reviews on the Eagle 642c?

[fishingguy]

Anyone have thoughts, experience's, good or bad with this unit? THX!!!

[BoxMN]

We have had one for about 4 years. Overall it is worth it if you got it on a good sale.

The internal antenna was something I was worried about, but it has worked flawlessly. Even inside my garage it picks up satellites great. No prob there.

Screens looks and reads and displays great. No prob, even in sun. Lots of adjustments or preset settings, so I give it good grades here.

We have used Lakemaster and Navionics chips, both work. I recommend Lakemaster because you don't have to do the goofy "search for the map data" step that is a pita. Maybe newere Navionics have this fixed, we have used 2004 and 2007 in it.

Big problem is the updates. In order to get better zom using Navionics, you need to update the firmware. Easy to do, but once we got the newer version, we started having problems with reading bottom in weedy or shallow water. Also it will, for some reason, quit allowing us access to all the menu screens. Then you have to do a soft reset (?) or reinstall the update to get all your screens back.

Good stuff is easy to drop waypoints quickly, it leaves great trail, and works really easy. I highly recommend Lakemaster as then you don't even have to do any software/firmware updates (hopefully they did not preload it with the latest, and they have stopped supporting it in new updates).

Overall, good unit but some issues in the software, not newest technology but it does everything you need. We even just bought a second unit for the front of the boat, as we got it for $350 - that is too good a deal and we can put up with the carp for that price.

Also, if you have a eagle 480 or similar unit the x-ducers are the same. So on my pontoon (480), on our duckboat (480) and on our main boat (two 642c's) all the units and x-ducers are interchangable, so that makes for flexibility.

[YUM]

I Just bought two of these for my bow and console at the BIG C for 350 a piece. I have them hooked up but obvisouly they haven’t seen the water yet. I was also a little worried about the internal antenna but I usually get my 'position found' in the garage. Also hooked it up in my car twice and never lost my gps connection.

Basically comparable to a comparable lowrance... couple of differences is that you cannot connect two of these units together and they don’t have a flasher built in.

[fishingguy]

Thank you both for the imput! After reading both your posts I decided to order one from Big C on line. They have them for $329 and $5.00 flat shipping. I believe it will fit my needs. Thanks again!!