Fishfinder/GPS question?????

[TheTinMan]

willy, is the 3500 a plotter only? Do you have a seperate sonar?

[willy]

Yea Tin I have the 3500 C, it is a gps waas only, same as the other 3 series out in '05. I wanted the color chart capability and I wanted the full screen.
The boat came with a matching set flush mounted with a Garmin sonar/fishfinder and a separate gps unit, both black and white. Fell in love with the arrangement (two screens) but the gps used older no longer made garmin chips, I could not find the one for my area and it had the delaware bay area on it. Sold it to Mulv and bought the new Lowrance. When or if the black and white sonar dies I will swap that out for a new color Lowrance unit.

[Skools Out]

does anyone else run an Icom brand GPS?

Here's the one i have Icom GP-360ML



GP-360ML Complete Features
LIGHTED KEYBOARD AND DISPLAY
English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish languages can be selected
Large 160x120 pixel display

COMPLETE NAVIGATION OUTPUTS
Complete Navionics® cartography: uses standard miniature Nav-Chart cartridges
Built-in world map
133 map datums, plus one user defined
Displays UTC and local time
Distance and speed can be displayed as nautical miles, knots, statute miles/mph, or kilometers/kph
Altitude and estimated accuracy can be displayed as feet or meters
Display responds accurately to changes in position and speed
Navigation outputs include range and bearing to a waypoint or between waypoints, speed and course over the ground, velocity made good, cross track error, time to go, estimated time of arrival, graphic course deviation indicator, course error, parallel route offset, specified course, and elapsed distance.
One second timing pulse synchronized to UTC

AUTOMATIC DATA LOGGING
Can be set to automatically log position and time at selected intervals
500 waypoints

SAVE SETTINGS AND MAN OVERBOARD FUNCTIONS
Present position and time can be saved by pressing the (SAVE) key
Man overboard function * press (SAVE) key twice

TWO MARINE DATABASES
Two marine databases are included, with approximately 22,000 lights and buoys (America's version)
International version available
Memory for 100 additional user defined points

ACCURATE TIDE PREDICTION
A 24-hour tide plot can be shown for several thousand tide stations
Times of high and low tide are displayed
Sunrise and sunset times are shown

PLOTTING
Present position and previous track can be plotted with waypoints, lights and buoys
Plot can be scaled from 0.25 to 4,000 nautical miles
Track is automatically recorded
Previously recorded tracks can be plotted and permanently stored as paths
Paths can be manually followed or automatically followed with autopilot

ALERTS
Audible and visual alerts for waypoint arrival, crosstrack error, border crossing, anchor watch, and avoid points

GP-360ML Specifications
PHYSICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Size: 9.8 W x 5.9 H x 3.1 D inches
25.1 W x 14.7 H x 7.9 D cm
Weight: 2 lb. (930 g.)
Power: 10 * 32 V DC, 6 Watts

LCD DISPLAY
Number of pixels: 160 W x 120 H
Size: 4.5 W x 3.4 H inches (11.5 x 8.6 cm)

WAYPOINTS
1000 Waypoints with entry by Lat/Lon, present position, range and bearing, UTM, MGRS or TDs
Waypoints can be given 7 character names and 16 character descriptions
50 Routes with 50 waypoints each
10 Avoid points

SERIAL DATA
Two input and two output ports are provided with many format selections
Waypoint upload and download are included for PC use
Compatible with all SC-104 DGPS messages

STANDARD EQUIPMENT
The GP-360ML comes complete with:
World map, tide predictor, external GPS antenna with 35 feet (10.7 meters) of cable, tilt stand, 10 foot (3 meter) power/data cable, operator's manual

OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT
Bulkhead mounting kit
Built-in DGPS receiver with magnetic antenna that can be mounted inside most boats. With this option installed, the unit provides SC-104 outputs for other GPS systems *

Link for them cheapest i'veseen them.

http://www.bethel-marine.com/Icom_GPS2A.htm

[reelapeelin]

Looks like a nice 'un!!... ;D...

[willy]

Never seen one before Skools, but it speaks German so it can't be all bad ;D ;D

[76GMC1500]

I've got an Eagle SeaCharter 480DF. *It's an identical unit to the Lowrance LMS-480DF (the black and white version of the LMs-337c), except for one thing. *The Eagle unit uses NMEA 0183 and the Lowrance uses the newer NMEA 2000. *If talking to other devices isn't of huge importance to you, a SeaCharter can be had for $350 while the LMS-480 is $500. *I don't have any charts for the unit yet. *The high resolution means they can cram a lot of data in a small space. *But, the screen is small and all of that data can be hard to see in the direct sun. *But, it's not impossible. *Can't tell you much about the fishfinder. *It's holds bottom in 150 feet of water at 30+mph. *I haven't spotted many fish with it yet, there aren't any in the entire Monterey bay at the moment. *I did pick up what I thought were a few flounders/halibut, but I was unable to drop a hook and find out because it was in an anchorage. *The unit seemed very capable of distinguishing fish from the bottom even though there was little seperation.

Sorry!!! I have not been on the site for a while. Business and work have kept me busy. I posted about the Lowrance software chip. I have the Lowrance 330C combo GPS/Sonar, and bought the Nautic Path USA chip from Lowrance (LEI Accessories). Cost $99 at Cabellas. Gives me ALL East Coast & West Coast. One Chip. The problem I had when put the chip in was that my software op system was 1.0.0 and crapped out when I went to move the screen.. . Called Lowrance, they sent me the software update on a chip to 1.3.0 and I followed their directions and it was easy. Chip works like a charm, gives better graphics detail than the original unit, has bouy information, tidal phase, information icons for marinas and points of interest with detailed information on fuel, services, etc. And improved reilability on the GPS side. I really like the unit with the $99 investment. Beats Navionics or Blue Chart prices.... just my 2 cents worth.

[msbhammer]

Still looking for an affordable gps unit myself.
Question: Will gps units take old loran numbers as well and come out with gps numbers ??, if you follow what I mean.

[Airslot]

Hammer, for your purposes (diving) there is no machine that will work with both numbers accurately. They don't have a mathmatical algorithm that can change from td's to l/l's in an accurate fashion. Having said that, if you use a GPS that displays td's to mark a spot, you can return to that spot in td's.

Bottom line is, if you've got wreck #'s in TD's, you'll probably only find them with a Loran unit.

Airslot

[msbhammer]

Thanks Airslot. Hmm, looks like I'll be taking out the hangglider to find the wrecks from overhead. : ) ;D