I got my Ifinder H2O two days ago by UPS.
Tried it in the SUV, seems to work great. In the vehicle, it kept locked onto the satellites even when put on the seat as well as into the tray between the two front seats. Very good reception (I had read a review that the Lowrance iFinder units have the best reception of all the portables. I can confirm it now.)
If you want a cheap GPS, Lowrance Ifinder H20
I purchased the unit along with the swivel mount, Map Create, NauticPath and data cable. I'm impressed so far.
For anyone that might be interested, I used a 1 Gig SD card I had with the MapCreate. It worked fined. The manual said at the time of printing they had tested up to 512 MB cards. The MapCreate kit ships with a 64 MB card.
For anyone that might be interested, I used a 1 Gig SD card I had with the MapCreate. It worked fined. The manual said at the time of printing they had tested up to 512 MB cards. The MapCreate kit ships with a 64 MB card.
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craiglaforce
- Captain
- Posts: 831
- Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 8:30 am
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Houston, Tx
My GPS just showed up today. The thing is awesome. Bigger screen than my old GPSIII, very clear screen, great backlight, faster acquisition, anchor alarm, MOB function, easy to configure, only uses 2 AA batts, comes with the 12 V cord, even working in my living room (weakly though).
It even has local info stored on local businesses and services, listed by exit numers. Just amazing.
Only minor things are you sort of need the holder for it on the boat/car or else hold it in your hand. Also it has a simple and an advanced mode which seems weird. Not much difference in the 2 modes, seems like it should always be in advanced mode.
What a price breakthorugh!
If I was on the coast I would be looking at the charts also, but I think inland I can just use the map that is on there.
Thanks again for the heads up on this one.
It even has local info stored on local businesses and services, listed by exit numers. Just amazing.
Only minor things are you sort of need the holder for it on the boat/car or else hold it in your hand. Also it has a simple and an advanced mode which seems weird. Not much difference in the 2 modes, seems like it should always be in advanced mode.
What a price breakthorugh!
If I was on the coast I would be looking at the charts also, but I think inland I can just use the map that is on there.
Thanks again for the heads up on this one.
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RandyMoon
- Captain
- Posts: 779
- Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 7:05 pm
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
- Location: Rockwall, TX Lake Ray Hubbard 2005M #0690 L405 Tohatsu TLDI 90 (Rhapsody in Blue)
I would definately get the largest memory card possible. MapCreate limits you to using only 5 cards max so that you can't mass produce maps and sell them.
A word of caution. You can buy MapCreate packaged with the USB drive for interfacing the card to your PC and without the USB drive. I thought I could use my "normal" USB memory card adaptor and ended up having to order their USB drive seperate. YOU HAVE TO USE THEIR USB CARD ADAPTOR ON YOUR PC. That is how they control how many cards you can use. It is a proprietary device that serializes the memory cards.
On my 512k card, I have all of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas, including the Gulf Coast to Florida.
A word of caution. You can buy MapCreate packaged with the USB drive for interfacing the card to your PC and without the USB drive. I thought I could use my "normal" USB memory card adaptor and ended up having to order their USB drive seperate. YOU HAVE TO USE THEIR USB CARD ADAPTOR ON YOUR PC. That is how they control how many cards you can use. It is a proprietary device that serializes the memory cards.
On my 512k card, I have all of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas, including the Gulf Coast to Florida.
Ifinder H2O
I just ordered one yesterday after reading everyones posts on it. I started reading the manuel on line and I do have a question.
Even though you can only have 5 cards, can you download a map on a card then save it to your computer, then erase the card and download another map on that same card? Or after you download a map, that is it, you can't put another map on on it.
Another question is, once you choose the scale of map that you want to import onto the card, I would assume that you couldn't scale the map up or down anymore from the GPS only.
Thanks for any help
Even though you can only have 5 cards, can you download a map on a card then save it to your computer, then erase the card and download another map on that same card? Or after you download a map, that is it, you can't put another map on on it.
Another question is, once you choose the scale of map that you want to import onto the card, I would assume that you couldn't scale the map up or down anymore from the GPS only.
Thanks for any help
Hi
1. You may enable up to 5 cards to be used. They can be used over and over. As I indicated in a previous post, I enable a 1 gig card and can probably put all I would ever want on that one card, at one time.
2. When you place the information on the card, it has all the detail. You scale the desired information on the unit.
I've been having quite a bit of fun with this unit. I've showed it to a few other sailors here who said they would be going for one as well. It really seems to be a great buy.
1. You may enable up to 5 cards to be used. They can be used over and over. As I indicated in a previous post, I enable a 1 gig card and can probably put all I would ever want on that one card, at one time.
2. When you place the information on the card, it has all the detail. You scale the desired information on the unit.
I've been having quite a bit of fun with this unit. I've showed it to a few other sailors here who said they would be going for one as well. It really seems to be a great buy.
ifinder H2O
Thanks for the reply. I just checked my order and they shipped it out today. Should be getting it in a couple of days. I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Do you really need both the Map Create and NauticPath?
Can't you just make coastal maps with Map Create?
It isn't clear from the information on the web site if there is more detail included on the NauticPath or just different kinds of data than the Map Create gives for the same locations.
Can anyone elaborate on these two items?
Thanks.
Can't you just make coastal maps with Map Create?
It isn't clear from the information on the web site if there is more detail included on the NauticPath or just different kinds of data than the Map Create gives for the same locations.
Can anyone elaborate on these two items?
Thanks.
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argonaut
- Captain
- Posts: 531
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 8:23 pm
- Location: '97 26X, Yammy 40 4s, Central Fla.
I just bought NauticPath, don't have MapCreate.
Mapcreate lets you add details to the land maps (topo elevations, etc), points of interest, roads, etc. It also adds more objects to the coastal marine charts but not depth soundings.
NauticPath has the entire US on a chip, but it's marine charts only, my road maps disappeared after I put the chip in. So now I have great marine charts but the interstate highways disappeared. Oh well. As far as detail , they're great and include much more detailed landmass edges, channels, marine nav aids, obstructions, tides, currents. You can get an idea from their website what they look like. There are tiny spoil islands in the ICW near me, they weren't on the basemap that came with it.
These not only show up in NauticPath, but the shallow shoals and sand bars around them are there too, making snuggling up the sandy side to go for a swim easy and keeps you from accidentally running over the 1-2' deep sand bars by accident. Nearly the kind of detail seen in the Google maps satellite photos.
I suppose the Navionics Gold charts have even more detail, but it would be lost on me and half of Florida is $199.
For $79 to $99 I think it's a great deal, plus it's nice to see some competition.
I give the H2O (and it's cousin the H2Oc (color) 5 sails out of five.
Mapcreate lets you add details to the land maps (topo elevations, etc), points of interest, roads, etc. It also adds more objects to the coastal marine charts but not depth soundings.
NauticPath has the entire US on a chip, but it's marine charts only, my road maps disappeared after I put the chip in. So now I have great marine charts but the interstate highways disappeared. Oh well. As far as detail , they're great and include much more detailed landmass edges, channels, marine nav aids, obstructions, tides, currents. You can get an idea from their website what they look like. There are tiny spoil islands in the ICW near me, they weren't on the basemap that came with it.
These not only show up in NauticPath, but the shallow shoals and sand bars around them are there too, making snuggling up the sandy side to go for a swim easy and keeps you from accidentally running over the 1-2' deep sand bars by accident. Nearly the kind of detail seen in the Google maps satellite photos.
I suppose the Navionics Gold charts have even more detail, but it would be lost on me and half of Florida is $199.
For $79 to $99 I think it's a great deal, plus it's nice to see some competition.
I give the H2O (and it's cousin the H2Oc (color) 5 sails out of five.
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argonaut
- Captain
- Posts: 531
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 8:23 pm
- Location: '97 26X, Yammy 40 4s, Central Fla.
Got to go out this weekend, thank heaven fall's finally here. We went from hot/muggy to hurricane then 50-60 deg cool weather in the same week. Florida's like that. So I dusted off all of the hurricane dust and launched.
I tried my hand at reefing and the "heaving to" maneuver. As stated, if you think you may have to reef, just go ahead and do it. I did and was glad for that. I'm still getting the hang of heaving to, but that was a darned useful trick when the wind was gusting 16-22 kts.
Anyway, first impressions on the H2O.
I used the H2O with NauticPath charts. The NauticPath chart depth contours were very accurate in my area, East Central Florida's ICW. My fishfinder confirmed depth changes which the chart displayed. I love having the marina details on each facility icon, like the phone numbers, the VHF channels they monitor, stuff they sell, whether they have transient slips, etc. Bridge heights were in there too, they appear in little "info" icons that aren't always closr to the actual bridge. Another reason the bootup screen states to -not- user this as your primary nav aid.
Also nice feature is having the map automatically orient for your course instead of always North up. Suppose they all do that now but it's great, my admiral appreciated this too.
As for the receiver, I didn't notice any great difference getting a GPS fix from the cockpit, haven't tried down below yet.
The LED backlighting is very nice, buttons are not backlit though so memorize the keypad.
One thing I've noticed is the H2O seems geared for regular alkaline batteries. My H2O said "replace battery" after only an hour running on my 2000Ah nickle metal AA cells, before I left I bought new cheap alkalines and ran all day with no change on the battery gauge. Nickle metals operate at a slightly lower voltage but decline at a more constant than non rechargeables. Lowrance could fix this, possibly in the unit's firmware, but till then AA cells are not expensive. Firmware upgrades are available for bugfixes but you must have a MMC card and media card reader which I don't yet.
For this reason as a do-over I'd get a "plus" model as it includes
MapCreate and the card reader to let you upgrade the H2O and add road detail to the basemap.
Still haven't figured out where my basemap roads went. I can see the exits but the roads are gone, maybe hidden under the grey landmasses. Guess I need to sail some more so I can perfrom more testing, Darn.
I tried my hand at reefing and the "heaving to" maneuver. As stated, if you think you may have to reef, just go ahead and do it. I did and was glad for that. I'm still getting the hang of heaving to, but that was a darned useful trick when the wind was gusting 16-22 kts.
Anyway, first impressions on the H2O.
I used the H2O with NauticPath charts. The NauticPath chart depth contours were very accurate in my area, East Central Florida's ICW. My fishfinder confirmed depth changes which the chart displayed. I love having the marina details on each facility icon, like the phone numbers, the VHF channels they monitor, stuff they sell, whether they have transient slips, etc. Bridge heights were in there too, they appear in little "info" icons that aren't always closr to the actual bridge. Another reason the bootup screen states to -not- user this as your primary nav aid.
Also nice feature is having the map automatically orient for your course instead of always North up. Suppose they all do that now but it's great, my admiral appreciated this too.
As for the receiver, I didn't notice any great difference getting a GPS fix from the cockpit, haven't tried down below yet.
The LED backlighting is very nice, buttons are not backlit though so memorize the keypad.
One thing I've noticed is the H2O seems geared for regular alkaline batteries. My H2O said "replace battery" after only an hour running on my 2000Ah nickle metal AA cells, before I left I bought new cheap alkalines and ran all day with no change on the battery gauge. Nickle metals operate at a slightly lower voltage but decline at a more constant than non rechargeables. Lowrance could fix this, possibly in the unit's firmware, but till then AA cells are not expensive. Firmware upgrades are available for bugfixes but you must have a MMC card and media card reader which I don't yet.
For this reason as a do-over I'd get a "plus" model as it includes
MapCreate and the card reader to let you upgrade the H2O and add road detail to the basemap.
Still haven't figured out where my basemap roads went. I can see the exits but the roads are gone, maybe hidden under the grey landmasses. Guess I need to sail some more so I can perfrom more testing, Darn.
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Catigale
- Site Admin
- Posts: 10421
- Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:59 pm
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Admiral .............Catigale 2002X.......Lots of Harpoon Hobie 16 Skiffs....Island 17
- Contact:
Thanks Argonaut
ON the batteries - I run NiMH on my Garmin 76CS. On this model you have to tell the GPS what kind of batteries you are using so the meter is accurate. Maybe you should just run it on the NiMH and see how long it lasts, if you can ignore the battery warning? It might run longer than you think..
In BOATUS mag this month, I recall that NOAA will release all the charts to public domain in a few months (I recall threads that this may have already happened) so things are looking up for accessing this info for serious cruising.
At the least, i think it will drive down the cost of commercial stuff to a more reasonable price.
I believe cruising guides are also coming online for free...Ill post up separately when I find.
ON the batteries - I run NiMH on my Garmin 76CS. On this model you have to tell the GPS what kind of batteries you are using so the meter is accurate. Maybe you should just run it on the NiMH and see how long it lasts, if you can ignore the battery warning? It might run longer than you think..
In BOATUS mag this month, I recall that NOAA will release all the charts to public domain in a few months (I recall threads that this may have already happened) so things are looking up for accessing this info for serious cruising.
At the least, i think it will drive down the cost of commercial stuff to a more reasonable price.
I believe cruising guides are also coming online for free...Ill post up separately when I find.