Wishing for a wireless mega live

[scubatelco]

Wishing for a wireless mega live unit with Bluetooth so I can mount it to my Ulterra. Is it possible to run imaging over a BT connection to a Solix head unit? Come on HB show us some real high tech. lol

[jjue1979]

Isn't MEGA Live's connection by Ethernet? BT may not have the bandwidth for data transmission, and you still have to provide power to the MEGA Live transducer somehow.

[Dirtyeggroll]

They have a WiFi capability so I theory it should be possible on a lox network.

[bobcoy]

It would still have the power cable hooked up! Also I don’t think BT runs well under water.

[SLYDoggie]

Bluetooth and WiFi won't travel through water so it would be useless once deployed. Also, you would still need a power wire so having a "wireless" technology, even if it could be done, still doesn't save you from having to run a cable from the transducer, which is problematic for the Ulterra (not to mention that the Ulterra isn't equipped for extra weight). Also, I seriously doubt that Bluetooth is robust enough to even handle the kind of traffic that the Mega Live puts out, again, if that could even be done.

Not a Humminbird problem... it's a physics problem.

[Wackyjig]

They could use a built in chargeable battery and an extended antenna to strap above the water line on the tm shaft to solve the power and connectivity problem.
BUT, then besides making the transducer huge to accommodate, a battery and bluetooth or wifi hardware, you have to deal with wireless data transfer issues.
When data is sent wirelessly it gets compressed, sent, received, then unpacked. This is why hooking headphones up to your TV or phone often results in the audio being delayed a split second. Now, alot of devices offset that either by having a setting to adjust manually or by automatically moving the audio ahead of the video. On top of that bluetooth sound quality is always worse due to the packing and unpacking of the data.
With sonar I would imagine there is more data to send than in audio, which would be slower transferring, then the graph would have to process it before being displayed. You'd probably have a 2-3 second delay with what you see on the screen.

[SLYDoggie]

I have an Ulterra Quest but chose it because of the automated deploy/stow/trim capability. Because of this automation, you can't hang anything off of it... not only because of how the motor is physically designed, but also because the extra weight can cause an issue with the very reason I chose the motor... Automated deploy/stow/trim. The added weight from your "request", even if you could do it and somehow physically mount it to the Ulterra, would probably cause issues.

If you want to mount Mega Live, Mega 360, or both to a trolling motor, you should change out to the Ultrex. Then you could even add TargetLock, which makes a killer setup.

[bobcoy]

As things stand now, As Steve said”get an Ultrex” or get a 3rd party motorized pole and keep your Ulterra. Will not be as good as the incorporated Target lock. It can’t interface to your finders or the OBN. That said that system would still be better than a manual pole (which many people successfully use). You just have to decide how much you can/want to spend. Wishing is fun, but some things change slowly. The storage battery was invented 224 years ago today. A long time and it is not that much different today! Bob