Vexilar + Navionics

[papadarv]

Vexilar and Navionics teamed to create a cool set of apps. + a bit of electronics. The Vexilar SonarPhone T-Box is a WiFi sonar which puts the sonar image on you Smart Phone, iPad, Tablet etc. via the WiFi. The app and T-box works quite well has a dual beam 20 & 40 and easy to operate. First time out I had 3 people in my boat all looking at the same sonar on their respective phones. Navionics connect there Boating app to this WiFi which allows sonar and contour map tracking (if he viewing device has GPS) You can also split the screen with map on top and sonar on bottom, or connect two phones/tablets to the WiFi and get full screen viewing on each connected device. I use my iPad2 (no gps) for the sonar and my Digiland Tablet for the map (tablet has gps).

The really fantastic part is Navionics provides capability for you to make your own contour map which creates very accurate contour's. This morning I did a 2 hour track on Coon Lake, Anoka County to map some of the area's I do some local hard water fishing. The two photos are the before and after of a point I was interested in. The yellow line on the New chart is the route to create the new contour.

Old map

 

New Contour

After creating I zoomed map  the map and the checked the new contour which was exact to the SonarPhone depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[delcecchi]

Interesting infomercial.  Do you have any affiliation with Vexilar or Navionics? 

[papadarv]

No affiliation to either, just thought I would give details to something that works well.

[delcecchi]

OK, sounds good to me. 

[MN BassFisher]

I have the Sonarphone T-Box but I haven't hooked it up yet! I'm dying to map a few lakes that I don't have any contour for

[papadarv]

Back in July I contacted Navionics about the Boating+ phone app sluggish tracking and GPS refresh rate. They stated they are working on the issue. Every month or so I again inquire about progress. Here is their latest email response I received today. Stay tuned, when available I will post same.

 “Our engineering team are working on improving track algorithm. Because the complexity with the review of the code and the amount of the regression tests necessary to make sure that everything is working in a proper manner, I've not a delivery date of the version that will include this optimization. 

However I would like to assure that this has been ranked as an important task to be fulfilled. 

 

Best regards

 

Navionics Tech Support”

 

By the way – If you use this app, make sure you have the + version and use SonarChats. Keep your map region small and update your map region often. Contours updates are accomplished through users that re-map portions of a lake with their sonar linked units. Time will only make this lake contour map the most accurate. Navionics is using the same analogy as does “WAZE” the free smart phone GPS road map – users update the areas they drive. In just a few years “WAZE” has become the most accurate GPS road map available.