Garmin

[Crappie Bob]

so·nar/ˈsōˌnär/

• a system for the detection of objects under water and for measuring the water's depth by emitting sound pulses and detecting or measuring their return after being reflected.
  
  
  Evidently this is not true anymore. After several emails and phone calls with Garmin I was told some of my problems with my system is because the water I fish is not one of their mapped lakes. My response was what the hell does that even mean. I'm not talking about the shading and mapping and stuff, specifically one part of the 3D. According to the definition above a fish finder should work in a swimming pool if you put it in there. It pings the bottom and and anything it finds in there under the sonar. So, someone with all the smarts about Garmin fish finders please explain that. Then I was basically told, your right what you want and purchased doesn't work, so deal with it. Why does Garmin have to map a lake for SONAR to work in it?
  
  as soon as I find a suitable replacement there will be for sale 1 Echomap Plus 93sv, 2 complete mounts and wiring with GT52 transducers. I don't like being told by a company it's my fault that I was stupid enough to buy their junk.
  

[Rumour2u]

All you have to do is hang up and call back till you get a good tech.

[pdxfisher]

That is crazy! I can understand that the mapping might now work properly but the FF should definitely work. When playing around with it I have used my Garmin in my house in a bucket (transducer in a 5 gallon bucket) and everything works (2d, DV and SV). You definitely have some kind of setting off that they should be able to correct.

[fishin couillon]

You didn't specifically say what the issue is.....

[Chief Brody]

You didn't specifically say what the issue is.....

My thoughts, too.

What exactly is the issue??

[MonteSS]

Right? In most cases I would look here for answers before calling Garmin.

Most times you get untrained employees working from home with a flow chart

[jim mitchell]

Most of the techs I have talked to are running what problem you are having on a graft on simulator . They will never see the problem on simulator .

[TOUCH OF CLASS]

Turn all the filters to high and gain to 0 problems solved

[Crappie Bob]

Garmin Fish 3D2.jpg

Specific issue, you want issues, pick one. Above is a pic of the Fish Eye 3D. I don't know if anyone else has it but it was supposed to show a 3D of under the boat as if the fish were looking up at the bottom of the boat, priceless if you Crappie fish or deep water offshore Bluegill fish.

When I bought the Garmin Echomap Plus 93SV new, it worked fine. Couldn't ask for a better unit for the price. I have had several different older model brands and was led to Garmin by friends and reading online. It was really way out front from anything I have had in the past, Keep in mind I have been fishing over 40 years. I even checked the Garmin support before buying it. After I had it for a few weeks and learned how it operated I ordered the Fish Eye 3D and installed it only the find out it did not work properly in 6 Feet or less of water. Between 6 and 5 it started to flash and less than 5 it looked like the picture above. It was kinda upsetting it didn't work at those depths because I do a lot of Crappie fishing from there to 20 and 15 feet all year round.

So, was told to update, I had 11.20 on it from the start new and went to the first 12.0, that killed the whole thing, nothing worked right. Finally got the 11.20 back on it and it's better but still with episodes of stupid in it, you can be watching the bottom side view and down view and it will get light, then darken back up, then light again, then darken back up while your sitting in the same spot. Fish Eye 3D is gone, what you see in that pic is what it shows everywhere. I mention that to some techs at Garmin and they told me different things. One said, that's the nature of the program to not work in shallow water - I told them then why was it not advertised that way - oh, wait, then nobody would buy it. But now after updating, and even rolling back to the 11.20 it doesn't work at all. Still has to be some of the 12.0 on it that's not being wiped from the system. I do know about computers, that is why this is so frustrating. The I was told by a different tech - well you know if Garmin hasn't mapped the lake your fishing in the FishEye 3D won't work. That is why I posted the thing about SONAR. Why in the hell do they supposedly have to map a lake for SONAR to work, not the relief shading and the other maps, just the SONAR. The I had a different tech email me and asked what the map version was, when I told them they said, oh the Fish 3D will never work with that map, but hat is what was on it when it was all setup NEW and it all worked, except in the shallows.

Every time I call or email and get a different person they tell me something different, and nothing has even remotely started to fix the thing. I had the bright idea to open Active Captain on my phone the other day to see what it would do. When I tried to connect with My Marine Devices it said Echomap Plus 93SV - DISCOUNTINUED! I cam to find out the Garmin unit was obsolete when I purchased it new. If I had been a member here before that I would never have purchased it in the first place. I ran across BBC while looking for a foot for my Mercury motor, which I got from a BBC Member with happy results, and have a few more purchases here also, which went great. Like I said I do read a lot on here about a lot of different things, some very knowledgeable and some like a fart in in the barn. I sent Garmin another email with pics today and told them to start off they need to refund the $199.99 I wasted on the card, and asked who do I contact to get a refund for the $1500.00 worth of stuff that is useless now that they can't fix. So come next we shall see.

[Chief Brody]

Perhaps you also thought the unit would reach and grab the fish for you as well?

kidding aside, youre probably in for a long headache expecting a company to just refund money like that. maybe they will, I dunno.

Good luck.

[Crappie Bob]

Perhaps you also thought the unit would reach and grab the fish for you as well?

kidding aside, youre probably in for a long headache expecting a company to just refund money like that. maybe they will, I dunno.

Good luck.

This one doesn't work good enough now to use with a cast net

[RangerRic]

Right? In most cases I would look here for answers before calling Garmin.

Most times you get untrained employees working from home with a flow chart

I believe that is the business model for all phone help - not just Garmin.
(sorry - you pressed one of my buttons )

[bill duffy]

Just a suggestion- try setting your unit back to factory settings. One of my 93SV Plus units wouldn't read bottom and this solved it. Hope this might help you.

[froggerbass]

If you do decide to sell the unit, shoot me a message please.

[bronzebacksmb]

A few things. The FishEye3d requires maps to stitch the image together with proper contours if I recall correctly. So maybe the salesman who pushed it should have explained that.

direct from the Garmin website

Fish Eye 3D Chart View

Using the depth contour lines of the premium charts, such as BlueChart® g3 Vision, the Fish Eye 3D chart view provides an underwater view of the sea floor or lake bottom.
Suspended targets, such as fish, are indicated by red, green, and yellow spheres. Red indicates the largest targets and green indicates the smallest.





if you’re mad about it being discontinued, stay the hell away from lowrance. It’s not uncommon for them to discontinue 2 series a year.

the Garmin support is top notch, and one of the best customer service companies I’ve ever dealt with.

if you’re gonna be pissed off that you got a good price on last years units and their not working exactly as you expected, without doing one feature that I’ve seen less than a handful of people using, and demanding a refund


dont let the door hit you on the way out, Karen.

[Crappie Bob]

A few things. The FishEye3d requires maps to stitch the image together with proper contours if I recall correctly. So maybe the salesman who pushed it should have explained that.

direct from the Garmin website

Fish Eye 3D Chart View

Using the depth contour lines of the premium charts, such as BlueChart® g3 Vision, the Fish Eye 3D chart view provides an underwater view of the sea floor or lake bottom.
Suspended targets, such as fish, are indicated by red, green, and yellow spheres. Red indicates the largest targets and green indicates the smallest.

if you’re mad about it being discontinued, stay the hell away from lowrance. It’s not uncommon for them to discontinue 2 series a year.

the Garmin support is top notch, and one of the best customer service companies I’ve ever dealt with.

if you’re gonna be pissed off that you got a good price on last years units and their not working exactly as you expected, without doing one feature that I’ve seen less than a handful of people using, and demanding a refund


dont let the door hit you on the way out, Karen.

I'm fully aware of how it all works, or supposed to work. As far as it being obsolete, could deal with that if it worked like it did before the updates, in case you didn't read it all IT WAS FINE BEFORE THE UPDATE, THE UPDATE TURNED IT INTO A BLOCK OF JUNK. And as for your other sarcastic comment, did your 8 year old tell you to say that. You sound like your the equivalent of, well never mind, not going to get in a pissing match with someone that hasn't a clue as to what's gong on.

[bronzebacksmb]

Lol. Ok boomer.

[shafer22]

Does all the other screens work properly?

[pfisher]

I believe that is the business model for all phone help - not just Garmin.
(sorry - you pressed one of my buttons )

Actually HB employees are encouraged to spend time with the units on their own and get some on water training at work. I actually met the head of CS and was asking how the CS was trained.

It helps to have a lake and boats at the back door though :-)

[Titansfan2104]

I'm fully aware of how it all works, or supposed to work. As far as it being obsolete, could deal with that if it worked like it did before the updates, in case you didn't read it all IT WAS FINE BEFORE THE UPDATE, THE UPDATE TURNED IT INTO A BLOCK OF JUNK. And as for your other sarcastic comment, did your 8 year old tell you to say that. You sound like your the equivalent of, well never mind, not going to get in a pissing match with someone that hasn't a clue as to what's gong on.

I thought the fisheye maps were only available with the upgraded "ultra maps"??