7612xsv and Panoptix Pics and First Review.

[Diel11]

Well, finally got on the water. Units worked with no problems at all. I took a bunch of pics with the factory settings. I did not mess with anything other than range. Couple of things:

1. SideVu is equal to Humminbird's Onix unit (which I thought was the best in the market until now). The only thing is you can see out 600' with the Garmin. And that's bright and clear all the way out. I took some pics at 600' but didn't realize the SD card was locked. So I will try again next time.
2. DownVu is not as good as the Onix out of the box. I think if I mess with contrast I can get it to be about the same.
3. Waffle effect is pretty bad on the SideVu while running DownVu on the same frequency. If you run the DV on 800 it pretty much goes away.
4. 2D CHIRP is way way better than both the Onix and the Simrad in my opinion. Perfect arches and very good resolution.
5. Panoptix will freak you out. I have never seen anything like this before. You know when you watch fish in an aquarium they kind of move around some, then stop, then move around again? That's what you see on Panoptix. There is a learning curve but it's not bad. After 30 minutes I was picking out trees from other structure. I took a pic of my lure and you can see the braid line also. You can also see fish messing with bait balls and the bait moving away quickly.
6. I think for my type of fishing Panoptix down will get more use. Forward is pretty weird sometimes. Even if you are on a flat bottom, it looks like the bottom is sloping up. Again, first time out.
7. I watched a big fish follow my lure really close and when I looked down close to the boat it was a huge gar. It was just following the lure trying to decide what to do. Was able to see it with the forward panoptix first.

Here are some pics, I will report more in a bit. Need to grab something to eat.

[Diel11]

This is half 455 half 800khz.



Waffle effect.









This is 125khz custom frequency.



This is my lure. It's braided line with a 2.5 inch minnow slab.



Trolling a jig

[Diel11]

This is a tree with the forward panoptix. I need more time with this to tune it some.



Another tree



The spikes on the sides are trees. I think I figured out that they look like this because the sonar pulse is not traveling behind them. So they spike up.



This is what crosstalk looks like when you aim the forward panoptix towards the down. Freaks out and it looks like a flashing TV screen.



Blue dots are bait.



More bait. The squarish thing on the front of the 3D is most likely the hull of the boat. I have the down panoptix mounted in a pocket and I think it's seeing the front of the pocket.

[ncskeeterzx225]

Wow is all I can say.

[grout-scout]

Nice... I think... Oh hell, I have no idea what I'm looking at, lol.

[KAG]

Very nice

[Diel11]

I think in order to be able to use the forward Panoptix I will need a lot more practice. The down is a piece of cake. The 3d stuff is also weird sometimes, but it will pick up bottom contour changes very well. I really liked the sidevu and downvu, plus the 2d chirps is good to go. Maps are very good, I was using the LakeVu HD Ultra next to the latest Navionics and they are both great.

[LWINCHESTER2]

Thanks for posting all this. Good to see.

[vik]

Waffle effect

Could you please advice why waffle effect had disappeared on the second screen shot. The same depth, the same speed….what is the difference in settings? Did you turn off Dv or just used different frequencies for Dv and Sv?

[GPtimes2]

I think in order to be able to use the forward Panoptix I will need a lot more practice. The down is a piece of cake. The 3d stuff is also weird sometimes, but it will pick up bottom contour changes very well. I really liked the sidevu and downvu, plus the 2d chirps is good to go. Maps are very good, I was using the LakeVu HD Ultra next to the latest Navionics and they are both great.

Wit the lakevu ultra, be sure to check out the fisheye view with the fish id (not sure that was what it was called) turned on. very nice feature.

[hawgripper]

I think that the panoptix is going to be one of those things that is hard to show in a screen shot because of the constant movement.

you really need to experience it or have a video. Its kinda like trying to show how good a flasher can be with just a screen shot, not gonna show you too much.

great read and review by the way Diel.

[TroyBoy30]

the 2d is outstanding. I was really hoping these units wouldnt impress me so i could keep what i have

can you do some 600ft mapping overlays for us?

[Diel11]

Could you please advice why waffle effect had disappeared on the second screen shot. The same depth, the same speed….what is the difference in settings? Did you turn off Dv or just used different frequencies for Dv and Sv?

No problem. I changed DV to 800khz.

[Diel11]

I think that the panoptix is going to be one of those things that is hard to show in a screen shot because of the constant movement.

you really need to experience it or have a video. Its kinda like trying to show how good a flasher can be with just a screen shot, not gonna show you too much.

great read and review by the way Diel.

Dead on. By the time you see something and hold the home button down, the fish are gone. One thing that was really impressive is the AHRS sensor. I had some boats go by and was in their wakes for a bit, yet the returns still come back straight down. You don't see any distortion because the boat is moving side to side.

Seeing bait balls swimming around like crazy while sand bass where chasing them was crazy. You could see them being chased to the surface and then bam! top water action next to the boat. Just cool to see them heading up to the surface in a hurry.

[Diel11]

the 2d is outstanding. I was really hoping these units wouldnt impress me so i could keep what i have

can you do some 600ft mapping overlays for us?

I'll get it done next time. Will try the fish eye view also.

[vik]

No problem. I changed DV to 800khz.

Great! Thank you, It works!

[Todd Driscoll]

Thanks for sharing Diel! I agree, Panoptix Forward does take a few hours of running time to begin to understand. I've spent a total of 10 hours or so with mine, and watching your lure and how fish interact with it is absolutely mesmerizing. Like I stated on the other thread, I'm hoping to get some good videos of Panoptix this weekend using the Helm app and my iPad.

[Diel11]

One thing I miss from the Onix is the ability to use a joystick and buttons if needed. So today I installed a GRID pad.





Stinks you have to buy it separately but it's worth it.

I also installed a GMI 20, which serves as a redundant set of gauges plus more. It connects to the NMEA 2000 network so you can see engine functions, heading sensor, etc.

[TroyBoy30]

The grid is on my list as well

[RangerSam]

Great information !!!! Interested in the "grid" === need to read up on that...
I did not like the trolling motor setup for my forward Panoptix (Mount) so I purchased a manual steer 112RT from Jones Trolling Motor (BBC) and got it finished yesterday. I hope my setup works as good as what you have shown with this post.

Does anyone know if Garmin has a bulk-head pass thru connector for their cables (like Ethernet) are they standard CAT6 ? I want to be able to change out trolling motors without disassembly of the connectors at the graph...