What units connect together

[Dylan Doucet]

Hello, I am about to put new electronics on my boat. I am looking at the Lowrance HOOK2 9 with tripleshot sonar. My question is can i link two of these units together(one at the wheel, one at the front). If so will they use the same transducer, if not will having two transducers on the back of the boat effect performance of the transducers? Thank you. Also if any of you are selling old systems please pm me what you have.

[Alex2]

The Lowrance Hook 2 Series cannot be linked together. If you want a Lowrance unit that can be linked together you will need to upgrade to the Elite Ti series, Hds Gen 3 Series, or the Hds Carbon Series. Waypoints can be shared through the NMEA port on the Elite TI, but both units have to be turned on for this to work. You will need to purchase a NMEA 2000 cable starter kit which runs you about $70 for it to work. For the Hds Gen 3/Hds Carbon units waypoints and other information is shared through an ethernet port and both units do not need to be turned on to share information. The ethernet cables cost about 30-50 depending on length. Waypoints can be shared between an Elite TI unit and a Hds Gen 3/Carbon unit through the NMEA 2000 port. 

 

As for your question on whether or not they can share a transducer, yes they can. But remember if the transducer is mounted on the transom and you are viewing the unit on the bow you are actually seeing what is about 20 feet behind your boat. 

 

You can mount 2 transducers on the back of the boat as long as they have different frequencies. Most transducers come with different frequencies and you can choose which one you want to use in the settings on the unit. Usually people go two routes with mounting transducers on the back of the boat. One way is putting a structure scan transducer that does your side imaging and enhances down imaging, and then mount another transducer that does sonar and down imaging . The advantage to this is the sonar tranducer is mounted lower so at high speeds it stays in the water and you are able to read bottom. The other way is to buy a totalscan transducer that down DI, SI, and sonar all in one. The disadvantage of this is when correctly mounted the transducer comes out of the water so you are not able to read bottom at high speeds. Then for the front of the boat you can either chose a total scan or a sonar + DI transducer. In my opinion you don’t really need SI in the front and also whenever you turn your trolling motor the image gets scrambled unless you slow down your chart speed which I’m pretty sure is only a feature on the Humminbirds.

 

Heres a quick breakdown on transducers directly from Lowrances Website 

 

• Low CHIRP or 50kHz—Lower frequency means higher power for deep-water fishing.
• Medium CHIRP or 83kHz—Specifically designed to give the widest coverage area, 83 kHz is ideal for watching a bait under the transducer in shallow water.
• High CHIRP or 200kHz—Higher frequencies display a higher resolution image making it easy to discern fish from structure or structure from the bottom.
• 455kHz—Built into StructureScan HD and SpotlightScan, 455kHz allows for scanning of a large range with picture-like detail.
• 800kHz—Also built into StructureScan HD and SpotlightScan, 800kHz yields less range but even higher resolution detail than 455kHz.

https://www.lowrance.com/articles-and-guides/transducer-information/

 

[Dustin Cosby]

I have a question I have 2 HDS 5” gen2 units one at console one at bow, and an Elite Ti2 12” at console.  I’m looking at putting an FS 9” at bow and getting rid of both HDS 5’s.  So my question is, can I share waypoints and ducers between the FS and Ti2 units three NMEA 2000 network?  I know that Ethernet is not compatible with Ti2 but was hoping through NMEA I could network between them at least for waypoint management and swapping between ducers?  I have triple shot on transom and was planning to use split shot with y cable for 2d on trolling motor is this possible?