I currently have lowrance fishfinder on my boat, no side imaging. I'm looking to upgrade soon. as the sonar 360 sounds very cool the price is definetly not efficient. So the actual transducer runs for 1500 bucks, then it only works with the following finders: on the ethernet ready 798 SI, 898 SI, 998 SI AND 1198 SI units

Is it worth just jumping to hummingbird. And save up some more cash for the 360 transducer? Or stick with lowrance and side imaging. I looked up lowrance news updates and no where did it say on any plans of 360 sonar.
I did see something about a 360 sonar black box?

All this is a pain in the bass. if you got one. Lemme know, or if heard stuff on it.

Also**** I live north dallas now near mckinney. looking for set of downriggers and 55 or above 46-48 inch trolling motor. Motorguide 45 what I currently have which had its last days. And with texas winds 45 don't cut it.

I wanted one and thought about buying the one to mount on the trolling motor as it was a decent bit cheaper. I tried researching them but couldn't find much info either. What I did see seemed to report that the ideal was good but the technology wasn't quite there yet. For the price, I am holding out until I know that it is good.

Here's a couple of pictures of mine, I have the transom mount. It works well now, there were a bunch of problems with it when it was first introduced. Works really well when chasing schools of stripers/hybrids that are moving fast as you can tell which way they are going. I am using an Onix head unit with mine now.

There's a huge thread about it on BBCboards.net in the Humminbird section.

There are two versions of the 360. One is transom mounted and looks like a Talon shallow water anchor. The other is designed to clamp to the upper shaft of a Minnkota cable steer trolling motor.
Both have been reduced $500 MSRP so the transom model is $1500 and the bow model is $1000 now. Some dealers sell them for less.

It works with the above listed models plus all of the current models of the 800, 900, 1100, and ONIX units including Side Imaging, Down Imaging, and 2D models. That's 19 different models.

There is no black box for the connection, it is either connected directly to a display via Ethernet or shared via Ethernet with an Ethernet switch to as many units as you want.

I have the bow model connected directly to my bow 1198c SI Combo.
I have a Motor Guide trolling motor and got a shaft adaptor from Transducer Shield and Saver to make that attachment.

The images are not as sharp as Side Imaging since the transducer crystals rotate. It does a lot better than using an imaging transducer on a trolling motor and turning the motor to scan.
It can also be used for Side Imaging just by selecting the Side Imaging view. When you do that, the 360 stops rotating and orients the two crystals left and right just like a Side Imaging transducer.

Some examples of stuff I have seen with my 360:

A group of shell crackers on beds:




Tree laying on the bottom:





Some type of covers on a hole that was on the dirt haul road for a lake dam:



A mix of bass, crappie, and shad:



Using it to catch bass. The red circles are a split up school of shad and the yellow circle is the bass that was chasing them:



This is that bass:

Wow. That is awsome. I think I will go ahead and get a 998 and pick up the transducer later. Thanks for the Input I definetly have to do some studying here. Due to low lake levels throughout texas I've come to realize this is the way to go. Also I found trolling for bass was quite effective this past summer as well. Especially once my back gives out from casting. Ha gotta change the tactics. thanks a bunch.