Forward Looking Sonar

[x25dave]

Hi all, I've recently bought a Nic 30, and it has a Lowrance plotter fitted below. There is no sounder fitted and I am considering a F.L.S. there is one with a plotter repeater function.
What views do you people have of these, or better?
I'd be really interested in your thoughts and opinions.

 

[nimbusgb]

Love mine.

Echopilot platinum hooked in to a Raymarine e-80. Great for poking around little bays in Greece.

 

[prv]

I was a little put off by the size of the big square brick you have to have sticking out the bottom of the boat. Obviously the relative effect of that gets smaller as the boat gets bigger.

Pete

 

[David2452]

I'm not sure they have repeaters as such, (NMEA, Seatalk, LarwranceNet, Garmin Marine Network etc) if so then I have learned something, but if your particular plotter has S-VIDEO, VGA or DVI input as for a remote camera you can use that. Never fitted one but have heard & read anything from absolutely useless to best thing since sliced bread reports, as with most stuff I guess results are directly related to how well they are fitted.

 

[Salty John]

I found mine completely useless, except as a normal sounder.
They really don't see far enough ahead at a reasonable depth to allow you to take avoiding action, at least I've never found one that does.
But, some people claim they work.

 

[RAI]

I have the Echopilot FLS Gold II. It is useful is specific conditions.

 

[longjohnsilver]

I've got one on my boat, never turn it on. Much rather use the normal depthsounder + fishfinder

 

[jonic]

Love my Echopilot Bronze.

I have had two and wouldn't be without it.

Echopilots seem to be favoured over others.

 

[auditdata]

I have just installed a FLS2D.
Here is a link to the details.

If you click on the photo on the Right you will see pictures of the full install.
No idea if it is of any use!!!! but seems a good idea.
The photo shows the transducer size and fairing
Clive

 

[DaveS]

Love my Echopilot Bronze.

+1

I only switch it on though for poking about in odd places, particularly new (to me) anchorages. If the water is at all rough the alarm tends to go off, presumably because it "sees" the waves.