Beginner Electronics

[Craigums]

How important is color in your electronics? Ive never used electronics in a boat and was thinking about buying a beginner set-up this year. Ive found 2 to models on the internet that are the same price but really have no idea what I am looking for ??? ? Any advice about electronics would be helpful!

here are the 2 models I found...

btw this is in a 14' aluminum boat

Thank You,

Craig

[Cecil]

I will not buy another unit that is not color!

[skeeterpro1]

I would go with the bottom one, the one with color is nice but with the other one you will be able to get gps with is a really nice feature

[EBass]

I have a 14' jon boat. I have a color graph on the back. Pretty much like the one you have on top pic. Just a color Lowrance graph. And up front I have my FL-18. I was sick of asking, "How deep is it?" all the time so I put my flasher up front.

You could get away with just a flasher that you use for ice fishin- if you ice fish that is.

I really liked the color, so I went with that. Easier to read when I glance back.

[Craigums]

I will say that I do own a H2OC for icefishing with the chip... And I also fish out of the back of this boat where the unit would be mounted. You can see in my avatar how I at standing near the rear of the boat.

both these systems are single frequency as opposed to dual, any insight on what that means?

[Cecil]

Just means they are 192kHz. Dual frequency comes with that and a 50kHz, which is better in deeper water than we typically fish.

[OTBASSER]

I will not buy another unit that is not color!

Same for me!

[olski]

I was leaning twords the 480 until you said you had the H2O. I that case I would go with the 100. Color is huge for being able to pick things apart and for seeing in the sun. I don't know what ($) you found these units for but you can get some really good deals right now on stuff that works great but is being discontinued. lowrance X510 or Humminbird 565 color GPS for around $330 - $340 at Cabela's.

[Central Bassman]

A colored unit is a lot easier to see in the sun light.

[Craigums]

besides being easier to see are they easier to interpret? Ive never used electronics on open water

[TonkaBass]

I don't personally think they are, but some would probably disagree. The main thing is how much easier they are to see.

[gspman]

Color by far. You'll see and notice things with color that would be much harder to detect with shades of grey. If you have the money and can get a decent resolution color screen get it. It doesn't need to be a huge screen either. I have the old LMS-330 and it's fantastic.

[Esox_Magnum]

I agree on the color, now that I have it I will never own one without it. So much esier to read at a glance, shows things you may miss with a monochrome unit once set properly. Whatever unit you get learn how to set it up correctly and you'll learn alot more about whats going on below you. One thing I have found with electronics is you get what you pay for. A good quality unit will help you boat more fish.

[Superduty]

I run color units now but don't think they help me catch any more fish than my old monochrome units. I think if a person knows how to set up and read a monochrome unit, the need for color is far over hyped. If you like to take it out of the box and run it on "auto", then buy a color unit. It will do a better job than the monochrome unit. If you can get the lms-480 with the gps module for the same price as the sonar only color unit, buy the lms-480. I owned that unit for 2 years and loved it.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Craigums, Why didnt you ask me this at the show.. we could have talked about this too.. Rats..

[Craigums]

Craigums, Why didnt you ask me this at the show.. we could have talked about this too.. Rats..

Could have been at the show for days with all the fishing questions I potentially have

It was nice to finally meet you though! I was thinking about some of the things we talked about finding the right fishing line is it cool if I email you?

Sounds like the verdict on the electronics color vs features is almost split... Another question I have is how do you read a graph? what is it that it really shows, here is a picture of what I assume...

[Nick Kuhn]

????????? = Surface clutter ignore it (things as small as algae close to the transducer give a strong enough return signal to display on the graph).

The arches are in fact fish, but they rarely look that nice, and only when you are moving (when anchored a stationary fish will show up as a line across the screen).

What you are calling weeds looks more like baitfish, or a cluster of fish stacked closely.

The ground is the bottom, the colors below that line help you tell whether it's soft or hard bottom.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Craigums, your more than welcome to email me.. [email protected]

And I agree with Nick on his reading of the graph..

[EBass]

Craigums, the owners manual breaks it down. Plus it's kinda fun to play with the settings like ping speed, split screen, zoom, sensitivity, etc..

[Craigums]

Craigums, the owners manual breaks it down. Plus it's kinda fun to play with the settings like ping speed, split screen, zoom, sensitivity, etc..

Thanks man, I haven't actually bought a sonar yet. Just wanted a little basic knowledge before I dive in

[slopmaster]

I just upgraded to a hummingbird 597ci and bought a navionics lake chip for it. My first color screen depth finder (pretty sweet) and my first lake chip. Installed it this past weekend in my 14 foot lund and man am i pumped for fishing opener.

[TonkaBass]

Very nice... You pretty much have to most advanced sonar available!

[gunning]

I will more than likely be installing my first depth finder here in a few weeks. I have a few questions for you guys that have done this before.

From what I understand you have two ways to hook them up. You can run leads from the battery to the unit with a fuse in the line. Or you can hook the power cable right to the fuse box. It said on the humminbird HSOforum its better to hook it up to the fuse box because you will get less interference.

I was talking to a guy at work today and he said its better to run the leads because I will have to have the key turned on to get the depth finder to run. He also said I might have a hard time finding a ground by running it to the fuse box. He made it sound a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.

I have a few open spots on the fuse box so I figured all I would need to do is drill a hole in the console drop the power cords down and hook it up to the fuse box. How exactly should I hook the cords up to the fuse box? Do I need to get a circuit tester? Does it matter what spot in the fuse box I hook it up to? Where should I run the ground to? The boat is a 1997 Crestliner sportfish it has leads running up to the bow for a trolling motor and depth finder, so I assume they designed the electric system to handle a depth finder to be hooked up to the fuse box under the console.

[gspman]

I'm going to update my previous post cuz I didn't realize this is your first finder. Any depth finder is better than no finder. With a 14ft boat you should be close enough to it to pick things out even on the b/w screen.

Also as an addendum to the post on reading a graph - arches are not always (but most times are) fish. An arch is just a reading of a relatively stationary object as the transducer passes over it.

[JP Z]

Craigums: Like was said any depthfinder is better than NO depthfinder. Generally I only use mine for the GPS function, I have my LX5 with a highspeed ducer mounted next to it for depth readings. In your boat the B/W screen won't be bad at all to see. And the large GPS screen will definitely trump your H20c.

That being said there are some great deals on older late model electronics that you could get a heck of a deal on. So maybe you could bump up to a color/gps at a decent price.

As for Gunning: I have my run straight to the battery with a small inline fuse and that works. Otherwise you would need one of the switches on on the panel to get it to go or the like...I don't know just play around a bit and see what you like.