Fishfinder vs depth sensor

[Romario]

Originally Posted by travlineasy

Because the pulse from the transducer is such a short duration, the power consumption is extremely low. If it were a constant 1,000-watts you're battery would be dead in a matter of hours. With this system the battery will last for weeks without going dead.

Good Luck,

Gary

Thanks for the update, that's what I figured, those are peak watts, whereas the RMS watts are much lower (Wikipedia says you should be divide by 8 to get the actual power consumption).

[rightbrainer]

I have a small sailboat without instruments other than a compass. It would be nice to have depth and speed info so I can tell if all that tweaking of sail controls is working or not. The idea of a GPS/Fishfinder is very interesting because I like not having any holes in the hull below the waterline. Is the speed readout pretty instantaneous or more of a moving average?

[BarryL]

Hello,

On the GPS units I have used (2 lowrance and 2 garmin) the gps speed readings are instantaneous. The lowrance responds faster, if the boat surfs down a wave the speed shows it right away. If the boat rolls in a swell, the speed can show that as well. The garmin is a little more damped, it responds to surfing a little slower and doesn't seem to respond to rolling.

Barry

[cpcohen1945]

The GPS's I have all give you a choice for the speed averaging time -- it's a menu item, maybe 3 - 4 options. So you can have "instantaneous" or "average" speed.

Check the manual for whatever you're thinking of buying. One nice thing -- the GPS speed transducer doesn't get fouled by barnacles, weeds, or sticks.

Charles

[eherlihy]

Originally Posted by BarryL

Hello,

On the GPS units I have used (2 lowrance and 2 garmin) the gps speed readings are instantaneous. The lowrance responds faster, if the boat surfs down a wave the speed shows it right away. If the boat rolls in a swell, the speed can show that as well. The garmin is a little more damped, it responds to surfing a little slower and doesn't seem to respond to rolling.

Barry

I believe that the model may also be a factor. Older units have slower processors. Also, any GPS will only tell you the speed that you were doing, as speed can only be calculated over the distance that you have traveled.

My old Signet Marine unit died this year, after the transducer was painted by the yard, and then I scraped the paint off with a wire brush. I plan to replace it with a transducer that can shoot through the solid glass hull of my O'day 35.

Would anyone here care to recommend a specific model that they are happy with?

[anthony1]

Hello
I have a macgregor 25 and I have my fishfinder mounted to the bulkhead just off to the side of the companian way highly visible and not in the way. I can remove it after sailing and stow it down below as it has its own mounting bracket. Good thing I like about it is its size and the fact it has gps functions as well as water temp bottom info etc.
SoI vote for the fishfinder.
Anthony

[eherlihy]

I just placed an order for a Garmin echo 200... 500 Watts, and a black & white display. I'll keep you posted...

[Brent Swain]

I use the cheapest Canadian tire fishfinder avaialble( pirahna)
Had an Eagle fishfiner once. The rubber face stuck the buttons too often, so I switched. Get a spare. You can't often get them repaired in the tropics. Tape two 6 volt dry cells together and you can sound an entire area from your dinghy ,or scout out a pass before going thru.
The fuse kept getting disconnected, so I soldered wires onto the ends of a fuse. Contact guaranteed now.

[miatapaul]

Originally Posted by Brent Swain

I use the cheapest Canadian tire fishfinder avaialble( pirahna)
Had an Eagle fishfiner once. The rubber face stuck the buttons too often, so I switched. Get a spare. You can't often get them repaired in the tropics. Tape two 6 volt dry cells together and you can sound an entire area from your dinghy ,or scout out a pass before going thru.
The fuse kept getting disconnected, so I soldered wires onto the ends of a fuse. Contact guaranteed now.

Till the fuse blows and you have to get out the solder gun.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

[sealover]

A foil chewing gum Wrapper makes a suitable replacement fuse. Boats only burn to the waterline, right?