PS22 vs PS30

[LWINCHESTER2]

For the PS22 in Down Vu Live, do you need to rotate the transducer around the shaft to get the 100 degree left/right, and 20 degree front/back? Or do you just need to point it down?

Well, first, it does have to be pointed down to get DownVu. It's smart and won't give you the DownVu option if it's not pointed down. You get an error message saying that kind of transducer is not connected. Sometimes it takes it a bit for it to catch that you've moved it too. It's not instant, but you may have to give it a few seconds.

The 100 degree by 20 degree certainly is fixed. The terms left/right front/back are all situational. Just look at the shape of the transducer. The 20 degrees will correspond with the narrow part of the face. The 100 degrees will correspond with the long part of the face. In actual use it's not unusual to see more than 100 degrees. Mounting as a PS21, from the surface of the water to the bottom is 180 degrees right at the trolling motor. You don't have to be out from the trolling motor much to see both the surface and the bottom pretty well. All degree specs of transducers are stated at a certain db level. Most modern electronics receive quiet well at much lower levels.

Mounted for DownVu Live, the 100x20 of course, also corresponds with the narrow and long part of the face. It takes a bit of adjustment mentally. On screen one part is always on the left side of the screen, but I may have rotated the trolling motor 180 degrees so what's on the screen would be backwards. Also my thinking was apparently backwards to how Garmin thought I would mount it, so to get it to match my weak mind, in the software I had to change it to flip left and right so it matched my thinking. It's very easy to check. Just move over to a sloping bank and if it's on the wrong side of the screen to your thinking, you need to do the flip in the software so it's on the other side. I give Garmin credit here. This is really good software.

[Astrochris]

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[Astrochris]

So if the transducer is mounted like the image above and the trolling motor is pointing straight forward you are saying that the 20° is left to right and 100° is front to back ? If that is the case, I would get more coverage left to right by rotating the trolling motor 90°

[LWINCHESTER2]

Right

[kojimep]

Thanks for all the clarification!

[davidnyqvists]

Hello! LWINCHESTER2,
My fishing is 80 percent casting for northern pike i Sweden and 20 percent vertical jigging for char. I mainly want to use my panoptix for searching pike in water with a depth from 5-40 feet in a spotlight fashion. The tranducer will be mounted on my saltwater terrova trolling motor in the bow.

The ps-22 seems nice and it would be usefull also in the down position if i fish char. But my concern is if the ps-22 is a half good solution for both live down and forward.

Which one would you choose if you fished liked me?, forward is most important. Do you Think the ps-22 gives as nice returns and clean image as the ps-31 and ps-30? I am aware that ps-21 and ps-22 have fixed cone angles but it seem in Another post you made that 20*100 degrees works well. What do you other guys think, anybody else who have used these tranducers and compared?

Best regards David

[LWINCHESTER2]

For a while I was really second guessing myself on the PS22 vs PS30 comparison. That's because I don't understand the multi-beam phased array technology as well as I would like to. But I do know what results I see in the water even if I don't understand why. In my book the PS22 will not replace the PS30, at least not for my purposes. My fishing is broken down into two simple phases. Find'em, then Catch'em. The range of the PS30 far exceeds the range of the PS22 when the PS22 is mounted to do DownVu Live. For searching, that's big. For fishing though, meaning jigging, it's not that big of deal to me. I want to see straight down and I want to see about 40 ft around me. The PS22 does that very well. For fishing, the PS22 is much more versatile than the PS30. I can see two directions at the same time and easily turn the trolling motor to look 360 and I only have to turn 180. That is real effective. The PS30 is fix mounted on the transom. I can't put it on the trolling motor. I can, but with everthing else I have on it, it's just too much weight and too bulky on maneuvering the trolling motor. My use of the PS22, currently fishing for deep walleye is for it to be mounted like the PS30. In the spring, when I am crappie fishing in water always shallower than 30 ft, I mount the PS22 as a PS21 and use it for LiveVu Forward. I am not jigging and am not fishing under me. I can casting to fish away from the boat. Tactical fishing. See'em, cast to them, and catch'em.

On the PS21-TR (45 degree), PS21-TM (20 degree), PS22 (20 degree mounted as a PS21-TR), PS31 (adjustable 10,20,or 40) I just don't find a lot of difference in terms of one enabling you to catch fish that another one would not. This is my spring crappie fishing I spoke of. Other people in other situations may see it differently. For this application I generally have the range set to 70. If fishing is tough, maybe 100. I can only cast a 1/16 oz jig 70ft. The differences I see are not related to range effectiveness. They all work. The wide cone picks them up sooner but requires more back and forth to be sure you are pointed directly at them. The narrower cones require slower turning and less back and forth. That is my preference but that's just me. I don't think it makes one better than another. I can see and catch the same fish with any of them. My preference is the 20 degree cone.

The PS22 does have the advantage of being able to be mounted for Forward viewing or Down viewing. There's no way around it. If you want both Forward and Down at the same time, you have to have two transducers. Currently I'm using the PS22 for Down on the troling motor and the PS30 is Down on the transom. That's because I've already found the fish before I shut off the big motor to stop and jig. I don't need to see far away. When I find fish this time of year, most everything is there. Spotted bass generally from 30-70, white bass 80-100, walleye 80-120. It's not unusual sometimes to not be able to get the lure down to the walleye.

I don't know if this will help you for your kind of fishing. That's your call.

[davidnyqvists]

Thanks you for a wery well written answer. Was a little worried that the ps22 didnt give as clean image as the ps31. But now, after your info i feel confidence i my choise. I will go with the ps22 with a echomap 92sv plus and then add the ps30 later to the arsenal. Really grateful for the respons, not many people have comparing experience from all this transducers.
Have a great 2018
Best regards David

[Schins]

When it comes to finding pike with Panoptix you may run in to an issue of not seeing them if they're stationary next to structure. It'll just look like structure.

But if it moves at all off the structure you will see it.

Question about the PS30/31 for anyone: can you mount a 31 to look down and then change it with software to trick it in to thinking its a 30? And vice versa

[LWINCHESTER2]

No.

[kojimep]

I will go with the ps22 with a 93sv plus and then add the ps30 later to the arsenal.

This was my plan as well, except with a Echomap Chirp 93sv, so I would have to manually switch the transducer connections, or hope Garmin comes out with a switch of some sort to work to support multiple panoptix transducers on the chirp units, but probably not very likely.

[LWINCHESTER2]

These units don't have enough memory. To use a map update requires leaving the card in the slot because there's not enough memory. The new PS22 requires more memory to operate in both Forward and Down modes. This unit is not compatible with the PS22 because of that memory limitation. While they can use the other Panoptix transducers and they communicate using ethernet, these units are not fully ethernet functional for sharing sonar because of that same memory limitation. The echomap Plus is a major improvement. It has the added memory for map upgrades, PS22, and sonar sharing between like units.

IMO Garmin is not going to make the kind of switch you're talking about. They don't even make a regular transducer switch. There are third party ethernet switches but I doubt if they would work. I tried operating a Panoptix PS21 through a TP-Link switch. It wouldn't work. It had to be plugged directly into the unit. Panoptix transducer will work when plugged into Garmin's switches, but not with the echomap CHIRPs since they do not do the full ethernet implementation. I did see a post by Todd though that the new echomap Plus units will utilize Garmin switches. While Panoptix does communicate using ethernet, the wake-up is not standard POE or standard anything. It's proprietary to Garmin. I don't know how they turn it on, but my efforts to bypass Garmin on this have not worked. However, once it's on, by being plugged into Garmin, like a 7610 with 2 ports, it then can be shared through a non-Garmin switch. But that's not really a big deal since Garmin's switch doesn't cost all that much.

Bottom line. Better stick with Garmin's recommendations for sharing or just do like you said and manually plug and unplug.

[kojimep]

Yeah, I didn't have high hopes for Garmin to make anything . And I should clarify, with the 93 I was never really hoping to do both forward and down at the same time, but rather just forward or down is fine by me. Though in reality pulling up the 22 and rotating to down or forward will just as fast or faster than unplugging and plugging difference transducers lol.

[kojimep]

I tried operating a Panoptix PS21 through a TP-Link switch. It wouldn't work. It had to be plugged directly into the unit.

The curious side in me wonders if it didn't work because it was a "switch", which is looking for a network address to route the information to the correct place, whereas a "hub" just broadcasts all info to all ports? Not that it really matters, It will be a long time before I need to worry about having multiple panoptix transducers myself lol.

[davidnyqvists]

Can you have panoptix tranducers in on mode when out of the water? , I Asked garmin nordic here in sweden and the answer i got was that to minimize the risk of it getting burned you should turn it off. I find it strange that If this was an issue, why doesn't it say so in the manual. The manual says it automatically turns off at a certain internal temp. How do you guys approach this? Do you trust the tempsensor and leave it on or do you turn it of during transport? Do you think it increases the tare on the ducer or is the temp limit so low that it doesn't effect the lifespan of the transducer.

[coachallen]

I have mine a a toggle switch and turn it off when not using. I even turn it off running from one spot to another if a long way. It gets hot enough in Texas so I just want to mke sure. Better be safe than sorry.

[fishin couillon]

You can disable sonar from the main page when you hit the power button.....that will stop it from pinging and getting hot....

[MDBASSNPRO]

Not to change subjects but did I read correctly that for less than ~50' the PS22 live down vu is as good as PS30 as needed? The 2 screen shots show different depths and it would make sense that the PS22 lower power rating would not go deeper without using the gain. Also most importantly what is the red blob inside the fish? And is that representative of size or type of fish? I really am impressed with my 22TR on trolling motor and mostly fish bass (large mouth) in less than 25' but every now again spot or smallmouth if I travel. I guess I mainly want to differentiate between largemouth and other fish such as striped, catfish, and carp. Any on water results ?

[Schins]

the red inside the fish or object is the strength of the return.

If you see blobs you would sweep back and forth until you get a good red return meaning youre pointing directly at it.

same as 2D, the colors represent the strength of return.

A larger fish would show a bigger blob, but differentiating between species is pretty difficult

[LWINCHESTER2]

did I read correctly that for less than ~50' the PS22 live down vu is as good as PS30 as needed?

That was in reference to the horizontal distance to the sides with the transducer pointing straight down. I got good results to 45 ft to each side with the gain set to Auto Medium on the PS22. I don't know about depth differences between the PS22 and PS30. 90% of my walleye fishing right now starts at 100ft, with plus and minus 20 ft. I see these fish on both the PS22 and PS30. While jigging, I haven't noticed anything that gives me concern about the PS22 at this depth. While I have water deeper than 400ft, I'm never fishing that deep so it's just not of interest to me to try and find out if there's a difference at 200 or 300 ft.

I guess I mainly want to differentiate between largemouth and other fish such as striped, catfish, and carp. Any on water results ?

I don't have a lot of luck determining what kind of fish I am looking at based on a single fish. What suggests the kind of fish I am looking at is knowing the seasonal movement and depth patterns, water temperature and temperature preference, schooling behavior, etc..
For example, on my lake, this time of year. the black bass will primarily be from 0-60 ft, white bass 60-80, walleye 80-150. The black bass will be in groups of a few up to around 15. White bass will be huge schools, tightly schooled. Walleye can be a school of most any size but loosely schooled. Even on the Panoptix the walleye will generally show individually. The spotted bass will show individually. Generally the white bass will be so tightly schooled as they may look like a big school of bait fish. There'll be a big difference in how fast they move across the screen though.