Which sonar/fishfinder?

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Meatwagon is persuasive on using the maps while fishing! And, Hummingbird has an advantage in that maybe I'll be able to link to the MK trolling at some point (however unlikely). Apparently my boat does have a power wire at the bow, so I should be able to connect the fishfinder to the master power easily.

@Dungee Fishing, I assume your Terrova is 24 volt so it makes me think the transducer gets its power from a 12v connected fishfinder. That's just a guess, but if it is powered through the trolling motor I could see how there might be interference.
 
Here's a picture of my lowrance hooked up to my tevvora while also running the helm unit and the Hummingbird all at the same time.

I think it helps with interference by using different settings on the different units, such as a 80hz on 1 and 455hz on the other. I seem to get the most interference on my unit in the console (helm).replace3.pngreplace2.png
 
Dungee Fishing said:
A couple of questions while the topic has been brought to floor again... How much interference is to be expected on the trolling motor sonar unit? Or is there a way to eliminate most if not all of it? Secondly, if you're using the internal transducer (like the sonar one in my Terrova) does that drain the trolling motor batteries or does that power system still get ran through the main battery? If so, I'm thinking it might be worth it to put on a separate transducer on the TM.
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Preston,
I have not experienced any real interference on my bow (running off the US2 transducer in the Terrova of off a transducer mounted on the trolling motor) or Helm (stern transducer) fishfinders, but run directly from the house battery, and try to separate the DC power cables and transducer cable as much as possible from the other wiring. I have run, various fishfinders on the bow, without interference. I have had very sporadic issues where things go goofy for a few minutes, but I attribute that to turbulence around the transducers or narrow canyons and odd rock or mineral structure causing out of phase returning "pings". These have all been remedied by moving the boat or adjusting speed, trim or such. There is a place in Moki that it goes berserk and an area along the big wall down lake of Halls that always loses bottom reading. I know almost exactly where it will go goofy, and when it will come back to normal. Kind of a Bermuda Triangle deal, or sub-surface alien base, has been our theory! And what is weird, we usually catch fish in both areas! lol

Regarding the US2 transducer in the Terrova housing. It is completely separate from the trolling motor and powered by the fishfinder head unit, no interconnections. So no power drawn from the trolling motor nor impact to the trolling motor batteries, unless the bow fishfinder unit is connected to one of your trolling motor batteries.
 
@BarzArz @Meatwagon

Thanks for the replies. I know when I tried dinking with a couple things this summer I had some wacky readings, but I was plugging the console unit into the terrova transducer just to get a feel.

I was getting a lot of interference when the trolling motor was running. Is that normal or usual? As soon as I’d turn the trolling motor on the screen would go crazy. Anyone see something that similar?
 
I still have the same issue on my HB596 with the transducer mounted outside the TM housing. The screen scrambles when the TM is running. I hope someone will figure this out. No issue with the cockpit HB859. Sq
 
I wonder if there is something-like a special tape or "paint" or thin material- that you can put between the motor housing and the transducer when you clamp it on. The electric motor will put out electromagnetic interference, ie radio interference, and if the housing isn't insulated well I could see potential problems in some situations.

Edit: Perhaps there are sensitivity settings in the sonar that could somewhat mitigate the interference?
 
There are a few sites selling the Garmin Echomap 93sv for $599 with the clearvu transducer (down and side imaging). Seems to be a great unit I haven't used it much yet but seems to be on par with my helix 9 . I plan on getting Livescope for it this spring
 
We had some of that kind of interference with our old original alum. boat but figured out some water had gotten into the trolling motor and also some one had tied the negative battery terminals to the boat hull, sort of like a chassis ground. It worked OK when I fixed those things. But it was an old boat and an old trolling motor, which we did not have too long, so we did not really do much with it. But I currently have two different Terrova's, both with the built in US2 Transducer's, one 12V and one 36V on two different boats. They have been used with a few different Humminbird and Lowrance FF's with no interference observed...knock on wood.
 
Garmin is saying this technology (Panoptix Livescope) is the future for fish finders and its going to eliminate traditional sonar and downscan and side scan imaging.. It makes fishing like playing a video game since an angler can see the fish swimmming in real time and reacting to the bait. I don't keep up with the latest stuff and thought this might be something significant enough to be worth posting. I don't know what the price is. Here is a video about it.

 
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I look at fishfinders a little differently----
The technology in them changes every day -- more, better, clearer, hooks to this links to this does this...... out of all the technology in the darn thing, which of it will you REALLY use? For me, I use very little of what it has available. I use the GPS mapping system, and the depth finder. The rest of the stuff it does ---- no idea.
As with a lot of technology ( just look at your phone) it is included in our devise, but most of use do not take the time to figure it all out, and many times, even if we figure it out, we do not use it. So for me-- all the stuff is nothing more than clutter.
I am a big fan of buying used when it comes to things like fishfinders -- there are always people selling their used items because that want the latest and greatest --- buy something 3 or 4 years old --- it will still have lots of great stuff that your 15 year old unit did not have, and will cost you much much less. Use it for a while and then decide if you are really missing anything -- by then there will be a new must have feature, and you can buy the one you are looking at today for next to nothing.
 
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I'm with davew, I usually buy my electronics "used" or "New Old Stock" for about half the original price. Also when I sell something in excellent "used" condition(looks like brand new, works like brand new) my maximum selling price is 1/2 of new.
 
Many features on sonar/map units are for ocean vessels on large bodies of water. Mapping and chart plotting for navigation are used more often than for fishing . Those folks are on the water year round so they use many more features than recreational fishermen. I think the average guy doesn't use many of the functions because he doesn't use the finder enough to be familiar with it. Certainly the technology improves but I'm not sure that transfers to more fish for occasional anglers. So.... the talk of which is the better sonar becomes more dependent on who is using it and how often. Not necessarily the manufacturer. Just something else to consider.
 
Ron said:
Anyone have experience with Garmin panoptic live scope ?
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Ron, I am interested in the answer to your question also. I've seen the videos they use to sell the technology, and they say it will revolutionalize underwater visibility - a pretty strong statement - so I hope someone might have one soon and let us know how it works.
 
I'm with davew and kbass, I prefer the basics. As I mentioned in the very first post I'm not a big whiz bang gadget guy... I prefer my "tool" does a few really important things well and that's about it because I don't have the time or interest to decipher everything in life. There is something to be said about simplicity and I've gotten by pretty darn good for the last 6 years with a 4" screen that shows the bottom and (if I'm lucky) some possible fish underneath. I'm willing to go a little nicer now because I don't want to stick a cheapy on a new boat, but my basic attitude remains. And I'm open to used or "in box never used" if it's a good deal on the right one... and I trust the seller.

Can't wait!
 
I have forward view panoptics transducer on my boat. It isn’t the livescope. It sees 300 feet forward and 300 feet down. I used it so I don’t hit the whales. The transducer was 700-800 dollars. The livescope is around 1500 dollars. It is amazing how much the livescope has improved over the first transducer that I have. Go to YouTube and watch some of the video that are up there pretty impressive but not cheap.
 
Im looking at the Lowrance TI7 series. It seems like theres a problem getting the speed and water temp to display on the same page using full screen sonar. Looks like the speed is only available on the map page. When trolling Id like to use the fulll screen and watch my speed without a split screen or flipping back and forth through pages. Has anyone encountered this?
 
Pulled the trigger. Ordered the Helix 8 MEGA CHIRP DI G3 Cabella’s sent out a sell flier but of course they didn’t have any, plus didn’t come with transducer. They said they couldn’t ever order the unit that it was up to a computer to stock the store. Sportsman’s couldn’t or wouldn’t order it either. So I ordered it on line. If Goldcup and Kbass are nice to me I will help them find some schools😂😂😂🎣🎣🎣
 
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