Start of a electronic's upgrade to the Sculpin

[Sculpin]

I think your going to love that set up. If you get stuck let me know. I have the same set up with dual hds 10 heads, structure scan, dual 1KW transducers, Radar, heading compass, sonic hub, ap28 auto pilot etc. A view trying moments over the years but I think I have it completely dialed in.
These systems seem very common in the east coast market but in the west it has taken a bit to get off the ground. Lots of good info on the Hull truth if you ever get stuck.
I had many units in my boat over the years and I can say that the broadband lowrance with a 1kw transducer is by far the best sonar out there. You should be able to see everything that moves under your boat and with a bit a practice with upper and lower limits you will be able to see most the springs on the screen before they hit your gear. This is big advantage when you are fishing in new areas as you don't need to rely on others to know how the fishing is or is going to be at tide. You know because you can see them. It will save you a lot in gas running and chasing boats.
For others that have stock transducers, I would suggest the best money spent is on your transducer. Airmar has a ton of transducers that are compatible with Lowrance units and you just need to pick the one that suits your style and budget. The crew at Harbor Chandler are very good at this stuff and I would suggest any one going through the process getting multi functional units to buy where the customer support is best. Believe me, you will need it and the cheapest price doesn't always offer the needed support.
I look for ward to seeing some of your screen shots down the road

Cheers!

Thanks godeep for your input and the plug for the folks at the Harbour Chandler. They are incredible folks for customer service. They saved me so much money on this upgrade with there knowlege and help. If I have a problem I go to them and they solve it or sort it out with Lowrance. I would not buy electronics for cheap on ebay or what have you on my own. I stick with what works and I have the back up when needed..........my local dealer.

 

[MRACER]

Talked to Mike at HC after your "FOG TRIAL" on Saturday--sounds like you like the wide band radar--give us your first hand description of the Pro's and Con's....

 

[Sculpin]

The test run on Saturday was cool but I need a lot more time to get used to everything and tune everything to my liking and best performance etc. I am very pleased with the whole system. I don't have very much radar experience at all so I can't give comparisions between different technologies etc. So far I really like the up close performance of the broadband radar. I have to play around with it some more to gain an opinion for the longer ranges.

We went out crabbing yesterday. She looks pretty good me thinks with her new dome on top.

Here is a screen shot of us just playing around with the structure scan while crabbing.

Here is a screen shot of the radar when we were leaving the crabbing grounds. Notice the definition of the log booms in the lower right hand corner.

Continued...

 

[Sculpin]

Here is a log we were heading heading for.

Screen shot of the radar zoomed in to 400 ft.

Here we are approaching one of our prawn floats.

Screen shot of the radar zoomed in to 300 ft.

 

[Sculpin]

I am new to this radar thing and it will take me a while to get used to it. I intend on taking some courses as well to get proficient with it.

The structure scan can be pretty wild if the water conditions are good. We had the slit screen on with the regular sounder next to the structure scan and there was lots of herring around. The regular sounder screen showed a nice red ball as usual then we turned the structure scan on to the left/right view and we could see that the majority of the ball was to the port side. I am hoping this works well out on the banks WCVI to see bait balls to either side of the boat up to 300 feet away. On Saturday we went by the sunken tug in Departure Bay and recorded our passes and you can actually see it like a photo on the bottom. Pretty cool.

I can't say enough about the Sonic Hub stereo system. It does literally rock!. All your tunes at your finger tips.

 

[Charlie415]

Very cool!!! Have you tried the radar as an overlay on your chart display?

 

[Sculpin]

Very cool!!! Have you tried the radar as an overlay on your chart display?

We haven't hooked it up yet. Next trip out we will hook back up the autopilot and recalibrate it etc. Then run the data cable to the network from the compass to overlay onto the chartplotter. I finally got the fuel system back up and running but haven't hooked up the data cable for the flow sensor. Hopefully everything will be complete by the end of this weekend.

I really like the new Matrix VHF with AIS too. The folks that posted up about it were right. It's pretty cool.

 

[Aces]

Nice to see you on some sea trials, buddy. Boat's looking good!

 

[Gunsmith]

I want it, I need it, I am going to get it.

 

[Whole in the Water]

Very nice screenshots Sculpin! Would love to see some of bait balls and big springs from the side imaging sonar. It would be great to see how well and far/deep it works in our cold saltwater. Thanks for posting.

 

[casper5280]

Looks good Sculpin. Thought you might like that Matrix AIS radio. Can't wait to hear the reviews on the fuel flow sensor and the rest of the things once you have everything all dialed in. On the radar thing I was told a long time ago that "You anyways want to be in the black color is not your friend" If your in the color you are in trouble. The Canadian Power Squadron has courses sometimes, I know they had one in Victoria not to long ago.

 

[Sculpin]

Here is the fuel system as of now with a 90 degree elbow barb coming out of the Racor with a big looping hose to allow enough room for the Lowrance fuel sensor to be mounted in the vertical up position. I have a tee above it that allows the main to carry on through in a straight line and the kicker supply to come off with a valve that is easy to reach and operate.

I still have to tap into this branch of "T's" with the data cable then it's just fill up the tank and tell the system how much is in there and go from there.

Here is shot of the USB stick I had to use to upgrade the Sonic Hub system and my ipod gen2 touch inserted into the recepticle. I think it is silly that you can't use a card to do it from one of the head unit's.

Here is a really bad video showing the Lowrance Sonic Hub Stereo System. I had to hold the camera steady in video mode and try to operate the controls (I look feeble and it wasn't the Lucky's ha ha). It gives the general idea on how the i product inserted into the recepticle is accessed from any screen in the boat (I did most of it from the 10" unit out back due to the extra buttons).

 

[demco99]

Wow Sculpin what is one awesome rig! Don't forget to install a nice 12" subwoofer in there to complement the new stereo!

 

[nedarb2]

you need to install some jl 7.7's! they ROCK and no enclosure needed on the ccx models.

 

[Hookin'up]

Hey John,
I think I see a problem with your branch of tee's, the last one in line should not have anything coming off it other then a termination cap, if you need another port then you must add another network tee use the one downward leg and cap the end port with a termination unless you are using an external power source and not relying on your HDS head unit to pwer the network, I was told this by lowrance them selves. and I think its explained in the user manual as well
also your really going to like what that ep60 can do, it will tell you and display every detail imagineable related to fuel, I really like mine tells you burn rate fuel used per trip, fuel remaining in % form its pretty nuts really, I was talking to the lowrance guys last night at length at the boat show and learned a few new set-up tricks to boot, I also know what my next transducer will be now, as highly recommended by them it will be a airmar b744 thru hull but they say it is very easy to mount off the transom on a bracket for apps such as yours, but bracket mounted off the transom would only be good for trolling cause it will most likely lose bottom on plane do to dirty water(bubbles and turbulence) I can give you contact info for a guide/lodge out of kyoquot who runs them on all his boats and has developed a transom bracket for them if you like I spoke to him at the show too he was working the booth for lowrance
Tim

 

[Battle Bay]

David Murphy is on the Pro team for Lowrance. He runs the two big brass transduers of the transome ot his boat. One is the 1kw and the other is 600watts. Works awsome for detail on the bottom and differing the bait schools and size of fish. If you are looking for the brackets for them, the guys at the port boat house have some.

 

[Hookin'up]

David Murphy is on the Pro team for Lowrance. He runs the two big brass transduers of the transome ot his boat. One is the 1kw and the other is 600watts. Works awsome for detail on the bottom and differing the bait schools and size of fish. If you are looking for the brackets for them, the guys at the port boat house have some.

Ya thats the name he told me that had his brackets, hell of a nice guy, chocked full of lowrance tricks, he gave me his cell number and said call anytime I thought that was pretty awesome of him,
but he couldnt say enough about the B744 600w transducer, actually likes it way better the the 1kw,

 

[Sculpin]

Hey John,
I think I see a problem with your branch of tee's, the last one in line should not have anything coming off it other then a termination cap, if you need another port then you must add another network tee use the one downward leg and cap the end port with a termination unless you are using an external power source and not relying on your HDS head unit to pwer the network, I was told this by lowrance them selves. and I think its explained in the user manual as well
Tim

Thanks for pointing that out Tim. The whole thing is powered by a seperate fused bus under the seat next to the servers. That might explain the no dead end.

I am way over budget already on this upgrade and I want to get an ACR EPIRB so I will be using the stock transducer for now. I fully intend to upgrade the transducer next year to an Airmar of some sort. Looking at the TM270W transom mount.

I am about to jack the boat up and redo the bottom paint and fix up the trailer.......right after I get a bunch of prawns in the freezer.

 

[nedarb2]

i have been shopping the last few weeks for a new transducer too and from what i have found stated on many sites:
"If you go to a B164 you will improve by 6 times sensitivity over the B744.
A Tm 258 is 25 times more sensitive.
The M260 or Tm 260 is 50 times more sensitive"

however, the prices go up quite a bit as you get the better units. im going with a p66 for the amount of fishing i do its hard to justify an extra 500$ for seeing more fish on the sounder.

 

[Hookin'up]

nedarb, I'm going by what David Murphy told me directly, that he has used pretty much every TD out there and by far the B744 was the best for our waters,
and now has at least 1 on every one of his boats, its not all about sensitivty either cone angle plays a major role in it, you want to be able to see as much of the bottom as possible and not focus on a 4' square patch