Status of Mega-Live: Product Images of Prototypes?

[SLYDoggie]

I think most understand that higher frequencies provide shorter ranges. But hb did increase the 1.2mhz effective range from the original mega to the mega+. My comment was hoping that hb work with the mega+ would allow for longer ranges when using the 1.2mhz frequency than livescope currently has.

Actually, HB has also increased M+ beyond the original M+ announcement. The Solix G3 and Apex tout a longer range than the Original Mega+. Not familiar with Helix but I thing the G4 Helix also has this increased Mega+ range.

[Wayne P.]

Actually, HB has also increased M+ beyond the original M+ announcement. The Solix G3 and Apex tout a longer range than the Original Mega+. Not familiar with Helix but I thing the G4 Helix also has this increased Mega+ range.

No the Helix G4N is the same as the Helix G3N. Features on the Humminbird website


MEGA =125'
MEGA+= 200'
SOLIX G3/APEX= 250'

[Hollada]

Not mill marks - my guess it’s 3D printed parts (stereolithohraphy). Revolutionizing prototyping.

[akaslyguy]

I saw Lowrance's teaser video yesterday saying they were going to reveal more on the 4th or 5th about live target.. So hopefully humminbird will show more soon too.

[fischbear]

I thought so too at first, but don't think so. SLA does not show these overlapping lines with little polygon surfaces all over the place. It's rather just slightly rough and layered. This looks most like milled with ball mill from black Delrin.
Regarding the image quality and price: the Oculus could be way cheaper. The only reasons it's so expensive is low volume and customer service. These are specialty devices where a few pieces have to pay the whole company and keep support up at high level. Humminbird support is a joke compared to professional sonar support and the volume issue they can fix. That would potentially leave processing power to be one limiting / pricey factor. Reconstructing 40 of these images per second at this quality and so little artifacts is impressive. That might require quite a bit of power that HB units won't have.
Regarding range, the increase in Mega range was due to new transducer material and signals. The new transducers from all companies already use this. It's unlikely that there will be a huge range increase suddenly by any manufacturer. It would be interesting, what type of material they actually use and whether these are still crystals or somebody is already using MEMS technology.

[Wayne P.]

I thought so too at first, but don't think so. SLA does not show these overlapping lines with little polygon surfaces all over the place. It's rather just slightly rough and layered. This looks most like milled with ball mill from black Delrin.
Regarding the image quality and price: the Oculus could be way cheaper. The only reasons it's so expensive is low volume and customer service. These are specialty devices where a few pieces have to pay the whole company and keep support up at high level. Humminbird support is a joke compared to professional sonar support and the volume issue they can fix. That would potentially leave processing power to be one limiting / pricey factor. Reconstructing 40 of these images per second at this quality and so little artifacts is impressive. That might require quite a bit of power that HB units won't have.
Regarding range, the increase in Mega range was due to new transducer material and signals. The new transducers from all companies already use this. It's unlikely that there will be a huge range increase suddenly by any manufacturer. It would be interesting, what type of material they actually use and whether these are still crystals or somebody is already using MEMS technology.

The SOLIX G2 and G3 and APEX use the exact same transducer and the G3/APEX has 50' more range than the G2.

[einsteins]

Since some more websites have been starting to list Mega Live, I found one, that has a high resolution image of the transducer. Strangely, the main part of the transducer doesn't look like the injection molded part one would expect. It shows clear milling marks over the whole surface:
https://humminbirdshop.nl/index.php?...id=443&lang=nl

The attached pole mount looks fine though. I see two options here: Humminbird has commissioned the worst mold maker around, or the image that is currently used shows a (likely dummy) prototype. If that's the case, and they use such early stage mockups, I'm not surprised, no screen captures have been posted so far. Therefore, I predict that the release will be delayed (blame it on Covid), availability in the beginning will be low and their might be issues related to hasty release, if they indeed release this before autumn next year.
What do you think? Has anybody see or heard from somebody who has seen actual footage of it in action?

Pretty sure that image is a picture of a 3D printed mockup... If you zoom in certain edges you can see the layers that 3d Printer leave on edges.