Dive boat owners advice on choosing gps unit

TopFrog · 23 April 2015, 09:18

I'm looking to purchase a gps/plotter/depth unit for a sib but I'm new to the boating world and there's so many to choose from. Mainly be diving and days out on the water with the boat so if there's any other divers with recommendations on here that would be greatly appreciated. Budget £500ish.

Thanks for taking the time to read

Maximus · 23 April 2015, 10:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by TopFrog

I'm looking to purchase a gps/plotter/depth unit for a sib but I'm new to the boating world and there's so many to choose from. Mainly be diving and days out on the water with the boat so if there's any other divers with recommendations on here that would be greatly appreciated. Budget £500ish.

Thanks for taking the time to read

Got a Mate with a new Garmin surpluss to requirements,not sure of model ect..Which you should get for a good price, if you pm me I'll put you in touch.

Phil M · 23 April 2015, 11:14

If you can stretch to about £550 I'd recommend the Garmin Echomap 50dv (as opposed to the 50s). It's a highly capable unit and comes with built in bluechart g2 maps, which are pretty good and contain quite a few wrecks. The downvu is superb for spotting underwater structures and rock formations and the "trackback" allows you to trace back through the sonar screen to select a feature you like the look of. It then adds a waypoint where that feature is that you can navigate to. This means once you spot a wreck, you can pinpoint it on the map rather than trawling over the area trying to spot it again. I'll admit, a bigger screen would be nice but it is still a very good and usable little unit.

Phil M

r3tmac · 23 April 2015, 16:41

Check out the Raymarine Dragonfly units, with chartplotter & Chirp technology sonar it picks out wrecks easy.
We are divers too and use this. Dragonfly and Dragonfly7 | Raymarine

Phil M · 23 April 2015, 17:47

I looked at the dragonfly and it also looked pretty good with a slightly bigger screen. The down side was the lack of nmea connections so i couldn't link it to the radio.

Phil M

Johnscubanut · 23 April 2015, 17:50

We use the Garmin 551. Works fine for navigating & searching the wrecks.

Last Tango · 24 April 2015, 10:12

I've got what was, in it's day, a very expensive Lowrance LXC15 and the B*st*rds discontinued the charts for it and nothing else will run in it, so I'll NEVER buy another piece of Lowrance equipment even if it's a tenth of the price of everything else!

Pikey Dave · 24 April 2015, 14:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Last Tango

I've got what was, in it's day, a very expensive Lowrance LXC15 and the B*st*rds discontinued the charts for it and nothing else will run in it, so I'll NEVER buy another piece of Lowrance equipment even if it's a tenth of the price of everything else!

Have you spoken to Navionics ?

.....sh1t happens.......

Pikey Dave · 25 April 2015, 09:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Last Tango

I've got what was, in it's day, a very expensive Lowrance LXC15 and the B*st*rds discontinued the charts for it and nothing else will run in it, so I'll NEVER buy another piece of Lowrance equipment even if it's a tenth of the price of everything else!

Which in fairness is like saying you'll never buy Sony 'cos they stopped making Betamax tapes, or Microsoft because they stopped supporting WinXP (best version of windoze ever imho) things move on. If you REALLY want to be stuck & beholden to a manufacturer WRG chart choices, buy Garmin

Most of the big names give you a choice of charts, Navionics, Cmap, Jeppeson etc. With Garmin you have the choice of err! Garmin. Garmin have also removed the ability to use crowd sourced bathymetric data from the latest versions of their firmware.

TopFrog · 25 April 2015, 10:36

Thanks for all the replies I was at first drawn to the lowrance 5 hdi but am now interested in either the dragonfly 7 or the garmin echomap 50dv.
But with what Pikey Dave said above about map options I'm swaying towards the dragonfly. I don't really want to be stuck with one map provider choice. What benefits are there to having the radio connection?

ShinyShoe · 25 April 2015, 11:15

Radio link... You can have links going just 1 way or both. A one way link would pass GPS location to the radio so that when you hit the red button your position is broadcast.

A two way link (needs a radio capable) will take a position report from the radio and pass it to the plotter to show it. E.g. a position poll from a mate or a DSC distress alert...

Simon B · 04 May 2015, 11:21

We like Lowrance for the side-imaging option you get. The charts that work on Lowrance are quite extensive now.

TopFrog · 06 May 2015, 17:48

After the weekend on a few different dive boats I like the look and ease of the lowrance 5 found this on the bay... http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=161272176989 is this a good price?

maxitope · 09 May 2015, 20:58

try force 4 they have some good deals on .

Newto · 10 May 2015, 22:05

I purchased the exact one from that dealer for £349 last December I cannot fault it, bear in mind you have to pay extra for the charts though. I bought navionics and downloaded some software for my pc so I can upload/download my routes waypoints ect....

TopFrog · 15 May 2015, 22:14

Nice one newto I'll add to basket right now

jonp · 16 May 2015, 03:39

Ive been using Lowrance products for many years and find them extremely handy for both diving and fishing.

With diving and using side scan I can find rocks, caves and even identify some of the bigger fish species like grey nurse sharks. Combining my older hds units with point one I can drop back on the anchor and pin point exactly which side of the boat and how far I have to swim to reach that cave or shark etc.

The newer units have the electronic compass built in these days I believe. If the money allows you can always add on other bits as you go such as side scan etc.

As for navionics charts you could find spots online for free then punch in the gps marks into your own gps sounder to save a few quid. FREE navionics for anywhere in the world Navionics

Jon