Fish Finder / log / Depth / GPS? What about this one?

ProDave

ProDave

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We mostly day sail a s small cruiser that currently has no built in electronics. We are wanting to add something, particularly a depth sounder of some sort.

My previous boat had a NAvman Fish finder, which would give us depth and speed (at least it did until the paddlewheel disintegrated) we never used the fish finding abilities, just the depth display.

So searching for something similar to fit to the new tub has thrown up this. Hook2-4x GPS Bullet Skimmer Fishfinder

It claims to also contain a "GPS plotter" bit apart from that statement lacks ANY details of what that means, not even a screen shot of the "plotter" function in action.

So has anyone ever seen one? What do they do and more importantly what don't they do?
 
Quick search on Lowrance site brings up the manuals for it: Downloads

Doesnt appear to say anything about base maps and screen shots down show GPS coordinates either but it does say you can plan a route - but without a base map that could be interesting
 
ProDave said:
It claims to also contain a "GPS plotter" bit apart from that statement lacks ANY details of what that means, not even a screen shot of the "plotter" function in action.
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My recollection or impression is that the fishfinders are deliberately gimped from a chart-plotting perspective, sold to anglers who never go more than a few miles from home in familiar waters. The same functionality in a proper chartplotter costs several times as much.

Judging from the photos the Hook2-5 "chartplotter fishfinder combo" has a basemap, then the cheapest real chartplotters are the Dragonfly 4 PRO, the Echomap Plus 45cv and the Helix 5 G2. Tiny screens though, I bet.
 
We had a Humminbird fish finder /GPS tracker on our club support boat. The problem with this is that it had I believe a quite powerful ultrasonioc trnasmitter for depth /fish finder that interfered with the VHF radio to the point of being unusable. As far as I could see I could not turn off the depth sounder aspect so using the GPS wiped out VHF reception. (interference seemed to come via the antenna) Usual cheap depth sounders don't seem to be such high power. ol'will
 
There always seems to be a few Raymarine Dragonfly plotter/fishfinders on eBay going cheap. Needs a map card so budget for that, but they seem good value to me.
 
If I can just firm up the requirements.

We sail in waters familliar to us all. And most of us have some form of chart plotter on our phones, I have Open CPN on mine,

The basic requirement was to add a depth instrument. and this one popped up so we are trying to see just exactly what it's "GPS plotter" functions will and will not do.

I have used the navman type fish finders as a depth instrument for some time and never had issues with interference with VHF before.
 
ProDave said:
We mostly day sail a s small cruiser that currently has no built in electronics. We are wanting to add something, particularly a depth sounder of some sort.

My previous boat had a NAvman Fish finder, which would give us depth and speed (at least it did until the paddlewheel disintegrated) we never used the fish finding abilities, just the depth display.

So searching for something similar to fit to the new tub has thrown up this. Hook2-4x GPS Bullet Skimmer Fishfinder

It claims to also contain a "GPS plotter" bit apart from that statement lacks ANY details of what that means, not even a screen shot of the "plotter" function in action.

So has anyone ever seen one? What do they do and more importantly what don't they do?
Click to expand...
First reaction is to suggest that the transom mounted transducer might not be satisfactory for a small sailing cruiser. It may not work when heeled and if you have a transom hung rudder that would complicate matters.

If I was looking for just a simple depth sounder I would probably opt for one of the Nasa Marine instruments with an "in hull* mounted transducer: Nasa depth instruments
 
If you have a non-cored hull below the waterline you can stick a transducer designed for transom mount on the inside of the hull and achieve reasonable depth results.



The advantage of the units with a built in gps is this they will also give SOG and position.
 
My Nasa transducer has been stuck to the inside of the hull with a dollop of the Gosport pound shop's equivalent of No More Nails for a good few years now. I'm sure it attenuates the signal, but I'm not that bothered if it runs out of steam at 50m. 90% of the time, I'm only really interested in what's going on underneath me when it gets below 5m
 
Skeg hung rudder so a transom mount transducer will be fine (exactly what I had on my last boat)

I was hoping to find someone that had one of these so might be able to post some screen shots of what they will and won't do as a "plotter" but nobody has stepped forward so far?

Even if it is little more than a GPS (not plotter) would it be possible in advance of a trip to plan it at home on Open CPN and export the waypoints to the GPS? That depends on some sort of conectivity which again it says nothing about.
 
I used to have a handheld GPS , made in the 1990s, which would give one's current coordinates and also allowed one to enter waypoints to plan a route. It showed one's track on the screen but did not have a base map or any facility for adding data. The GPS function on your instrument may be similar.
 
duncan99210 said:
From what I can see in the manual (link ftp://software.lowrance.com/Documents/Hook2-X-Series_OM_EN_988-11747-002_w.pdf ) it isn’t a chart plotter, just a simple gps display. Can’t see any way to import data to the thing either.
Click to expand...
Thanks

I tried to find the manual, but failed. But even now I have seen the manual, it does not tell me much, other than it just about re defines how basic it can be and still be described as a "plotter" e.g I have not yet seen any example screen shot what shows me your present position in lat / long, your heading or your speed, and anything about how you enter a waypoint's lat / long etc.
 
Just resurecting this thread to give you the outcome.

We did buy this Lowrance Hook 2 as per the OP. After a delayed start to our boating season, we have been using if for a couple of months. So now the verdict, the good, the bad and the ugly.

The unit, when it wants to work, works well. As expected, it's "chart plotter" function is just a basic display that will give your position and show a track of where you have been, but there is absolutely no map, not even a very basic outline map, This is in line with expectations and we are happy with it's performance.

What we are not happy with is it's reliability. After a few trips, it stopped working, with the display flashing on and off and not responding to button presses. We were on the verge of sending it back when an internet search found a hard and soft reset procedure (not documented in the manual) and resetting it to factory defaults restored normal operation.

Today, it again failed. The display would flash on briefly at power up then go off. My sailing partner spent an hour trying to reset it, with no luck, before eventually, by chance, finding the documented reset procedure, followed by an extra key press, restored it to operation again.

So i could not honestly recommend anyone buy one as the software or some as pect of the hardware is unreliable. You should no be needing to reset something so frequently as this to keep it running.
 
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