Lowrance I Finder Explorer

[Northlander]

What do you guys know and think of these? I didnt want to spend the $ on a color hand held so I got a great deal on one of these and bought it. Any ins and outs I should know? Whats the best card to use in it for the Lake Superior/Duluth area?

[Northlander]

Anybody have anything to say about these?

[croixeyes]

dont know much on the explorer but I know the price on the monochrome h2o is going for about 100 bucks cheaper than last year.As far as the chips go you can go to lakemaps web site and get a list of lakes they have.Navionics cover more states but lakemaster zooms in way closer...

[andy j]

Steve,

I have never heard of the Ifinder "Explorer". Maybe a new unit that I haven't seen yet. Croixeyes is right about Lowrance lowering the price point with the Black and white H20. They have come out with the H2o and Hunt color versions that look nice also. It is hard to beat the Lowrance handhelds for the price.

[Northlander]

I have had it for a few days and think Im going to bring it back and go color. I hate having to turn the light on every minute or so. Plus that color screen just looked so much easier to read.

[PierBridge]

If I had your money I would burn mine...

I want one bad unforunatly Dick's sporting goods does not carry them and I have a $200 gifty for Dick's....

[dockehr]

Northlander, if you exchange the Explorer for the H2Oc, you'll not regret it. Having said that, can you extend the time the backlight is on with your Explorer? You can do this with the H2Oc unit. It may be on the menu under "screen". Keep that in mind if you get the H2Oc. The factory default is 30 sec.

If you plug the unit into a 12volt outlet, the backlight stays on as long as the unit is using "external power".

For Lake Superior, probably one of the Navionics Great Lakes Chips. For inland, probably, LakemasterPro. Lowrance's FreedomMaps, basically MapCreate on a chip, has a great chip that has so much detail (though NO lake CONTOURS, but, has very good lake OUTLINES) for all of Minnesota (and parts of other states).

It's FreedomMaps F6. While in Illinois over Christmas, I had to drop my wife off at her brother's in Moline,IL. I merely typed in his address, hit "find" on the H2Oc and it showed me exactly where he lived on the "map" page. This, by the way, was the same F6 chip that covers all of Minnesota!!

dockehr

Dr. Roland E. Kehr, Jr.

Lindy Tackle Company

[Northlander]

Dock can ya e-mail me? For some reason I cant get my Explorer to accept my Lake Superior Navionics chip. Im probably doing something stupidly wrong but even after talking to where I got it I cant get it to.

If its the unit Im going to the H2Oc for sure. I still probably will. Thanks a lot.

[Northlander]

Returned the Explorer and went with the H2Oc. Glad I did, the color makes the screen SO much easier to read! The Explorer I had would not work with my Navionics Lake Superior Map. Others in the store did but not mine, must have been the one bad one in the bunch. The H2Oc is working great with it. Figured out how to get the light to stay on however long I decided so I set it for 4 minutes. Seems long enough to get stuff done without hitting the light every 30 seconds.

Russ at Marine General in Duluth was VERY helpfull with everything and I will go to them for my next electronics purchase thats for sure.

Well now tomorrow I have to get out and save some of my spots.

Thanks to all that recomended the H2Oc! Im glad I went color!

[dockehr]

Steve, I was typing you a reply at my office when both hygienists hit my door and I never got back to finish it. I see that you got the H2Oc. Great. I had recommended trying the chip in another unit. If I worked, then the unit was at fault.

Anyway, keep in mind with the color unit that you can change the colors of trails, even after you're done plotting. Also, you can increase the number of "points" per trail from the default 2000 up to 9999. This could come in handy if you were trying to plot the outline of a particular piece of productive structure.

Going back to the colored trails. If you were plotting your way to a spot on a new lake that had a lot of obstructions (islands, reefs, etc) you could use a certain color for the initial trail. Then, if you wanted to plot the outline of a particular structure, you could start a new trail with a different color to differentiate it from your goto/return trail. Later, if you wanted to delete the "structure trail/outline", you could do it easily without deleting your goto/return trail (which would be a different color). I also e-mailed you if you need to contact me that way.

dockehr

Dr. Rolane E. Kehr, Jr.

Lindy Tackle Company

[Northlander]

Oh man would that be great in the river. Can you e-mail the basics of how to do both the points and the color trails? I will play around and see if I figure it out at all or just get confused. Thanks for evrything Doc!