The perfect setup??

My dad and I are in the middle of purchasing a brand new boat.

I have been reading about what we want to do as far as electronics.

Currently we have a lowrance gen 3 as our primary structure scanner, then up front we have a lowrance hds gen 1.

We currently have them just connected with the ethernet cable...

My main question is if you could have the perfect set up as far as electronics, what would it be?

3 HDS 12 Gen 3 units. 2 at console, one for navigation and one for sonar and side scanning. One up front with HDI transducer for sonar and DI.

Gman

+1 but add spotlight to front unit.

One in the front, and one at the console. Networking is not a good idea.

We are leaning towards getting a HDS7 Gen 3 bundle with the 3d scan, putting that up front. Networking it to our Gen 3 12 in the back, also would add the NMEA 2000 in order to communicate with the Motorguide XI5. We had looked into mounting a structure scan on the trolling motor but have decided against it and instead will use a bow mount that has a adjustable pole to raise and lower the transducer.

Oh, and I forgot....and have Uncle Slade tune them all....


Gman

If you want to hookup the Xi5 to the Lowrance units, you will have to purchase the Gateway Kit in addition to the NMEA backbone. They are between $215 and $250 depending in where you get it.

http://www.motorguide.com/store/accessory/gateway-kit

Thanks for the info. I had not seen this before, did not know it was needed to hook it up to the lowrance

If you go this route, make sure you print and save the other Xi5 thread on here as it has a lot of good information on using the Anchor lock through your Lowrance. I learned a lot and now feel like the Gateway wasn't a waste of money.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...de#Post11436670