Solix Review?

[Atrain89]

Just curious of some feedback from those who have Solix units. I currently have 2 Helix G1 units and am looking to add a Solix to my lineup. I have no experience with Mega Imaging. Over the past couple years I have been doing more off-shore fishing. Primarily 18-35 feet. So my question is.. how do you guys like the 2D sonar and the Chirp/Mega imaging when fishing deeper water? Any other complaints or positive feedback on them?

[LeeinMO]

I just recently purchased a new Solix and I replaced a Gen1 Helix 10 SI. I have a couple more Helix 10's mounted up front and thinking about selling those now and replacing with another Solix. I am sold on them. You will have to get used to the new screens and navigating around with menus and settings. Thats the only hurdle. Other than that 100% better IMO.

[MichAngler]

I’ve had one for 2 seasons and a second for one season
One of the best images I’ve seen!

Literally sight fishing the screen for bedding bass in deeper water

You will be amazed at what you can see

BUTT

It’s one of the most voltage/amperage sensitive units you will ever see, these are power hungry monsters

Even thou they say its operating voltage is 10.8 to 20 volts I’m here to tell you as soon as the voltage drops to 12.4 or lower you are going to start seeing glitch’s and they get worse as the voltage drops

90% of all issues with the Solix are voltage related

If you plan to install it on the bow you will need to run a dedicated power feed for it and depending on the power source you still may have issues especially if your using the same battery that runs everything else in the boat

I installed a 5th battery in a storage compartment just to run the 12” mega at the bow

I’m thrilled with the images and plan to keep them but its been a major pain in the a$$ to get them the power they require

[Phoenix Jim]

Love my two solix 12’s once I got them dialed in

[Atrain89]

Out of curiousity.. anyone go from Lowrance Carbon units to Solix? If so, how do they compare? Not trying to start a brand bashing match, just looking for real world feedback.

[Atrain89]

Nobody else has an opinion on their Solix they’d like to share?

[Meleagris1]

I run two Solix 15’s and am not far from you - if you want to come check mine out you are more than welcome just send me a PM. I really like mine. Lowrance has great 2D but in my opinion HB is better in all other regards.

[Fishfreq]

I’ve had one for 2 seasons and a second for one season
One of the best images I’ve seen!

Literally sight fishing the screen for bedding bass in deeper water

You will be amazed at what you can see

BUTT

It’s one of the most voltage/amperage sensitive units you will ever see, these are power hungry monsters

Even thou they say its operating voltage is 10.8 to 20 volts I’m here to tell you as soon as the voltage drops to 12.4 or lower you are going to start seeing glitch’s and they get worse as the voltage drops

90% of all issues with the Solix are voltage related

If you plan to install it on the bow you will need to run a dedicated power feed for it and depending on the power source you still may have issues especially if your using the same battery that runs everything else in the boat

I installed a 5th battery in a storage compartment just to run the 12” mega at the bow

I’m thrilled with the images and plan to keep them but its been a major pain in the a$$ to get them the power they require

...anyone else out there have similar voltage issues with Solix? What sort of dedicated feed did you use Mich?

Wonder if voltage drop is a factor due to somewhat small wires running 20+ feet to the bow? I'm upgrading everything here soon, starting with, I was considering, the PC-1700 Odyssey dry cell AGM (group 27?), but you're making me think it's smart money to go to the group 31 size and maybe some fat wire all the way to the front? Not 4 awg like the tm but at this site they'll make you any marine wire you want and terminate it exactly how you want it. Maybe 6 or 8 awg? Prices look good too:

http://www.genuinedealz.com/4-awg-custom-battery-cables

[Meleagris1]

Fishfreq you should definitely do that - all of these large units and especially touch units require good clean power. There are a few companies like Phoenix that do this from the factory but most do not. Get the best group 31 you can afford and run dedicated lines, soldered connections and you will cut that voltage drop.

Another tip - reducing screen brightness from 10 to 8 saves a tremendous amount of juice, and you don’t often need 10 so dial them back and save your battery. A second battery if you are running multiple large units all day is smart too although I haven’t needed to do this yet.

[thedude]

have 3 networked - 5 months old. find the network to be very slow and clunky. marking waypoints on side scan usually freezes up the main unit for 30-60seconds (super annoying). The gps screen is really not useful when zoomed out if you're trying to run to a specific waypoint since it groups waypoints in clusters ( i have not figured out if you can disable it). The zoom in/out feature is also inconsistent on the chart - sometimes is goes fast sometimes you make a full turn of the dial and it will only change 1 level. Cross talk from 2 mega transducers (TM & stern) is really bad in less than 10' of water (have to disable pinging on 1 of them). Have had 1 touch screen stop working. Map sharing works most of the time, but i think the network inadequacy makes it slightly problematic.

As an individual unit, i the SI and sonar are great. The gps needs a lot of improvement, but is fine when you're zoomed in past the clustering.

I'm personally extremely disappointed in how slow they are and how poorly they work together (for the amount of money they cost). After 1 season with them, i deeply regret selling my lowrances because i waste way too much time on the water waiting for a screen to unfreeze or trying to work around some setting or feature that just stops working.

and before anyone jumps me - yes i have done all the updates. yes i have wired them directly to battery and isolated them. yes i have leveled transducers. yes i have set/reset/reconfigured the network 100 times and done extensive internet research. i've gone to great lengths to ensure the best possible installation and am just highly disappointed in how they work. I think if it were a stand alone unit (not networked) it would actually be quite good as the slowness all seems to stem from the network sharing part bogging down the units.

[Wayne P.]

have 3 networked - 5 months old. find the network to be very slow and clunky. marking waypoints on side scan usually freezes up the main unit for 30-60seconds (super annoying). The gps screen is really not useful when zoomed out if you're trying to run to a specific waypoint since it groups waypoints in clusters ( i have not figured out if you can disable it). The zoom in/out feature is also inconsistent on the chart - sometimes is goes fast sometimes you make a full turn of the dial and it will only change 1 level. Cross talk from 2 mega transducers (TM & stern) is really bad in less than 10' of water (have to disable pinging on 1 of them). Have had 1 touch screen stop working. Map sharing works most of the time, but i think the network inadequacy makes it slightly problematic.

As an individual unit, i the SI and sonar are great. The gps needs a lot of improvement, but is fine when you're zoomed in past the clustering.

I'm personally extremely disappointed in how slow they are and how poorly they work together (for the amount of money they cost). After 1 season with them, i deeply regret selling my lowrances because i waste way too much time on the water waiting for a screen to unfreeze or trying to work around some setting or feature that just stops working.

and before anyone jumps me - yes i have done all the updates. yes i have wired them directly to battery and isolated them. yes i have leveled transducers. yes i have set/reset/reconfigured the network 100 times and done extensive internet research. i've gone to great lengths to ensure the best possible installation and am just highly disappointed in how they work. I think if it were a stand alone unit (not networked) it would actually be quite good as the slowness all seems to stem from the network sharing part bogging down the units.

If you don't want the clusters and want the individual waypoints at most zoom levels, just change the Waypoint Cluster Level setting in the Nav Data menu/Options/Waypoints. Set it to Minimize Clusters. Then you won't get the orange dot icon with the number of waypoints in it unless you are navigating on a very large body of water and have a very large area displayed.

Cross-talk is not unique to a Humminbird MEGA unit, any brand or mix of brands will cross-talk when their sonar pulses overlap on the same frequency. That is why if you want a console and bow unit operating at the same time on the same frequency with like brands/models, you share a transducer via Ethernet.

[ntslam]

you can also run a double map view. Both maps settings can be adjusted independently of each other

[Atrain89]

have 3 networked - 5 months old. find the network to be very slow and clunky. marking waypoints on side scan usually freezes up the main unit for 30-60seconds (super annoying). The gps screen is really not useful when zoomed out if you're trying to run to a specific waypoint since it groups waypoints in clusters ( i have not figured out if you can disable it). The zoom in/out feature is also inconsistent on the chart - sometimes is goes fast sometimes you make a full turn of the dial and it will only change 1 level. Cross talk from 2 mega transducers (TM & stern) is really bad in less than 10' of water (have to disable pinging on 1 of them). Have had 1 touch screen stop working. Map sharing works most of the time, but i think the network inadequacy makes it slightly problematic.

As an individual unit, i the SI and sonar are great. The gps needs a lot of improvement, but is fine when you're zoomed in past the clustering.

I'm personally extremely disappointed in how slow they are and how poorly they work together (for the amount of money they cost). After 1 season with them, i deeply regret selling my lowrances because i waste way too much time on the water waiting for a screen to unfreeze or trying to work around some setting or feature that just stops working.

and before anyone jumps me - yes i have done all the updates. yes i have wired them directly to battery and isolated them. yes i have leveled transducers. yes i have set/reset/reconfigured the network 100 times and done extensive internet research. i've gone to great lengths to ensure the best possible installation and am just highly disappointed in how they work. I think if it were a stand alone unit (not networked) it would actually be quite good as the slowness all seems to stem from the network sharing part bogging down the units.

Some of these issues you have listed do not surprise me as my dealer has warned me of some of these same issues when networking multiple Solix units together. Hopefully Humminbird can find a solution for this.

[thedude]

Thanks i will look into the clustering. i was unable to find what the setting was or any info on it previously. That should help.
As for the cross talk - i understand that. I find the mega on the TM very useful, in fact in most cases, i rely on it more than anything else. The main problem is its always 1 unit that suffers and doesn't matter if i change the rear to different frequencies. I have to stop all pinging on the rear to keep functional 2d/si/di on the front. I didn't have an issue with this using various lowrance units i've owned over the years (on the same boat) - sometimes some minor interference, but never total loss of 2d and SI for extended periods of time when in or near water less than 10'. It will happen if near a breakline where the boat is in 15-20 and 10 or less is say 10yds away. Turning off the pinging on the console is kind of a pain (because the touch screen broke for 1 thing) but also my partner is now fishing blind as well.

The biggest problem i have is still marking waypoints on SI from a remote unit. My main unit will basically lock up. GPS will sometimes take 2 minutes to refresh. 2d stops registering. The linked unit pulls SI from the master so it will lose source for about the same. When idling, i find myself actually stopping and putting the boat in reverse after i mark a single waypoint because i'll miss 100yds of scanning if i don't wait. Seems to only be an issue for the master unit (on the network) but this affects everything else.

I think the biggest gripe is there is some magical combination of settings to get these things to work satisfactory together and its very time consuming and all trial and error to get it right. I've networked a lot of different lowrances and its basically plug and play - seems like this shouldn't require a computer science degree (which i do actually have) to get 2 units to share waypoints and a map.

Lastly, if anyone knows how to cancel navigation or disable it all together.... DEAR GOD please freaking tell me.

[Fishfreq]

Thanks i will look into the clustering. i was unable to find what the setting was or any info on it previously. That should help.
As for the cross talk - i understand that. I find the mega on the TM very useful, in fact in most cases, i rely on it more than anything else. The main problem is its always 1 unit that suffers and doesn't matter if i change the rear to different frequencies. I have to stop all pinging on the rear to keep functional 2d/si/di on the front. I didn't have an issue with this using various lowrance units i've owned over the years (on the same boat) - sometimes some minor interference, but never total loss of 2d and SI for extended periods of time when in or near water less than 10'. It will happen if near a breakline where the boat is in 15-20 and 10 or less is say 10yds away. Turning off the pinging on the console is kind of a pain (because the touch screen broke for 1 thing) but also my partner is now fishing blind as well.

The biggest problem i have is still marking waypoints on SI from a remote unit. My main unit will basically lock up. GPS will sometimes take 2 minutes to refresh. 2d stops registering. The linked unit pulls SI from the master so it will lose source for about the same. When idling, i find myself actually stopping and putting the boat in reverse after i mark a single waypoint because i'll miss 100yds of scanning if i don't wait. Seems to only be an issue for the master unit (on the network) but this affects everything else.

I think the biggest gripe is there is some magical combination of settings to get these things to work satisfactory together and its very time consuming and all trial and error to get it right. I've networked a lot of different lowrances and its basically plug and play - seems like this shouldn't require a computer science degree (which i do actually have) to get 2 units to share waypoints and a map.

Lastly, if anyone knows how to cancel navigation or disable it all together.... DEAR GOD please freaking tell me.

I'd REALLY like to know if anyone or everyone else has had experiences similar to this Dude? I'd also like to know if this is NOT an issue with Helix units networked? How about one Solix mixed with Helix units?

[thedude]

This is my setup for anyone looking to compare:
bow: Solix 12 mega
Console: Solix 10 Mega (master)
Console: Solix 12 chirp (network only - no transducers)
Wired directly to battery (fused) using 10ga tinned marine duplex wire. Master power goes through 30 amp rated marine relay inline to the (+) wire so i can shut off via my main pannel acc switch (relay keeps circuit isolated and is 10ga wire also). Wired to Deka 31 AGM (shared with engine and other 12v acc so not dedicated).

Stern: mega and standard transducer on y cable to the 10 (have a puck to hull mount never got around to it)
TM: standard mega tx on the TM with transducer shield mount

GPS puck via the network box.

[Wayne P.]

I'd REALLY like to know if anyone or everyone else has had experiences similar to this Dude? I'd also like to know if this is NOT an issue with Helix units networked? How about one Solix mixed with Helix units?

The ONLY thing you can share between SOLIX and Helix is waypoints. Works great IF you do the correct start-up procedure.

Let one unit FULLY start up including getting a satellite lock BEFORE you start the next unit. If an Ethernet Switch is involved, power that up first.

[ntslam]

when i get to the ramp the first thing i do is turn on the ethernet switch. I then will turn on my solix (which has my transducers connected to it) and then onix. I will let them fully boot up while I am removing straps and launching boat. I do not touch the units again until after i get the outboard started and idling out of the no wake zone. I have had very few issues with the units networking or anything else

[Wayne P.]

Thanks i will look into the clustering. i was unable to find what the setting was or any info on it previously. That should help.
As for the cross talk - i understand that. I find the mega on the TM very useful, in fact in most cases, i rely on it more than anything else. The main problem is its always 1 unit that suffers and doesn't matter if i change the rear to different frequencies. I have to stop all pinging on the rear to keep functional 2d/si/di on the front. I didn't have an issue with this using various lowrance units i've owned over the years (on the same boat) - sometimes some minor interference, but never total loss of 2d and SI for extended periods of time when in or near water less than 10'. It will happen if near a breakline where the boat is in 15-20 and 10 or less is say 10yds away. Turning off the pinging on the console is kind of a pain (because the touch screen broke for 1 thing) but also my partner is now fishing blind as well.

The biggest problem i have is still marking waypoints on SI from a remote unit. My main unit will basically lock up. GPS will sometimes take 2 minutes to refresh. 2d stops registering. The linked unit pulls SI from the master so it will lose source for about the same. When idling, i find myself actually stopping and putting the boat in reverse after i mark a single waypoint because i'll miss 100yds of scanning if i don't wait. Seems to only be an issue for the master unit (on the network) but this affects everything else.

I think the biggest gripe is there is some magical combination of settings to get these things to work satisfactory together and its very time consuming and all trial and error to get it right. I've networked a lot of different lowrances and its basically plug and play - seems like this shouldn't require a computer science degree (which i do actually have) to get 2 units to share waypoints and a map.

Lastly, if anyone knows how to cancel navigation or disable it all together.... DEAR GOD please freaking tell me.

"Navigation" does not occur until you set the unit to GOTO a destination or follow a planned Route. If you want to stop that process after you have chosen to do so, push the check mark button and Cancel Navigation.
Tracking occurs all the time that you have a satellite lock.

If the unit can't find a GPS connection and get a satellite lock, there will be no navigation and no tracking.

IF you tell the unit there is no GPS antenna available, there will be no navigation and no tracking.

Settings Menu
Network
Data Sources
GPS (1) Auto-Configure OFF, This unit NONE
GPS (2) Auto-Configure OFF, This unit NONE

[Hollada]

I'd REALLY like to know if anyone or everyone else has had experiences similar to this Dude? I'd also like to know if this is NOT an issue with Helix units networked? How about one Solix mixed with Helix units?

Mine has been identical to the dudes, with some ultrex rfi inference thrown in just for fun. Wish I would have gone with Helix or Garmin.