ChromeDome
Well-Known Member
The current Lowrance HDS 10 Gen. 1(!) was purchased as a discontinued model on sale in 2011 and actually has worked fine. NMEA 2000 connected to VHF (with AIS) and Autopilot with fluxgate. Just what I wanted.
Eventually, the capabilities of Navionics Platinum became more than Gen. 1 could handle, e.g. auto-route, so I made a workaround where a tablet with Navionics created the route, exported to a PC, converted to Lowrance native format, saved to an SD card and inserted into the HDS. Not very streamlined and not dynamic at all.
I looked everywhere for a replacement but the features were more than I needed and the associated price was more than I wanted to spend - man maths or not. Of course, I would prefer to reuse the chart and transducer.
Neither new nor used in reasonable condition in sight anywhere.
Then the Raymarine Elements 12 came into play. The price difference between model S and HV is small so HV is the obvious choice. It can reuse my Navionics chart and I can choose whether to upgrade to modern echosounders by buying a new transducer (re-using the old needs connector conversion which isn't cheap).
The final straw is that the Swedish Krona exchange rate has dropped really low now and there are units in stock, so the 12" HV model costs the equivalent of £860 and as I have the option to take delivery within the EU, it's starting to look like a good deal.
Any last-minute warnings from the knowledgeable forum? Anything I've missed?
Eventually, the capabilities of Navionics Platinum became more than Gen. 1 could handle, e.g. auto-route, so I made a workaround where a tablet with Navionics created the route, exported to a PC, converted to Lowrance native format, saved to an SD card and inserted into the HDS. Not very streamlined and not dynamic at all.
I looked everywhere for a replacement but the features were more than I needed and the associated price was more than I wanted to spend - man maths or not. Of course, I would prefer to reuse the chart and transducer.
Neither new nor used in reasonable condition in sight anywhere.
Then the Raymarine Elements 12 came into play. The price difference between model S and HV is small so HV is the obvious choice. It can reuse my Navionics chart and I can choose whether to upgrade to modern echosounders by buying a new transducer (re-using the old needs connector conversion which isn't cheap).
The final straw is that the Swedish Krona exchange rate has dropped really low now and there are units in stock, so the 12" HV model costs the equivalent of £860 and as I have the option to take delivery within the EU, it's starting to look like a good deal.
Any last-minute warnings from the knowledgeable forum? Anything I've missed?
