New Vexilars for next season?

[ozzie]

I have heard from a couple different sources now that Vexilar has stopped production on the FL 8-12-18- and 20's and are coming out with a new flasher for next season. Everyone I have asked could not tell me what Vexilar planned on doing for the new flasher. Does anyone on this site have any idea as to what kind of upgrades or changes they plan to have for the new Vexilars? I just went and purchased a hard to find new FL-20 as I love these units and didn't want to have to deal with a "newer model" as they might have to work out the bugs.....Thanks

[jwmiller33]

yes i think the GPS and thermometer would be more useful for the summer months...

however, i think the barometer would be useful in both hard water and open water conditions.

anyone have any opinions on this? i have no idea what a barometer even looks like...

[waterbound]

A barometer would be useful, but if you put it on the transducer would probably do nothing. It works by measuring atmospheric pressure and I can't imagine it functioning properly under water. I don't know how often many people would use one on the water, as it seems most people use barometric pressure to determine whether or not to actually go in the first place, and pressure changes are usually gradual. Here's a picture of one style of barometer:

[simple1]

Bottom Bouncer, you are only thinking about ice fishing. I would like to also use the flasher on my boat and this would be a great feature to have. Also on the ice, I use a pull behind sled and could easily glance back at the flasher to get a depth reading of the lakemaster chip. I grant you that a stand alone handheld gps would be better, but the point is an all in one unit. GPS components are VERY cheap(most new phones have them) and this could easily be added to any flasher that has a digital readout.

[jwmiller33]

A barometer would be useful, but if you put it on the transducer would probably do nothing. It works by measuring atmospheric pressure and I can't imagine it functioning properly under water. I don't know how often many people would use one on the water, as it seems most people use barometric pressure to determine whether or not to actually go in the first place, and pressure changes are usually gradual. Here's a picture of one style of barometer:

i was thinking more of having the barometer on the unit itself, rather then on the transducer... thinking more towards the line of the ice 55 with the digital display, that the barometer reading would be on the digital display, kind of like a battery status indicator.. i think it would be useful for long ice fishing trips where you are out on the water for several days at a time.. it would give you the info of whether or not the pressure was rising, falling, or holding steady... it wouldn't be a feature that is necessary to the flasher, much like a gps with a lakemaster chip, but it would be cool nonetheless.

or maybe the unit could contain a certain chip that allowed it to retrieve satellite information from the national weather service, and you could press a button and it would display the current weather forecast, temp, cloud level, barometer, etc.. maybe it would be linked up thru like satellite radio and there was a little speaker on your unit and it would read outloud the current weather broadcasts from the NWS. once again, not a necessity but it would be cool to have... i'm just brainstorming various features that vexilar or other flasher brands could move into.. as we know with technology, its not a matter of it, its more of when they are going to come out with these more sophisticated technological advancements..

[jwmiller33]

waterbound

i notice there are two "arms" on the barometer, kind of like a hour and minute hand on the clock. does one display the current barometer and what is the other one for? is the other one an arm that doesnt move, so you can see where the barometer is compared to where it was the last time?

[Ed Carlson]

The second indicator needle is to show the maximum barometric pressure reading over a period of time. This grants the person monitoring the gauge a reference as to the maximum range a reading varies over a set time period without physically watching it.

The operator has to resets it manually each day, or in a given time period, to gain a range reading.

On most higher functioning GPS units today there is a barometer built into the unit that will record and graph the readings over time automatically, and calculates the data for you.

[Itsa Pole Bender]

Bottom Bouncer - I use my Humminbird 787C2i as a portable fish finder. In the boat in the summer and in the portable in the winter. I rigged it up in a small tool box. I turn it on when I hit the lake if I am in the truck and have it sitting on the passenger seat or I turn it on when I know I am close to where I want to fish when on the 4-wheeler. Then I key in on the contour I want. I have to disagree with your comment that the idea of a GPS as being "the dumbest idea ever". I love using the gps on my finder in the winter. Granted I do not own a handheld, but I tell ya, it sure is nice to have.

[hamms-scooter]

The Ifinder expedition c gps has a barameter built in also for you guys that are really wanting one with you.It has a weather alert system also so if a storm is coming you can split quick if on mille lacs or something. I think an allin one unit would be cool but up goes the price which makes it only marketable to a certain group of people chasing the latest and greatest all the time with the deep pockets. To make it functional if they did build one this way you would have to run and gun like the perch patrol with it mounted on your dash of pickup : )

[Zoob]

now a cordless transducer that would be a innovation that could be used.

...so it can be yet one more thing that goes *bloop* to the bottom of the lake??

[Ed Carlson]

Well....DA....Isn't it obvious....That's what the new Tin Foil hats are for...

you get the signal beamed into your head...no need for a ducer now.

[O2Fish]

I definitely would not buy a vex with a cordless ducer. It would be a pain to have to bend over every time to pick the transducer out of the hole. Especially when sitting on the wheeler. The cord is the handle.

[MidCoast]

IM HAPPY WITH MY VEXILAR FL-20 DUAL TRANDUCER ULTRA PACK . ALTHOUGH, I THINK I DID OVER SPEND ON AN ULTRA PACK. COULD HAVE JUST BOUGHT THE PROPACK ONLY FOR A LOT CHEAPER.

[mn_bowhunter]

No cordless ducer for me. Cordless means batteries, and where do you think some of the dead batteries will end up...on the lake. I'd like to look at what could be done with downscan or side imaging technology. Of course I'm too cheap to pay for it, so the upgrades I'd like are adjustable zoom, and a changed frequency to decrease interference. IR works fine, but if I didn't have to push the button it would be easier with 4-5 units. Adjustable zoom is obvious. Maybe more colors to the display and change out red and green so the color blind have it easier without having to pay for an upgrade. I hope they don't change their power output. My FL18 works great and I can use it for a week without worrying about the battery.

[ozzie]

cordless ducer?? no way....the ducer to be most effective has to sit even or below the bottom of the ice so how would a cordless ducer be able to work?? I can see it now how many post's would we see that started "I left my ducer in my hole at the lake" or "My ducer got frozen in the hole"......they should do the movable zoom zone and make the flexi-light mandatory on the vex's and maybe make a few different colors and address the interference problems but really I thought the current 12-20's were a great product......picking up my new 20 tonight!!!!

[Northlander]

Originally Posted By: bottom-bouncer

now a cordless transducer that would be a innovation that could be used.

...so it can be yet one more thing that goes *bloop* to the bottom of the lake??

Like I said it would float!

[Northlander]

cordless ducer?? no way....the ducer to be most effective has to sit even or below the bottom of the ice so how would a cordless ducer be able to work?? I can see it now how many post's would we see that started "I left my ducer in my hole at the lake" or "My ducer got frozen in the hole"......they should do the movable zoom zone and make the flexi-light mandatory on the vex's and maybe make a few different colors and address the interference problems but really I thought the current 12-20's were a great product......picking up my new 20 tonight!!!!

If your the type that forgets tip ups in holes than a cordless ducer isnt for you. Maybe a alarm on the unit so when the unit gets more than 4' from the ducer a alarm goes off. Ducers right now need to be at the bottom of the hole but what about in the future? Back when I started ice fishing we had wooden sticks with nails in the end now we have awesome ice fishing rods in thousands of sizes etc. heck in the future a ducer may not even be needed. It may all be 1 self contained unit that just sits on the ice.

[deadeye]

How about multiple hole readouts? Maybe a projection screen that shoots the readout onto the wall inside your ice house at 42" round? Im not sure im willing to get a readout directly beamed into my head yet. Interference might be a slight issue?

[eyebjim]

Originally Posted By: ozzie

cordless ducer?? no way....the ducer to be most effective has to sit even or below the bottom of the ice so how would a cordless ducer be able to work?? I can see it now how many post's would we see that started "I left my ducer in my hole at the lake" or "My ducer got frozen in the hole"......they should do the movable zoom zone and make the flexi-light mandatory on the vex's and maybe make a few different colors and address the interference problems but really I thought the current 12-20's were a great product......picking up my new 20 tonight!!!!

If your the type that forgets tip ups in holes than a cordless ducer isnt for you. Maybe a alarm on the unit so when the unit gets more than 4' from the ducer a alarm goes off. Ducers right now need to be at the bottom of the hole but what about in the future? Back when I started ice fishing we had wooden sticks with nails in the end now we have awesome ice fishing rods in thousands of sizes etc. heck in the future a ducer may not even be needed. It may all be 1 self contained unit that just sits on the ice.

And when you are not using it for fishing you can give yourself a MRI with it.

[ozzie]

for the record I have yet to leave something as important as a vexilar or tip-up on the ice...I did forget a bag with a couple lures/new tackle box and 2 jars of newly purchased gulp minnow heads and 1" minnows at the landing this year on Mille Lacs but that was the first time I had ever done that.....and the last as I now double check everything before I leave!!!!! I guess a cordless ducer would be cool not to have your fish wrap around the cord when pulling them up......but I still can't see this happening

[Scott K]

If there was a cordless, I could imagine there would be a delay, and that wouldnt be acceptable.

[jwmiller33]

i just got back from the "Motor Clinic" in Bloomington. I brought my trolling motor in for them to clean up the armature after some water got in there from having a bad seal (from getting line tangled in there)... Anyways, these guys specialty work is on Vexilar repair and Minnkota's and other trolling motors repair. They said they wouldnt be able to get to my trolling motor til the end of the week or the beginning of next week because they were so backed up on Vexilar repairs.. Anyways... I immediately thought of this thread and asked the guy if they were coming out with a new model of vexilars for next year and/or if they were discontinuing any of their current models... The guy said they were working on having an all digital display, similar to the Humminbirds. He also said that they have been having troubles on doing this because they have been having all of their screens freeze up (the Liquid Crystal Displays)... It was my understanding that the entire screen was going to be digital. He said this was the only "new feature" that they were working on coming out with for their new line of flashers.. Anyways, i thought I'd share this with you guys

[Boxcar Wllie]

Maybe they will make it into a graph too and you will have an X-67!!!! Nice to see them catch up. Marcum will be a couple years behind them.

[river rat316]

If its all digital then they need a heater behind it like the showdown otherwise it will freeze

[Zoob]

Conceivably, they could go LED screen (like the new TVs) - and totally end-run any sluggish-slowdown on screens like LCDs would have.

I would imagine that an LED display would be a few years off yet; considering it's just gaining traction in the TV market.

[Ed Carlson]

Sniff...Sniff...I smell smoke?

Vexilar tested and worked with LCD's many years ago, in fact they developed the first models in a vertical graph display, now defunct.

But what they found at the time is they were not well suited for on-ice applications. So as for a pure LCD, I feel is not too likely the new innovation they would pursue would be that, unless it had developed some significant technological changes to overcome LCD's past proven downfalls in durability, speed, and performance on the ice.

If....they looked to develop a new display, I feel they would go forward with VGA or QVGA, not likely back to LCD.

[hamms-scooter]

I like the good old flasher don't fix what ain't broke!

[Finlander]

How bout ifinz they put a rotating transducer that scanned a tight 5 degree cone that picked up fish off the side so you could move over to that area the fish were seen on the screen just like a sonar on a submarine! shouldn't be too hard to engineer! Oh ya! I am an engineer! DOH!

[fishwater]

... many years ago... ...at the time... ...unless it had developed some significant technological changes to overcome LCD's past proven downfalls in durability, speed, and performance on the ice.

If....they looked to develop a new display, I feel they would go forward with VGA or QVGA, not likely back to LCD.

First off, VGA and QVGA are formats that are presented on all types of displays; nowadays that means LCD more often than not. Modern LCDs are not even remotely close to LCDs of a few years ago; the technology has been developed very quickly over the last few years. Thin film research is very popular these days, many of the research labs at the UofM work on this.

[JIM C]

Maybe they will make it into a graph too and you will have an X-67!!!! Nice to see them catch up. Marcum will be a couple years behind them.

To really catch up? <J/K> But I do like their accessories...

[Ed Carlson]

Now if we want to play "What-If"...I'll play.

"WHAT-IF"...the Vexilar EDGE III...also had a flash'r mode along with it's present duel beam split screen graph capability's...and all in a new HD quality QVGA touch screen format...now...you have a truly "NEW"...Vexilar hybrid for soft and hard water use.