CONTINUOUSWAVE

Hi. I have a 1987 Boston Whaler 15 CENTER CONSOLE that will be used primarily in the Delta, Bay and Lakes. On good days I might take it to Santa Cruz for some rockfishing and perhaps salmon when the season starts again. On my previous boat I had a Furuno 620 but that was more for saltwater and right now I need a [chart plotter and] fishfinder unit due to lack of space on the console.

Anyone here have experience with a Lowrance Gen 3?

Is the Gen 2 is good enough? I will save a few hundred.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.--Simon

I used a Garmin 478 with a blackbox sounder option on my 1983 15CC. A little small but more then sufficient for everything I could do with my 15, including finding wrecks in 60-80 FSW.

For my 17 Outrage I bought a Lowrance HDS 7 Gen3. Nice unit, a bit pricey and over kill for a small boat IMO.
The HDS is now on my 1999 21 Outrage. Now that I have a bit more room I wish I had gotten the 9" version.
Although the 7" version is not really that big, I don't know that I would have liked it on the small console of my 15

The Gen2 versions have some pretty good rebates. As far as I could tell, the main difference was the Gen3 did not need an additional "black box" to use all of the sounder options. AFAIK, functionally the Gen2 & 3 operate almost the same and have the same screens and menus.

I just started two threads on using and installing the Gen3 version of the HDS units.

Lowrance LSS-2 Transducer installation and use

Lowrance HDS Gen3 users - installation, interfacing tips and use

For the use you described the Gen 3 is excessive from the cost standpoint and all the included "features" you'll never use. I got a Lowrance Elite-7 CHIRP for my Outrage V20 which has a pre-NMEA 2000 engine. If I was going to get a new one I'd get the SIMRAD GO-7, it has almost all the features of the HDS Gen 3 and half the cost. You said in another thread that you were getting a new engine, so if it has NMEA 2000 capability the GO 7 can read and display your engine parameters.

http://www.simrad-yachting.com/en-US/Products/GO7/Simrad-GO7-Chartplotter-Multifunction-Display-en-us.aspx

OBTW: NAVICO owns both SIMRAD and Lowrance so there is a fair amount of interoperability between the product lines.

For more info about the GO 7 look at this thread from "The Old Forum":

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/003770.html

I just checked Amazon and you can get one, with the 83/200, 455/800 HDI transducer, for $661.

Thanks for info everyone. I've been reading reviews and the Go7 is an impressive unit especially for the price. The only downside, which may or may not be the case, is the full touchscreen without any buttons.

I'm putting in a Yamaha F70 which is NMEA 2000 capable, but I was told it's not just plug and play. There's some other unit I need to allow the fishfinder to read the engine info. Is that true? I can't just plug it into the NMEA output on the motor?

I just checked Bass Pro Shops and they don't have the GO7, so looks like I'll order from Amazon or West Marine. West Marine is a little bit more but I think it's a safer bet in case something happens to the unit.

Simon

My smart-boat, a 23 Walkaround, has twin Yamaha F150 engines. They have MNEA-2000 but you need an interface cable and module to make the engines play nice on NMEA-2000. [Deleted bad hyperlink.--jimh]

And, yes, it'll work with the GO7 since they are both owned by NAVICO. .

ASIDE: On the tangental topic of learning what is need for connecting a Yamaha engine to NMEA-2000, see my article NMEA-2000 AND MODERN OUTBOARD ENGINES.

You will also find this older thread to be helpful regarding Yamaha engines and NMEA-2000 connections:

NMEA 2000 Connector in Yamaha F70LA

Check with a knowledgeable Yamaha dealer to see if the particular model of Yamaha engine you have and the particular Yamaha instrumentation you have already will be simple to interface with NMEA-2000. It appears that in some instances with a Yamaha engine you must buy an additional interface device or gateway module to allow connecting the engine to a NMEA-2000 network that is different from the Yamaha instrumentation network. I am not sure why they make that so complicated. Again, I'd check with a dealer that knows about NMEA-2000 interconnecting for Yamaha engine. I suspect that not every dealer is up to speed on that topic. And you might get more than one opinion.