Helix 7 w/i-Pilot Link

[Craddman]

OK - so I have an old Eagle FishEasy fish finder that was given to me years ago. The transponder is mounted on my Minn Kota Powerdrive V2 trolling motor. My son & I joke that I think the manufacturers programmed the FishEasy software to throw random fish in the scroll just so you think that's it's working (or possibly I've have had it running in demo mode for these past 10 years haha). We think that it would show fish even if I could deploy the trolling motor in the garage.

 

We decided to pick up our game and my son bought me a Helix 7 Chirp, SI, GPS, G2N. I had heard about the i-Pilot Link and I was interested because there's nothing more aggravating than having to constantly adjust the trolling motor speed & heading to compensate for wind & contour. Unfortunately, after checking, I found that the i-Pilot Link is no longer offered for the Powerdrive V2. I understand this since the Helix & i-Pilot Link set-up would be way more expensive than the Powerdrive so they probably didn't sell very many for that model. So what do I decide to do? Look at new trolling motors. I'm really limited since I have a 12V set-up and I want to tie the Helix into the motor with the i-Pilot Link. I'm limited so much that there seems to be only one trolling motor that will fit this set-up and it is the Minn Kota Terrova.

 

With that said, the Terrova comes with the US2 (2D sonar). I feel like I would be stupid to connect the US2 to my new Helix robbing the Helix of all of the goodies designed in and that they charged for. I also don't like the fact that the best (& really only) place to mount the HD transducer (after the $85 trade-in) is on the transom since I'm seeing where I've been not where I'm going (seems counter intuitive when fishing) but I also realize why I can't/shouldn't mount the transducer to my trolling motor. So I see the scenario where I hook up the Helix, mount the transducer to the transom, mount the receiver to my console, link it to my new Terrova via the i-Pilot Link but then I have the US2 sitting unused. 

 

Now for my question: Does anyone have a set-up where they are using the US2 from the trolling motor with a feed to a receiver at the bow but then the better fish finder mounted elsewhere with its transponder mounted to the transom or do you feel like this is an overkill? I am going to get the exact model of my Eagle FishEasy and, if I'm lucky, the US2 may feed into that receiver and I wouldn't have to drop another $199 or $299 on another fish finder just for the receiver to hook to the US2.

 

Anyone with any thoughts about this proposed set-up?  Thanks in advance.