Lowrance ifinder H2o

[hogrod]

We gave my parents our old legendC, but we still have our 60cx. We decided to buy something cheap for a second unit until something newer comes out, so we decided to try a lowrance.
I’ve heard somewhat bad things about the ifinder go/go2(small screen and position errors if unit is ever dropped), so we decided to get the ifinder H20, the older non-color one.(there between $130-$170 without maps)
it uses an older version of the Sirf III chipset that my 60cx uses(SiRF IIe/LP I believe) , so it gets lock quickly and holds it pretty well. going to 20+ waypoints it was within 15ft or better of our 60cx too.

There are a few things I don’t like:

1. very crappy battery cover latch

2. button layout not very intuitive

3. good chipset but to sensitive antenna, I can hold a waas lock in my house but if I turn unit upside down/cover antenna it looses lock. also looses lock if in your pocket with screen facing your body when indoors(my 60cx doesn’t have this problem).

4. SD card slot is strange… you need to push card down and forward then you can turn a little lock to hold it down, if you don’t push the card forward the turn latch won’t turn properly.(this is not explained in manual very well).

5. no direct connection to pc for data card access(serial port is for NMEA output only) so you need to remove card to upload tracks,waypoints, routes from a pc.

6.once you have waypoints loaded to the card(I used gsak) and have the card mounted in GPSr, you need to goto transfer in the menu to load the waypoint file you want into the units internal memory… which is limited to 1000 waypoints.

7. no normal compass arrow/compass screen has too much going on… there is just a small one arrow that turns near the edge of compass ring.

8. data field numbers are 1/4-1/2 the size of my 60cx, making things harder to see.

9. etrex-ish rubber ring surrounding unit.

Things I like:

1. you can save waypoints to/from internal memory to/from the SD card. also can have multiple waypoint files saved to the card.

2. very neat feature, if you pan the map and leave your cursor where you are going or just at another location, you can press the exit key to quickly switch from current location to the lat place you left the cursor.

3. initial lock takes 30-50 seconds, if you power unit off and back on within a few hours, it takes about 3-5 seconds to get lock.

4.compass screen shows tracks, large screen, external antenna port, SD slot, AA batterys

5. when going to waypoint map screen has nice pointer arrow.

6. very accurate.

7. comes with cigarette lighter power cable.

Hidden menus:
1. if you press down three times on the directional pad on the satellite screen you will get more detailed satellite info.
2. if you press exit three times fast from the map screen you will display a large analog speedometer.

Even with all the things I don’t like I would recommend a lowrance to anyone, its a great gpsr for the money. only thing It really lacks is autorouting map software & isn’t as customizable as our 60cx. I will probably upgrade to a h20C or expeditionC in the future.

[hogrod]

If anyone else knows any lowrance tricks or has experience with the mapping software(especially the new mapcreate V7) please let me know.

[knoffer]

I’ve had an Expedition C since November and love it. People have said that it has a high learning curve. I didn’t think that it was too hard to figure out the necessities.

I was a little dismayed with having to remove the card to load new caches at first, now I love it and it only takes seconds. What I really like is keeping all the different caches for the whole state sorted by miles on the SD card and at any time I can just load that file and see all the caches.

With the use of GSAK you can load quite a bit of info related to the cache on the cache description line.

Plus the Geocaching waypoint symbols that you can correlate to the cache types via GSAK is a nice feature.

I haven’t had an opportunity to play with the new Mapcreate yet. I currently have the whole upper half of the US mapped on the card and it takes up about half of a 1 GB card.

I have never had problems with loss signal in heavy cover. I did purchase an external antenna and typically will use it if I feel that the cover may be an issue or when hiding a cache just for better accuracy.

There is alot of tricks, tips and user discussions available on the Geo Lowrance Forum

[hogrod]

Thanks for posting the forum link, I’m sure it will come in handy sometime.

Well my luck being bad as ever the screen on my brand new H20 crapped out on the third day. I returned it and decided to order an expedition C online sometime soon…. hopefully I have better luck with the color unit 😥

[hogrod]

well I decided since we already have a great GPSr with our 60cx and only needed a spare/second unit again I would take advantage of the up to 30% off sale at REI(may 4-13th).
I got a vistaCX for $219 before taxes, and I can use my existing garmin maps. I could have picked up a ventureCX for $169, but decided the compass/altimeter might be a nice change.

EDIT: you can also get those prices ordering from REI online.

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