My girlfriend bought me a MotorGuide Xi5 trolling motor with all the bells and whistles for Christmas. I'm so excited and can't wait to get it installed and use it. I am wanting to upgrade my Lowrance unit up front and I just cannot decide which unit to go with. Because I will want to take advantage of the new Pinpoint GPS Gateway system, my bow unit will need to be an HDS unit. I currently have a GEN2 HDS-8 with StructureScan HD at the helm. The Xi5 comes with a generic 83/200 transducer built in, but I don't think I'll be able to use it with any of the HDS units. I'm trying to decide if I want to just move my HDS-8 up front and upgrade the unit at the helm, or get the better unit for the bow. I will not be using StructureScan on the bow unit. The new HDS Gen-3 units look pretty nice and they use CHIRP, but they are pricey. Which is better, HDI or CHIRP? The down side with the Xi5 is that there is no way to run a cable down the shaft like you can with the TOUR models. This will require any additional transducer wire to just be hanging off the boat since I will need about 50" or so in slack for the length of the shaft. I'm not thrilled with this at all. Is it better to have a more detailed unit at the bow (CHIRP or HDI) or at the helm? I would like to upgrade the transducer on the HDS-8 but Lowrance says the HDI transducer requires the touch models to do so.

The built in transducer should work fine with any of the HDS units with the correct adapter.

I would rather have HDI than CHIRP.


Gman

Why is that? What advantage does HDI have over CHIRP?