Article by Capt. Steve Katz
End of season thoughts
While the summer season is ending in our area, the fishing season will be soon begin for these who head south. Here are a few marine electronic products that were introduced last fall and winter and got a late start to market and may be a good fit if you are looking to upgrade your systems this winter.
Furuno’s new Multi-Beam Sonar, the DFF3D is a special transducer and black box combination that works with Furuno’s newest displays, the TZT and TZT2. Don’t get confused by the 3D name. While it has a 3D view option, there is a lot more to this system! The DFF3D is a multi-beam sonar that displays a cross section, in real-time, of the sea column echoes for a total of 120 degrees of width under your boat. This system aids in instantly understanding the distribution of bait fish and the water column conditions under and to the sides of your boat. It has a detection range of over 650-feet in width and up to 1,000-feet downward with the main center beam - all dependent on sea and installation conditions.
The transducer has a built-in motion sensor that stabilizes the display to give you clear and stable images even under rough sea conditions, keeping everything in perspective to your boat on the screen. There are multiple ways to view the data, including a cross section view showing the entire 120-degree beam, a 120-degree 3D image of the sea floor, a single beam under the boat, each of the three beams (port, center and starboard) on the same screen, side scan and more.
FLIR introduced new models of cameras, the M100 and M200 series thermal cameras and a new line of stabilized cameras. These cameras “see” the heat of objects and display that information in an easy to understand picture. These cameras are significantly less expensive that previous models of thermal cameras.
The FLIR M232 marine thermal camera is FLIR’s smallest and most affordable pan-and-tilt marine thermal night vision camera. The M232 lets boaters see at night in 320x240 thermal resolution and also features 4x digital zoom.
The FLIR M132 adjustable tilt (fixed view) marine thermal camera is FLIRS smallest and most affordable installed marine thermal night vision camera. The M132 lets boaters see at night in the 320x240 thermal resolution and features a 2X digital zoom.
As many of you may know, FLIR purchased Raymarine awhile back and have integrated many of their products. These M100 and M200 cameras are designed to connect directly into a Raymarine Axiom Multi-Function Display. If you want to view the video output from the M100/M200 cameras on other displays, you will need additional hardware to convert the video signal. These new cameras use IP video technology which simplifies the installation by eliminating extra video signal cables, but other marine electronics manufacturers have not yet configured their system to work with the new FLIR Cameras.
FLIR has also added stabilization at a much lower cost to their traditional line of “M Series” thermal cameras, identified by the model number ending with an “S”. This was once an expensive upgrade to a “M Series” camera and is now basically included in the price as compared to the price of past models. If you are in the market for a thermal camera, the entry level cameras are a great buy along with all of the stabilized models.
Simrad and Lowrance introduced a new series of similar chartplotters -multi-function displays with their Simrad NSS evo3 and Lowrance HDS Carbon products. These got off to a late start but are worth the wait.
Both Simrad and Lowrance belong to parent company Navico, and though the evo3 and Carbon are similar, they are designed for different markets. While there are many new features that go into these new models, the two most important items I see are the screen and built-in sonar. The SolarMAX™ HD display on these machines is fantastic, very bright and able to be viewed at almost any angle, even with polarized sunglasses. These units now offer true dual-channel CHIRP sonar, allowing the unit to transmit sonar on two channels at the same time, such as low and high CHIRP, which was not previously available in their older models.
Whether updating your boat in the off-season or working on a preventative maintenance list, cooler temperatures are no reason to stop enjoying your boat and get in some fall fishing too.
This is the last Ship-to-Shore column this season. Thanks to all of the readers for a great season. I am already making notes and looking forward to next year’s column.
Captain Steve Katz is the owner of Steve’s Marine Service and holds NMEA, AMEI and NMEA2000 certificates along with ABYC Master Technician certification and factory training from many manufacturers.
