Lowrance Vs ....

[VA Soul Mates]

We have a Lowrance iFinder Go! We bought this because it was all we could afford at the time. We are looking to upgrade and we found another Lowrance iFinder, the H2Oc, we like the big screen but I don't know how much faith I have in the accuracy of Lowrance products. I would really like to get a Garmin, or Magellan but they don't have anything that has a screen the size the H2Oc (which is a very nice feature but I am also concerned about accuracy). With our iFinder Go! it can be within 5ft or yesterday we were out caching in a neighborhood and it was 150ft off. I know that GPS units are not always exact but it averages 15-50ft off most of the time, Is it just because it is the cheap iFinder or is this a common problem with all Lowrance GPS's?

 

Can I get some people to share their experiences and comments.

[+The Seven G's]

We've owned 4 Lowrances including iGO (junk). Any Lowarnce GPS above the iFinder Pro is great and in many cases I find even more accurate than other units which we have also cached with on numerous occasions. We also like the larger screen size, but must admit we find some of the geocaching specific features on Garmins attractive. I don't think you can go wrong at all with a H2Oc, although i question the added expense of the Color screen.

 

The Go and Go2 models have such a SLOOOOOOW processor, that make them useless for geocaching!. It's not that we found them innacurate, just that because they updated so slowly, you long pass your target before it told you to turn around and go back--only to overshoot once again...and then again. Frustrating as %^$#$#@!

We wanted a 2nd ubnit for the kids, but tit just wasn't worth the US$76 that we paid, and quickly turned around and sold it on ebay! It's probably fine for fishing and hunting, bringing you inexpensively to the general area, but useles for finding a tight spot. We ended up getting an iway 100M instead (largely identical to the H2O). As I recall, the newer units not only have faster processors, but may even have 2 of them. Batteries don't last quite as long, but they have been top-notch units.

-The Seven G's

Edited April 17, 2006 by The Seven G's

[WR8Y]

I have a new Expedition Color model. Got it a month ago.

 

I have re-trodded some paths that have mile markers on them. I always make a waypoint at each marker. I can say that these points show up within 10-12 feet of my 'placing' them. Yesterday, I saw about the biggest error I have ever seen, I was under heavy tree cover, and the trail I made last month was nearly 80 feet off.

 

Interestingly, I shut off "trail updating" and "Track Smooothing" and left the GPSr on the marker post for 2-3 minutes. When I went back to it, it had moved it's cursor to within 5 feet of where it REALLY was, and as I walked out slowly (1.5 mph) it stayed within a few feet all the way to the road.

 

Lessons learned:

WHen under heavy cover, go slow to let the computer average the postion better.

Turn 'track smoothing' off!

 

This leads me into another topic: Lowrance's Track Smoothing.

I will not likely ever use it again! I noticed on Saturday, by walking a trail with the smoothing on, then walking the SAME PATH with it off, that in heavy foilage cover I see better accuracy and no 'jumps' in the recorded trail.

 

It's almost like my "track smoothing" is really OFF when it's checked and ON when it's not checked!

 

---

 

I sure hope other LOwrance owners throw in their 2 cents...

[Greenbastard]

i have the h20 black and white... i love it all except one thing... i live in canada and the "base" map is sparse... I am going to try shutting off track smoothing now to see if it is any better. l Would suggest to buy it with the map programs

[+Airmapper]

Can I get some people to share their experiences and comments.

 

I am a very satisfied Lowrance user. In general, I find it to be highly accurate, but you will notice that the EPE reading is a lot higher than actual. For the most part your accuracy is better than reported.

 

As for the track smoothing option, I always leave it on, as it keeps the compass screen from jumping around, but I'll try it some without and see what happens. Normally, in heavy tree cover, I'll connect the External amplifying antenna to give a boost.

 

For caching it is great, because it will hold 1,000 waypoints, all with detailed info in the name field.

[+jasond]

I just came back from a spring break vacation centered around geocaching. I lost my Garmin Legend C while we were there (and it had all the waypoints already downloaded). We used my girlfriend's Lowrance iFinder Go and we found all 16 caches we looked for during the trip. Every cache was within 30ft of the listed coordinates. We would have looked for more, but had limited time to search and it took a while to load all the new waypoints into the GPS manually. From my experiences, the Lowrance iFinder Go is a great entry-level GPS. The only downfall to that specific model is the lack of PC connectivity.

[WR8Y]

Normally, in heavy tree cover, I'll connect the External amplifying antenna to give a boost.

Now THAT is what I was wondering about. I was gonna buy an external antenna, but wondered if it helped (I mean, I KNOW it helps when the GPSr is in the car - sheilded by the car itself - but I was wondering if they really helped while hiking.

 

Can I ask, what antenna are you using? I see $20 amplified antennas on eBay, but was kinda wondering about how effective the 'cheapies' are.

[+Airmapper]

Can I ask, what antenna are you using? I see $20 amplified antennas on eBay, but was kinda wondering about how effective the 'cheapies' are.

 

The Lowrance RAA-3, they are about $100, mine came with the unit.

[+NWMOhunter]

I have found that the Lowrance units give you more bang for your buck and I prefer the antenna in my unit over ANY other unit I have owned. My iFinder Hunt has never let me down and has never given me any strange readings.

 

I have gotten position fixes in my truck which was in the garage and even inside the house in a room with no windows. With other "Gargellan" units I have owned I could be sitting in a chair next to the window and still not get a fix.

 

The only downfalls I have found with my Hunt is that I can't figure out how to find or use the tripometer. The other thing is that the tracks and waypoints don't save the time so figuring speed or location isn't possible, but that isn't that big of a deal for me.

 

If I were to buy another unit today, the first thing I would look at would be another Lowrance unit!

[+geobc]

Can I ask, what antenna are you using? I see $20 amplified antennas on eBay, but was kinda wondering about how effective the 'cheapies' are.

My experience is with Garmin GPSRs and a Trimble and the $20 Gilsson antenna (which most of the eBay cheapies are). The only downside I found with the Gilsson is that the magnet it used for a mount isn't as strong as the Trimble's. Performance-wise, they're both great.

 

You can see a write-up I did of the Gilsson here:

 

http://www.bc4x4.com/quick/2005/gilsson-ant/

 

 

GeoBC

[+LadyBee4T]

I received a Lowrance iFinder H20 c as a late Christmas gift and I absolutely love it. I had been using a Magellan 200. My caching buddy has a garmin etrex. We have found that he will lose a satellite fix in the wooded areas where I keep a fix and no leaves out yet. I can just imagine that in the summer we will be using only my unit for caching. The large screen is great also. I use rechargable batteries and always have a spare set but I don't feel that battery usage is a problem at all. I do notice that I frequently use the backlight option though. I researched units prior to Christmas when I thought he was getting a new one and decided that the Lowrance gave the most bang for the buck. As for accuracy this unit blows his out of the water. I'm glad I settled on this one!

Edited April 19, 2006 by LadyBee4T

[+budd-rdc]

I bought an iFinder GO to play with recently, and compared to a Garmin eTrex, it updates coordinates slowly, although I haven't overshot a cache location yet like I do with an old Magellan.

 

I was impressed with how it quickly acquired satellite lock and maintained it in tree cover, but it did fib the coordinates a bit so I had to wait for it to settle down. Battery life is awesome on the unit - I didn't need to recharge a pair of old 1600mAh AA batteries for 3 days (about 30 hours of use). You are going to miss that when you get a new unit.

 

Although I've only played with other Lowrance units on store displays, I suspect an H2O or better unit would be satisfactory, especially since the buttons and menus are similar, and you get waypoint/map download capabilities with a memory card slot.

[+roygpa]

I've had an Ifinder H2O black and white since October of 2004 and we have found about 160 geocaches with it. I've been using Lowrance/eagle products since 1992 and for me anyway, I see no reason to buy anything else.

 

The H2O is plenty accurate for geocaching, the ols Eagle Expedition... well it was better for fishing wide open lakes. I sold it to a fellow geocacher who knew its drawbacks.

 

Roy

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

I have an IFinder GO and for the price I think it is terrific! I've never had any of the problems described. I find only a couple of things with it that I find to be minor:

 

1) Screen kind of small

 

2) Sometimes gives high EPE's but "settles down" pretty quickly

 

3) If you do a LOT of geocaching, the difficulty (technically inability) to download waypoints will drive you nuts.

 

4) Lack of ability to add an external antenna but I haven't needed one!

 

quote name='WR8Y' date='Apr 18 2006, 04:11 AM' post='2159588']

Normally, in heavy tree cover, I'll connect the External amplifying antenna to give a boost.

Now THAT is what I was wondering about. I was gonna buy an external antenna, but wondered if it helped (I mean, I KNOW it helps when the GPSr is in the car - sheilded by the car itself - but I was wondering if they really helped while hiking.

 

Can I ask, what antenna are you using? I see $20 amplified antennas on eBay, but was kinda wondering about how effective the 'cheapies' are.

 

I have had 2 of the $20 eBay cheapies to use with my other GPS, a Whistler Galileo. The first one I had, the one that NorthstarGPS sells, only gave a small boost and eventually stopped working (by the way, Northstar is excellent for getting other supplies cheaply, like windshield car mounts). The one I replaced it with, by Gilsson, is awesome! Major reception boost and probably just as good as the more expensive antennas.

Edited April 22, 2006 by hairymon

[WR8Y]

So, Gillson it is!

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

So, Gillson it is!

 

This was the auction I got mine from, he doesn't seem to have this one up right now, but he has some other auctions on Gilsson antennas. Basically, they work on any GPS that has an MCX connector. Good luck!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=5853466391

 

Also check out this forum which will has more from me on the Gilsson antenna and tells you how to order directly from Gilsson (for just a few $ more I believe).

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...istler++Galileo

Edited April 23, 2006 by hairymon