Fishfinders

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cobby
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by cobby »

Smish wrote:I have an old Lowrance Elite 5 with DSI, must be over 2 years old, no problems with it, does the job. I read Shane's comment about Garmin having better sonar, to be honest I have never considered Garmin so I had a look and the Garmin Striker 5dv GPS/CHIRP/Down Imaging is only $400, that's a pretty impressive package, I'm even tempted to pick one up.
Smish, note the strikers don't run maps. They'll track you and save way points but not much else. The echomap 55dv comes with aus/nz bluechart map and is around the 700-800 mark from what I've found
choppers
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by choppers »

:wtf: :down:
"Ye old town" Yak captures - gummy (116) salmon (32) flatty (35) yakka (28) silver trev (25) couta (38) plus all the garbage fish

Prowler victims - squid (30cm) Gar (36) Snapper (80 :yahoo: ) kgw (39)
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Wind Waker
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by Wind Waker »

Hvalross wrote:
cobby wrote:Explain a hds that's never removed or unplugged, never dumped, tucked under a windscreen getting minimal at worst spray, connected to twin always charged batteries that randomly decides to either:
Black screen
Throw voltage alarms when other meters display over 13v with motor running
Throw shallow water alarms whilst sitting in 30m
Refuse to acknowledge the transducer is connected, often after its been running fine for over 10 minutes
Freeze the display making navigation when fishing close to headlands next to impossible
Refuse to turn on
Backlight intermittently turns itself on and off
Pull random depths (never knew Hastings boat ramp at high tide was 80+m deep...)
Refuse to zoom
Menus that randomly close.

I used to like lowrance products, the x125/135 were the best going around in their day but navico has seriously destroyed the quality of the brand
These faults and a few more I have as companions at the moment with my machine..


Having been involved in Manufacturing in one way or another for my entire working life I am very confident in stating this as a fact.


Companies run by marketers produce crap full stop.


Lowrance is now owned and run by marketers. Price point is a smoke and mirror you can follow down the proverbial rabbit hole for all I care. If a good is made to a price it will spiral stradily downwards in performance......note I did not say features...the features will continue to roll and those silly enough to be fooled by features, rather than performance will continue to be sucked in and remain satisfied little vegimites with rubbish.
Lowrance was benchmark in quality and performance once, as a tek based management they went down that road and made average profits. Marketers stepped in and introduced tinsel and razzle dazzle.........lets see it last.

I had a paper Lowrance through the 80s, 90s and recently dumped it because I could no longer source the consumables. It ran for THOUSANDS if hours, never had a service, never had a clean, and never had water ingress anywhere. My current Hook has done 11 hours on two brackish rivers 8 hours of which was on a boat protected from the elements. It has salt crystals inside the case, it has tarnished plug contacts and it malfunctions as above...the unit it replaced did not reach 11 hours before it failed to switch on at all due to the sheer number of different failures it had in its short life.

I rest my case, if you are ging to go out on a limb for a product at very least have some valid basis for your position. I have used Lowrance products and actually witnessed their decline over decades........

If your time piece, fridge, toaster, car, washing machine behaved this way, how long would it take for you to change brands.

I did not spend good money to be playing lotto to get a good one that is just a bloody silly way to go.

Having said all that, I really dont know where to go for my next sounder.
Warranty it and sell it if it shits you that much.

As for the rest of the tripe re the razzle dazzle, are you for real? What razzle? Big screen? Chirp? Colour? Ohhhhh Maybe it's the fact it actually has a digital output....

Corroded plugs and salt crystals sounds like water entry. Warranty it or do the plugs up so they seat past the detent. Seems to fix alot of water entry problems.

Marketers = crap? Seriously in this day age technology is more to do with keeping up with your competition. First with a new feature is good but being more than a few months later will see consumers hang you out to dry for being slow to react to market demands.
Live long, fish hard and hopefully catch something.
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Hvalross
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by Hvalross »

Sadly keeping up with the competition IS keeping up with the marketers...........and chirp is a feature, an enhancement...not performance.......smoke and mirrors, again as said no idea where to go next, sounders have become expensive consumables. They are no longer set and forget.
Original Lowrance plugs lived for three decades in situ, connected or stored in a seaside shed in Williamstown, just one real example of the application of marketing and its path to decline of standards.
When all else fails........read the instructions!
Studies have shown that people who have more Birthdays tend to live longer...
mazman
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by mazman »

Hvalross wrote:Sadly keeping up with the competition IS keeping up with the marketers...........and chirp is a feature, an enhancement...not performance.......smoke and mirrors, again as said no idea where to go next, sounders have become expensive consumables. They are no longer set and forget.
Original Lowrance plugs lived for three decades in situ, connected or stored in a seaside shed in Williamstown, just one real example of the application of marketing and its path to decline of standards.
how has marketing lead to the decline in standards? yes, the introduction of marketing coincides with your experience of declining quality but it wasn't the marketer who said lets change where/how the plug is manufactured or the design of the plug. Marketers aren't responsible for the inferior nature of a product they're just the ones who convince people they should buy it. personally i believe extreme marketing isn't correct but it hasn't caused a decline in quality
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choppers
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by choppers »

Guys your way off topic I think. This bloke just wants some advise as to which sounders we run, not a debate about bla bla bla..
Keep it simple I rekon
"Ye old town" Yak captures - gummy (116) salmon (32) flatty (35) yakka (28) silver trev (25) couta (38) plus all the garbage fish

Prowler victims - squid (30cm) Gar (36) Snapper (80 :yahoo: ) kgw (39)
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Hvalross
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by Hvalross »

mazman wrote:
Hvalross wrote:Sadly keeping up with the competition IS keeping up with the marketers...........and chirp is a feature, an enhancement...not performance.......smoke and mirrors, again as said no idea where to go next, sounders have become expensive consumables. They are no longer set and forget.
Original Lowrance plugs lived for three decades in situ, connected or stored in a seaside shed in Williamstown, just one real example of the application of marketing and its path to decline of standards.
how has marketing lead to the decline in standards? yes, the introduction of marketing coincides with your experience of declining quality but it wasn't the marketer who said lets change where/how the plug is manufactured or the design of the plug. Marketers aren't responsible for the inferior nature of a product they're just the ones who convince people they should buy it. personally i believe extreme marketing isn't correct but it hasn't caused a decline in quality
On the board right alongside the CEO of most Companies of any concequence there will be number of executives? One will be the President of marketing, some will also have an executive President of Sales. Sometimes they are combined. Marketers are very much the engine room of Companies and hold almost absolute power over all other aspects of business .

Sadly your assertion is not correct. There is a constant internal battle between marketing/sales and tek/ engineering and profit is the principal driver.
The tek would have the best possible, Marketing drive the price point and features. Tek-engineering do the best they can with what they are given to spend. On the other side the Seller is ruled by his marketing and profit....and so performance goes steadiy downwards as profit goes up.

Cheers

Andrew
When all else fails........read the instructions!
Studies have shown that people who have more Birthdays tend to live longer...
WorldWarBlue
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by WorldWarBlue »

hi mate, ive got a lowrance elite 4hdi on my PA12, ive recently got myself a 5chirp but i haven't installed it yet, I'm happy to sell u the 4hdi with transducer for $100, If ur keen i wont take it out so u can come by my place and see how ive got it set up and i can show u the ins and outs of the unit, I'm in the northern suburbs so if ur keen give me a buzz
Last edited by WorldWarBlue on 25 Jun 2017, 04:10, edited 1 time in total.
Footy and Fishing, Fishing and Footy.. Ahh we live in the best state in the world GOBLUES
doddsj
Qualified Fish Monger
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by doddsj »

G'day,

Have owned several Lowrance Finders over the years, Never had any major issues only screens fogging up. Have owned a Humminbird for the last 7 years (used in my Outback all this time.) great sounder again no issues performs brilliantly.
I always remove the Sounder from the Kayak, Wash of any spray Salt or Freshwater and clean the Screen. I have never had any issues with corrosion. On all of my Sounders I spray WD40 into the contacts for the plugs
this seems to prevent the corrosion issues. I am looking at buying a Boat at the moment and I will be putting a Humminbird Sounder on that.

Cheers,
Steve.
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Yako
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Re: Fishfinders

Post by Yako »

Dragonfly Pro4 is ticking the boxes for me.
It just depends where you fish and what features are important to you.
If i just fished a few spots in the bays a real basic finder is all you need.
I used to run a basic B&W Navman 4200sx and it got me onto fish every time.
John 3.16/17
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