Lowrance HDS-5

[dingbat]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

The new sonar techonlogy is a while different world from what you are use to. Lots of good things. Read up on Airmar's broadband transducers and CHRIP sonar technology.

It comes right down to major improvements in transducer technology and enough horse power on the electronics processing side to take advantage of it.
A good sonar unit begins with a good transducer. This why you see guys spending as much if not more on transducers than they spend on a head unit.

http://airmartechnology.com/uploads/brochures/Transducer Presentation NMEA 2008.pdf

http://www.tritech.co.uk/products/chirp.htm

 

[Tacklewasher]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

This connector has 5 pins I searched the manual for the transducer specification for the cone angles and all what I found is it has built in temp sensor and it is a Broadband sounder and this is the main reason for me to choose this setup the 200KHz is a 20? and the 200KHz is a 36? I am not sure how it would be a 120? maybe at 5000 ft deep
Frequency: 50/200 KHz
Power output:250W peak to peak (31W RMS) actual,30,000W peak to peak analog equivalent
Depth capability:5,000 ft.

Wow.

Thought you mis-typed that last spec thing, so I went and checked.

Sure enough, rated to 5,000 Ft. Huge improvement over my 522. Rated for 900 ft and seems to lose bottom around 625 (Lake Okanagan, not salt).

Be real curious how it performs in real life.

 

[kandil]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

I can not wait to try it in real life I might install it temp on my inflatable cat the first warm day we get and for dingbat I think I am going to stick with the broadband sounder for now

 

[dingbat]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

and for dingbat I think I am going to stick with the broadband sounder for now

If that is the case, you need to do a bit more research. You obviously don't know what you bought.

 

[thadraperyfallz]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

Kandil,

I'm looking at getting the HDS-5 unit and had a question that I can't seem to get a concrete answer to. I looked up the accessories for this finder on cabelas, and didn't see a speed paddle for it. Is it safe to assume that the speed is tracked via the GPS? Did you find anything supporting that assumption in the documentation that came with it?

Thanks!

 

[kandil]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

You can get an optional speed paddlewheel but you don't need it becuse the gps is very good at tracking your speed.
dingbat what you mean You obviously don't know what you bought.?

 

[thadraperyfallz]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

Don't want to beat a dead horse, but I want to make sure I have all the info before I go pull the trigger on this (this will be the first gps purchase for me ever). The speedo is a stock feature in the gps software, and I will not need to purchase a separate device to monitor my speed, right? Going to Cabelas or BPS on Saturday to play with the display model and see what it's all about.

Thanks!

 

[kandil]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

check this out you will find out all you need to know about the HDS http://hdsrevolution.com/ hi just to be clear the speed works with the units that have the GPS like HDS-5X that is what I have

 

[Tacklewasher]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

There may be a use for the paddle wheel if you want to measure water speed. I.e. if you are on a river, your GPS will give you actual speed while a paddle will add/deduct the river speed.

I know someone has brought this up in the past, but I really don't see the point (and people are free to correct me).

My GPS shows me my speed just fine without the paddle wheel.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

You can get an optional speed paddlewheel but you don't need it becuse the gps is very good at tracking your speed.
dingbat what you mean You obviously don't know what you bought.?

I passed along some info on CHIRP and broadband transducers and you said you'd stick with broadband. What is your interruption of broadband?

I have my doubts that Lowrance is using true broadband technology in the true sense of the technology but an understanding of BB is essential if you want to understood how they can do more with less and come up with these crazy cone angles.

 

[thadraperyfallz]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

There may be a use for the paddle wheel if you want to measure water speed. I.e. if you are on a river, your GPS will give you actual speed while a paddle will add/deduct the river speed.

I know someone has brought this up in the past, but I really don't see the point (and people are free to correct me).

My GPS shows me my speed just fine without the paddle wheel.

That's what I was thinking. It's bad enough they don't include a transducer with certain models, I'd hate to have to pay for a speedo as well.

Anyone have opinions on which gps package would be best for a central illinois fisherman that is mostly on lakes, but sometimes rivers, too? Lake Insight, or US BaseMap?

 

[kandil]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

I passed along some info on CHIRP and broadband transducers and you said you'd stick with broadband. What is your interruption of broadband?

I have my doubts that Lowrance is using true broadband technology in the true sense of the technology but an understanding of BB is essential if you want to understood how they can do more with less and come up with these crazy cone angles.

My fault I thought that the CHIRP was another new technolgy my interruption of broadband is a wide
frequency band in which the transducer can operate between
a high and a low-frequency value Broadband performance results in faster rise and fall times
which generate a distinctly crisp acoustic pulse.
With this technology, transducer ringing is diminished and the Q is usually lower than 8. The crisp pulses allow for superior detection of tightly spaced fish and also fish suspended very close to the sea floor. When used for navigation purposesand broadband transducers also do a better job of imaging the bottom at all depths, especially very shallow-water.
Because broadband transducers have a bandwidth that covers a continuous frequency spectrum.
I think that lowrance is using true broadband technology for it to work With Broadband Radar you will get radar like never before. No magnetron, no tuning or adjustment is ever needed not that I am going to get one the bottom line is it is good stuff

 

[John_S]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

The only reason to get a speed paddle-wheel to supplant the gps, is if you do allot of trolling, and then mainly in current. You need the boat speed to water speed to know where your lures are in the water column, etc.

FWIW, While I have read the same articles on broadband, it is unclear to me what aspects have been incorperated in the HDS units from Lowrance. All I can say is that the demo screen looks to be filled with fish arches.

 

[ohhenrygsr]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

Hey guys and gals I got offered a really good deal on a lowrance lcx-26c hd unit 800 but the hds-5m is like another 150 (950)total is it worth getting the lcx or should I get the hds?

 

[Boatist]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

It's the same old analog signals as before. They use an A/D to convert the signal from an analog transducer signal to digital for display processing. There is really nothing new other than improvements in the noise reduction algorithms.

I sorry it is not the same old analog signal as before.

Tranducer power information.

250W / 32W RMS Actual
30,000W / 3750W RMS Analog Equivalent
5,000 Feet Depth.

32 Watts RMS Analog would not even see a hard bottom in 100 feet of saltwater. This unit rated up to 5000 feet. Of course it has the standard disclamer that it depends on actual water condition.

It is new technology and it won "THE NMMA INNOVATION AWARD IN 2008"

Not too much information is out yet and many of the unit do not reach market until march.

Lowrance's new owner does not seem to be very good at putting out information or responding to customers.

GPS unit has 5000 waypoints and 200 routes with 16 satellites channels.

It new and untested in the real world.

 

[John_S]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

The specs lead me to believe they are using similiar tech as audio receivers started using a few years back: digital amps. I believe they are called class D amps. Some quick searching should bring up some good reading.

 

[kandil]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

Hi I found this info if you want to know more about it
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/Library/What-is-HDS/

 

[Boatist]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

Lowrance is suggesting the 200/83 khz down to 900 feet and the 200/50knz deeper than 900 feet. I do not know about you but we tried to fish 600 feet deep a couple of times and if there is any wind at all takes weight of at least 2 to 3 pounds even with light 40 pound Spectra lines. If the wind and current drift is slow enough that you can get by with 2 pounds then you will find moving so slow that you do not cover much ground and so ofcourse do not catch many fish.

 

[kandil]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

Hi Boatist they say To cover even more water, Broadband automatically adds 83 kHz operation to a Lowrance 200 kHz single-frequency transducer. At 83 kHz, you get full 120-degrees of wide-angle coverage with greatly enhanced definition of fish arch targets.

Incredible Deep-Water Performance
Broadband sounding is serious electronics when the hunt is on for fish in any deep water weather condition. Even at higher boat speeds, Broadband keeps a bottom lock at depth, with exceptional targeting of fish arches on the bottom, around wrecks and other seabed structure. And when used with a high-power transducer, strong bottom locks and water column detail reach down thousands of feet!

Will see if it will help me catch any fish have a good day

 

[cougtoad]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5

Does anyone have any thoughts on how this unit would perform as a portable?


I called Lowrance tech support this morning to get some info and they told me I could convert the HDS-5 to a portable if I bought the softpack and a suction cup mount for the transducer.

I'm wondering if the portable battery pack would have enough juice to run this unit for an extended period of time and also how well a suction cup transducer works (Ive never used one...only transom mounts)

I need a portable b/c I make trips to Alsaka occasionally and would like to be able to bring it up with me and use it on the boats we rent. I fish in pretty shallow water (nothing over 200 feet in our samll boats) and at home in Washington it will be used mostly for lake fishing (trolling, etc.)


Thanks