Further North

I've bought tons of used gear on E-Bay, no problems so far. Use restraint, and if something is too good to be true...there's usually a reason. Fly fishing gear in particular seems to get sold at a fraction of new. An easy 75% of my fly gear...and I've got 30 rods rigged...are E-Bay buys, bit rods and reels. I've also bought some gear set ups used...it tends to be "more used" than the fly fishing gear, but I've not been disappointed yet.

Thanks Tim, yes I have.

Tim, exactly. ...and I called in to their help desk last Friday...left a message...crickets... I'm unimpressed. This feels like how bad Lowrance was a few years back...low bar to jump over, you'd think.

That's where I was headed... It's not like I've got an uncommon, or unpredictable network... Too bad HB isn't watching and responding on a forum as big as this one...

Nope. ...its not like it really hurts me on the water...so if they tell me I have to send it in, my answer is gonna be, "OK, when the water freezes." ...there's just time when I'd like to look at SI, or DI, from the front. ...and not see that annoying message. i'm kinda stymied that HB doesn't have someone patrolling this forum, looking for stuff like this. They shouldn't want dissatisfied customers posting about this ind of thing...

Good indicator to not go back to them. They make a great product, but only if you find it useful. It's pretty close, these days. If you haven't tried Humminbird, make sure you do...then if you still like Garmin, go with it. They are all so good these days, you can't loose, regardless of what major brand you pick. I mean...stay away from "Uncle Bob's Best, Fish Finder an' Trollin' Motor Company, LLC (Translation: 鲍勃叔叔最好，鱼探仪和拖钓汽车公司, LLC) but all the top brands are great, pick what you like...and don't get sucked down the rabit hole of comparing nits to gnats as the brand faithful are so willing to take us down...

Don't overthink it. Go with what you like on the fish finders (does the menus make sense, etc.)...then, but the trolling motor that integrates best with the fish finder you've chosen. All the trolling motors are essentially the same...they've finally caught up with where Minn Kota was about seven years ago. You wont' catch any more...or any fewer...fish with this feature, or that one, whether it's there or not. Anyone who says otherwise is fulla beans. IMO, of course. follow-up: I just ran through the features of the Garmin Force here: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/610414 Nothing jumped out at me as startling. If I were running Garmin head units, I'd buy a Force. If I were running Humminbird head units ( I do) I'd run a Minn Kota Ulterra or Ultrex. Ditto with whatever works best with Motor Guide.

If you are asking if Helix units can share the data of a map card in a console unit with a bow unit...I believe the answer is no. I believe you will need two map cards. I believe this capability is restricted to the Solix series. If this has changed recently, it is news to me.

I've got a good contact, he provided a direct line. I'd just hoped to not bug them too much. I'll call them tomorrow.

I appreciate that. ...just disappointed, I guess. Used to be a post like this would generate a lot of help, ideas and follow up. Not so much, any more...and not just here. "Call Tech Support" isn't help...

Seems to be the case. Mark me down as disappointed. Our ability to respond to things like this shouldn't hinge on one guy... ...it's worth noting that I posted this on other forums...where Wayne still participates...and I didn't get squat there, either.

ELectronics run on smoke...when it leaks out, that's when they're broken...? ...although I find it interesting...not important, just interesting...both these units run warmer than my G2Ns did.

Good idea...everything is working on the console unit, so it's unlikely that's an issue. I can give it a look though.

Nothing, eh?

To be clearer: The front DI unit is not seeing the DI or SI from the read transducer, and fairly consistently showing the "Temp 2 source lost" message.

Forgot to mention that all of my electronics are on a separate, stand alone, electrical system. Separate battery, separate charger, no contact at all with the boat's system.

Good question: I double checked, and yes, they can.

I thought I'd start a separate topic so this doesn't get lost in the other topic about the update. Update to 2.110 done scrupulously to instructions via FishSmart Ap on new iPhone XR. Units were communicating and sharing info and transducers via standard network prior to update. Units are: Helix 12 MEGA SI+ GPS G3N Helix 12 MEGA DI+ GPS G3N (purchased as a CHO - Control Head Only as it uses the transducer in my Ulterra) I can go check, but both units have less than 30 hours on them (had ~20 before I went fishing yesterday, we fished about four hours). Both units arrived from factory with 1.940 installed. Ulterra is a few years old, I believe one generation back from current. No DI transducer, only 2D. I was considering an upgrade, but will wait for the new SI units when they come out. It was factory standard with iPilot and Link and has worked flawlessly. Still does. iPilot Link is on 2.150, iPilot remote is on 2.040. I have an early release HB 360° on the network as well. It is on 2.030 Network is in perfect working order, has been for years. I'm looking for any thoughts anyone one has, and can provide any other information as needed. Thanks in advance, I'm looking forward to an interesting discussion.

Nothing complicated, just shut everything off, let it sit for a day and tried again with the boat in my garage. I'm sure if I had done the "normal" way - loading the updates onto a chip - that it would have been fine. Right now my bigger problem is the failure of the front unit to share SI and DI with the back unit...on brand new units...

Another follow-up: I got the Helix 12 MEGA DI+ G3N CHO to work yesterday...but today, on the water, the front unit failed to recognize the SI and DI from the back transducer, despite being set up that way in the network menu. ...trying to figure out what to do with that... Considering rolling back the update, but I've no idea how to do that. I may try just turning Dynamic Imaging off...but I'm not thrilled about have to burn time on the water for this.

You ain't kidding...or walleye fishing, or panfish fishing... The same day we were out on that reservoir, we fished past a gentleman on a pontoon. He saw what we were doing, and proceeded to tell us about the 40somethng musky he'd caught last weekend on a light weight walleye rod. Bragged about it taking "50 minutes" to land that fish!". That ain't musky fishing, that's tripping over a big fish and getting luck it didn't cut your line in the first two seconds on teeth or gill rakers... Pure luck, nothing else. We refrained from telling him that in 75° water, he should have kept it because it probably died later...no reason to do that, wasn't his fault... All of what I wrote said...we don't need to fish for them with huge lures rods and reels that could double as telephone poles and winches. Esox don't exclusively, or even predominately, hit monster lures. They just don't. I catch well into double digits every year, and I seldom throw the big stuff. I use enough rod to haul them in in a few minutes, but we're talking 7' 9" EH bass gear here. It works fine. We're also talking 10 wt. fly rods, same deal. I'm more than a little jealous of your longer growing seasons down there. I hear on the fishing alone thing, I'm out by myself 90% of the time or better. We get better with practice...lots of it!

So...quick report out: ran the update on my Helix 12 MEGA SI+ G3N today, from my phone, while out on the lake...just because I wanted to see how it worked. We were out of cell range, and no where near any WiFi, and it worked OK. I remain endlessly frustrated by the fact that we have to re-set to factory values coming out of updates...with today's technology, it's absurd that current status can't be stored in a temporary file on the chip, and restored during boot-up...but I digress. It worked, though bluetooth didn't work after the install, I had to tell my iPhone 4 month old XR, so up to date tech) to "forget" the device and re-link it to get it to work right. A PITA, but not the end of the world. ...but here's the kicker: I tried to run the same update on my Helix 12 MEGA DI+ G3N CHO...and no joy. It kept looping through the "transfer" process, and never registered at the unit. I'll get it done, even if I have to load the update on a chip and walk it out there, but this is too complex given today's tech. I'm a pretty technical guy, and I get this stuff...I can see several of my friends giving up and not doing the updates with this level of complexity... ...and that's the kind of thing that feeds negative feedback about the brand.

No kidding.

Thanks - I am looking forward to trying to do the updates throuth the FishSmart ap on my phone ...curious: Do we know what update to use with the CHO head units?

That's OK...those folks can work until they're 75...I'll stick with retiring at 57... ?