screen went away when I killed the trolling motor lol. I just made a small power box for it and it had been fine since.

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Originally Posted by gunwhatgun

So, is Livescope a feature of some Garmin units or is it a stand alone thing that you can add to a Garmin unit?

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Livescope is a "black box & transducer" system that hooks up with certain Garmin units. The Garmin unit & transducer give you the 2d/DI/SI readings, while the Livescope system adds another feature known as Forward Facing Sonar. 2d/DI/SI show you the "history" of what it sees as you pass by or over that section of water, while Livescope shows you what it "sees" in real time and with the motion of fish moving (around cover or in open water, or towards or away from your bait).
Many people, myself included, have the Garmin unit & Livescope system as a standalone system in order to render the whole screen to what the Livescope is "seeing". Split sceen images may give you more information at the same time, but the screen size of the unit will determine how easy it is to see each individual image. For that reason alone, I opted to not have a transducer for my Garmin 93sv unit when I purchased it. I already had a Lowrance Hook 7 with its transducer on the bottom of the trolling motor, for DI & maps, so I just delegated that unit to maps & GPS waypoints so I wouldn't have to constantly be switching screens on the Garmin for that purpose or have split screens reducing the size of each segment.

I went from b/w 2d units straight to color DI units, then added the Livescope system ... never having SI or 360 units ... so I am a little biased on Livescope. My Livescope transducer is mounted on the trolling motor shaft & the whole system (Garmin 93sv & Livescope system) is run off a separate battery.

Is Lowrance still a player these days? I know my Motorguide TM linkable to some Lowrance units but I don't know which, and I'm not sure that would be a factor in any decisions. I am just really disappointed in the HB.

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Originally Posted by gunwhatgun

Is Lowrance still a player these days? I know my Motorguide TM linkable to some Lowrance units but I don't know which, and I'm not sure that would be a factor in any decisions. I am just really disappointed in the HB.

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Yes, Lowrance is still in the mix with HB & Garmin, but their "claim to fame" is their Down Image. HB seems to hold the #1 spot for Side Image, while Garmin is most noted for its connection to Livescope (Forward facing sonar). All three brands have a Forward Facing Sonar setup, but Garmin is the lead horse in that race.

This is mostly centered on an April 2024 Outdoor Life article, as several of the other articles I read mentioned other brands or were more specific in their choices based on specific units rather than simply an overall view.

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Originally Posted by gunwhatgun

Is Lowrance still a player these days? I know my Motorguide TM linkable to some Lowrance units but I don't know which, and I'm not sure that would be a factor in any decisions. I am just really disappointed in the HB.

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The right “model” Lowrance or Simrad can be linked through motorguide gateway nema with xi3 and xi5 trolling motors provided the trolling motor is pinpoint gps equipped.

Lowrance Gen 2 touch HDS through the HDS Pro series works with the pin point link. And some of the elite series all work not sure on what models of them I’ve always had the HDS series.

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Originally Posted by Central Minn

The right “model” Lowrance or Simrad can be linked through motorguide gateway nema with xi3 and xi5 trolling motors provided the trolling motor is pinpoint gps equipped.

Lowrance Gen 2 touch HDS through the HDS Pro series works with the pin point link. And some of the elite series all work not sure on what models of them I’ve always had the HDS series.

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I have an Xi3 and it does have the Pinpoint and gps features. I forgot about Simrad, I know they are very popular with the big boats for their radar stuff. I don't think I have ever seen a Simrad unit in a small fishing boat.

Lowrance is very much still in the game for sonar.

In my opinion in ranking with having owned all 3...

Best 2d sonar - lowrance- bird- garmin

Best down image- humminbird- garmin- lowrance

Best side image- humminbird- garmin- lowrance

Best forward sonar- garmin- bird- lowrance

Best gps- garmin- lowrance- bird

All are pretty equal when it comes to the 2d, down/side though now.. but Garmin is leaps ahead on forward facing sonar. Bird is about where Garmin ps22 was, and lowrance is absolutely trash in comparison.

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

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Originally Posted by gunwhatgun

Is Lowrance still a player these days? I know my Motorguide TM linkable to some Lowrance units but I don't know which, and I'm not sure that would be a factor in any decisions. I am just really disappointed in the HB.

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I run Lowrance's and have for over 30 years. I've been in the boat with Garmin's LVS 32 and 34 and IMO Lowrance's AT 2 is better than the 32 and just as good as the 34. I will give Garmin credit their stuff has a ton of adjustments. It's kinda like blonds or brunettes, pick one and have fun.

I swear the more research I do the harder this gets lol. I have a handle of Garmin and Livescope. I am very confused on Lowrance Active Target (or tracking or whatever it is lol) vs Simrad Active image. I think Lowrance and Simrad are somehow connected but not sure on that but I know they both integrate with Motorguide, which is somewhat important to me but for the life of me I don't know why lol.

It pretty depends on which trolling motor that you have and if you want to link up to it and use the built-in transducer.

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Originally Posted by gunwhatgun

I swear the more research I do the harder this gets lol. I have a handle of Garmin and Livescope. I am very confused on Lowrance Active Target (or tracking or whatever it is lol) vs Simrad Active image. I think Lowrance and Simrad are somehow connected but not sure on that but I know they both integrate with Motorguide, which is somewhat important to me but for the life of me I don't know why lol.

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Lowrance and Simrad are owned by the same company, Navico. They share technologies, it seems that Simrad's target consumers are more deep-water ocean type vessels and Lowrance is more inland boaters.

Active Target and Active Imaging are different technologies. Active Target is live sonar, Lowrance's (Navico's) version of Livescope. Active Imaging is an updated version of Structure Scan, it features side and down scan along with traditional 2d sonar in one transducer. The latest version is Active Image HD, it's plug and play for the HDS Pro's, but requires a module for HDS Lives and a couple other models. Both technologies will run on either Lowrance or Simrad, depending on the head unit model of course.