Lowrance plotters - recommended?

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Having to replace my Navman 5607 which failed recently after 6 seasons.

Looking for something of similar size to fit the cockpit binnacle mount, water proof!

Considering all options at the moment, any comments to Lowrance plotters?
 
Mmmm, I have a 8" from 2008, works fine. I expect it to work for some further years.
Display is very bright, very good.
No AIS data display on this model, which is a pity.

Later models are of course even better, price has gone down considerably.

Lowrance is using Navionics, which has been discussed lately. As I see it this is mainly a minsunderstanding - Navionics works fine for me.

Would I go for another Lowrance again? yes, no problem. OTH ... these plotters are quite similar, for me the two major factors are price and networking with other electronics.

/J
 
I have a Lowrance HDS 7M, having had a similar Lowrance of the previous generation (its GPS receiver died after about four years).
Good points: good screen resolution and visibiity, even in bright sunshine; cheap (as you'd noticed).
My main complaints about it are:
1. only one comm port, which means can't have, say, AIS and autohelm talking with it at same time (other models might be better).
2. No speed filter, so speed and heading can fluctuate wildly from second to second. This is especially irritating when triggering otherwise spurious AIS alarms.
3. The software interface was designed by a 12 year old whose only experience of sailing was on an X-Box.

Despite that, on the whole I'm happy with it.
 
I've got one, a Globalmap 3500C, about 12 years old. Cheap and cheerful but when I had a receiver failure 3 years ago, their service was very good.

It's really a back-up, as such the inability to calibrate is no great drawback. The Navionics charting is pretty comprehensive, but not as accurate as the ECDIS Meggeson C-Map I use on the computer.

Another very good chartplotter is the Standard Horizon.
 
Thanks all for the comments.

Looking through previous threads, seems the jury is out re touch screens in the wet. The plotter is on the binnacle (in Scotland!) so have decided for button controls, or perhaps hybrid of buttons and touch screen.

Really like the look of the raymarine e7, but it's a bit pricey for me. The lowrance Hds 7m gen 2 plotter looks a good piece of kit, but need to get to see one.
 
We had Lowrance in our previous boat - an HDS7 Gen1 at the chart table and an HDS10 Gen 2 at the helm. They were very usable devices and worked well networked together.

We have Raymarine on the current boat and I must say that the display is not up to the standard of the Lowrance although the functionality is better.

It is true that the NMEA0183 interfaces on the Lowrance plotters are not terribly good - not many channels for the size of plotter and not as configurable as some other brands. Personally, I hate NMEA0183 and only ever use it for the GPS feed to the DSC VHF - absolutely everything else on the boat is NMEA2000, so the relative lack of ports on the Lowrance has never bothered me. As already observed, the Lowrance broadband radar is beautiful and I really wish that Raymarine would catch up with them.

Do not make the mistake that I did on the previous boat of mixing brands for plotter and autopilot. I tried to get a Raymarine AP talking to the Lowrance gear and it was a disaster - they could never agree on anything and I could start going round in circles without warning. I tried to get Raymarine and Lowrance to cooperate to diagnose and fix it - achieving peace in the middle east would have been easier!
 
When I bought OB I fitted the Lowrance HDS5M. It seemed OK, but after a few months the screen failed - went black in one corner. Force Four were excellent and allowed me to pay the extra for the HDS7M. At that time I also bought a Furuno Radio Ocean RO4800 combined VHF / AIS, to work with the plotter, and Force Four advised it was compatible.

Problem the Lowrance would not work both ways with the DSC info in (required data at lo baud rate) and the AIS info out (required data at high baud rate). This was not explained on the box, and Force Four were also unaware.

When I spoke to Lowrance technical apparently this was all my fault that I should expect their kit to work as described and advertised !

However, Force Four were excellent and allowed me to exchange it for the Garmin GPSMAP 750 which has two data channels. I understand the larger spec Lowrance has two data channels, but having been less than impressed with their technical support I won't ever buy another Simrad product. This was the second time I had fallen foul of Simrad the first being when they wanted about £120 just to re-programme an MMSI number on an RD68 DSC VHF set.

Shame that Navman was absorbed by Simrad - the Navman / Northstar plotters were excellent.
 
Most other kit on board is raymarine. ST 60 instruments circa 2008, autopilot circa 2000. Icom VHF but gets its DSC info from furuno gps unit.

I am not bothered about connection to autopilot, would rather be the interface myself. However, would be good to get the instruments to connect, also the autopilot compass should I go with the Lawrence radar
 
I have a Lowrance Elite 5M with Navionics UK and the display quality in brightness and clarity is excellent. I plan another Elite 7 or 8 series linked to Lowrance Broadband radar. I prefer buttons to touchscreen.

I have had excellent service on small items from Blue V in Edinburgh who dispatched an interface cable for the Elite 5M and I received next day in Ipswich area. Local electronics in the area, R & J had taken two weeks and still moaned at my follow-up so I then cancelled and went to Blue V (Brian) who had not sold me the Elite 5M; that was Force 4 who later loaned me a software update chip at no charge and on trust I would return (I did). Force 4 are always good and you can talk to a human being there esp. Gemma. I plan to buy the radar and next plotter from Blue V.

I have inherited a Navman 5500 which also had a good display, perhaps not as good a quality as Lowrance. The replacement maps are only for 50 mile radius area.

Operating instructions:
The Navman manual is excellent, logical and seamless.

The Lowrance Elite manual is completely unintelligible, poor in explanation, illogical, disjointed and totally lacking in any site map logic. I had to create my own panoramic site map and subsidiary menus. Now I am OK...
 
caerolusmagnus said:
I have a Lowrance Elite 5M with Navionics UK and the display quality in brightness and clarity is excellent. I plan another Elite 7 or 8 series linked to Lowrance Broadband radar. I prefer buttons to touchscreen.

I have had excellent service on small items from Blue V in Edinburgh who dispatched an interface cable for the Elite 5M and I received next day in Ipswich area. Local electronics in the area, R & J had taken two weeks and still moaned at my follow-up so I then cancelled and went to Blue V (Brian) who had not sold me the Elite 5M; that was Force 4 who later loaned me a software update chip at no charge and on trust I would return (I did). Force 4 are always good and you can talk to a human being there esp. Gemma. I plan to buy the radar and next plotter from Blue V.

I have inherited a Navman 5500 which also had a good display, perhaps not as good a quality as Lowrance. The replacement maps are only for 50 mile radius area.

Operating instructions:
The Navman manual is excellent, logical and seamless.

The Lowrance Elite manual is completely unintelligible, poor in explanation, illogical, disjointed and totally lacking in any site map logic. I had to create my own panoramic site map and subsidiary menus. Now I am OK...
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - were not even aware of Blue V, will give them a call........
 
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