Lowrance Live Mapping is Here

[Willowtrail]

Live mapping is here. Hot off the press, just released. The Carbon, Gen 3 and Elite Ti are all updatable for free to run live mapping.

https://downloads.lowrance.com/

[Walleyedude]

Awesome!

I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time.

Looks like a patch to fix my wonky network time settings too. Excellent.

Thank you Lowrance!

[RavYak]

Finally.

I am glad they walked away from Navionics for live mapping although it is disappointing to lose the maps I already have created. At least I will be able to use the community maps now which will offset some of my lost maps.

It will be interesting to see what functionality they offer. Sounds like only depth so far. Bottom hardness and weeds would be nice too. A way of fixing bad data points would be really nice to have, was very frustrating with Sonarcharts live when you got a bad data point and it screwed up a chunk of your map.

[Walleyedude]

If you’ve got StructureScan 3D, there was an update released for that today too. Make sure you update it at the same time.

[EZM]

That's 6 years behind Hummingbird and about time for them. The lack of this technology was the main reason I went to Humminbird in 2013.

I bet humminbird now releases a version that has fish automatically jump into your boat for spring 2019 ...... lol

[Walleyedude]

I’m surprised this isn’t getting more love.

Based on the amount of confusion and complaining about not having live mapping or the cost of map chips and subscriptions, I thought people would be dancing in the streets lol.

It’s FREE. No map chip required up front and no subscription fee.

You get live mapping with contours down to 0.5ft, custom shading, and the ability to share the data with others if you choose to.

[cube]

That's 6 years behind Hummingbird and about time for them. The lack of this technology was the main reason I went to Humminbird in 2013.

I bet humminbird now releases a version that has fish automatically jump into your boat for spring 2019 ...... lol

Lowrance still has to get 360 going but then it will be wow.

[cube]

I’m surprised this isn’t getting more love.

Based on the amount of confusion and complaining about not having live mapping or the cost of map chips and subscriptions, I thought people would be dancing in the streets lol.

It’s FREE. No map chip required up front and no subscription fee.

You get live mapping with contours down to 0.5ft, custom shading, and the ability to share the data with others if you choose to.

Personally I think it's great and probably will be planning a purchase here in the spring. Do you have any idea how the carbon screen functions for ice fishing. I have a gen 1 and a gen 2 and they are fine (ie the screen does not freeze up) .

[cube]

Just curious how many of you have put a stand alone gps puck close by your transducer so as to minimise the offset for mapping. If you have done this how close did you get the two together.

I never minded the fact that my sonar puck was 8 or 10 feet from the head unit/gps antenna before but if I am mapping I think I might want that offset reduced because that's a 16 to 20 foot error minium if coming to the same point from opposite directions

[Walleyedude]

Just curious how many of you have put a stand alone gps puck close by your transducer so as to minimise the offset for mapping. If you have done this how close did you get the two together.

I never minded the fact that my sonar puck was 8 or 10 feet from the head unit/gps antenna before but if I am mapping I think I might want that offset reduced because that's a 16 to 20 foot error minium if coming to the same point from opposite directions

I use a Point 1 mounted at the rear about 3ft from my transducer.

I don't think it makes a huge difference to be honest in terms of the quality of the mapping overall.

I have seen the difference, and it can be significant in certain scenarios - sharp turns give the maps fits when there's a big space between transducer and GPS signal and really sharp breaks can affect the mapping depending on the angle that they're being crossed and when transect lines aren't straight.

However, in the vast majority of cases, once the data density is high enough - ie you've made enough passes over a spot and in some kind of a "loose" grid, I haven't seen any significant errors in the mapping based on that offset. Certainly nothing that isn't within the "fudge factor" of boat control and water level fluctuations.

The downside of the rear placed GPS puck is when anchor locking on a waypoint, or holding a spot, the GPS location is 20ft from the bow mount trolling motor. That can throw off your precise boat position and affect the jog feature. It's not enough to make me re-position my Point1 or be without it though.

[-JR-]

I guess I should be dancing now that I have 7ti but kinda of seems like I am in the blind on the down loading side .
Got two cards....a Nav. card and a C-map card in the box with the sonar

The nav card I see i have Alberta mapping of lakes on it and the C-map has really nothing until you get into the states.
So I have only used the Nav card.

Did some live mapping with the Nav Card while on a few lakes ,but now what ...is there more that I can do ?

I heard GPS Central had a few courses in Calgary.
Really would like to see one in Edmonton.

[Walleyedude]

I guess I should be dancing now that I have 7ti but kinda of seems like I am in the blind on the down loading side .
Got two cards....a Nav. card and a C-map card in the box with the sonar

The nav card I see i have Alberta mapping of lakes on it and the C-map has really nothing until you get into the states.
So I have only used the Nav card.

Did some live mapping with the Nav Card while on a few lakes ,but now what ...is there more that I can do ?

I heard GPS Central had a few courses in Calgary.
Really would like to see one in Edmonton.

I would suggest you start with a blank microSD card, either 8, 16, or 32 MB, and dedicate that card to all of your Genesis Live mapping. Same process as your Navionics card, just no subscription fee.

For those like yourself with only 1 card slot, it'll mean giving up your Navionics base map and any live mapping you've done with it to date. I'd like to think you could record your GenesisLive mapping data to that Navionics card as well so you'd have the option of both, but I'm not sure you can, and sometimes these programs have been known to not play nice with each other. Until there's more experience with the update out there, I'd suggest keeping them totally separate so you don't end up with two corrupt map files.

[220 Swift]

Next thing will be wireless transducers. Maybe they already exist.

[EZM]

Just curious how many of you have put a stand alone gps puck close by your transducer so as to minimise the offset for mapping. If you have done this how close did you get the two together.

I never minded the fact that my sonar puck was 8 or 10 feet from the head unit/gps antenna before but if I am mapping I think I might want that offset reduced because that's a 16 to 20 foot error minium if coming to the same point from opposite directions

I have a second GPS puck located at the rear of the boat for mapping.

And, if you think about it the distance from your transducer to the puck is critical to gain the most accurate mapping results.

So, to your point, having a transducer, say, 3 ft way from your GPS creates a 3 ft disparity. This disparity (inaccuracy) doubles to 6 ft (plus the normal margin of GPS error) if you try and approach that way point from the opposite direction - so closer is far more accurate. This may be a problem on a bigger boat when these numbers are 12 ft and 24 ft - that's a huge difference.

Having said all of that - trying to keep a boat precisely over structure with any bit of wind or waves is certainly not a precise exercise - so most of the time it's not a huge issue.

I did it anyways - made me feel like taking any advantage I could get.

[EZM]

I guess I should be dancing now that I have 7ti but kinda of seems like I am in the blind on the down loading side .
Got two cards....a Nav. card and a C-map card in the box with the sonar

The nav card I see i have Alberta mapping of lakes on it and the C-map has really nothing until you get into the states.
So I have only used the Nav card.

Did some live mapping with the Nav Card while on a few lakes ,but now what ...is there more that I can do ?

I heard GPS Central had a few courses in Calgary.
Really would like to see one in Edmonton.

Not sure if the Lowrance works the same as the Humminbird mapping but all you do is hit record, it paints the picture as you go, and when you are done turn it off and the map is saved forever.

It's pretty cool to watch it paint the map right behind you as you troll a new shelf or stretch of shoreline.

Next time you come to that spot you have a map and don't need to record it - it's saved and will automatically load for you.

It has changed the way I fish and put me on more fish, more often .... and I'm sure the Lowrance will deliver the data and mapping in the same manner without any need to mess around with anything more than an "record" and "stop recording" button. So easy even I can use it !!!

[-JR-]

I would suggest you start with a blank microSD card, either 8, 16, or 32 MB, and dedicate that card to all of your Genesis Live mapping. Same process as your Navionics card, just no subscription fee.

For those like yourself with only 1 card slot, it'll mean giving up your Navionics base map and any live mapping you've done with it to date. I'd like to think you could record your GenesisLive mapping data to that Navionics card as well so you'd have the option of both, but I'm not sure you can, and sometimes these programs have been known to not play nice with each other. Until there's more experience with the update out there, I'd suggest keeping them totally separate so you don't end up with two corrupt map files.

Up to now i have been recording live mapping on my Nav card, and if i do not want to see the live mapping I just made , I just hit the live mapping button and it disappblank cardears . If I turn it on again all the live mapping shows up again.
So why would I want a blank card?

[Walleyedude]

Up to now i have been recording live mapping on my Nav card, and if i do not want to see the live mapping I just made , I just hit the live mapping button and it disappblank cardears . If I turn it on again all the live mapping shows up again.
So why would I want a blank card?

The new GenesisLive update and Navionics SonarCharts Live are two completely different software programs and data.

The idea is you'll be able to do exactly what you've been doing with your Navionics mapping using GenesisLive, the only difference will be it's FREE.

In the GenesisMaps info I've seen they suggest using a blank card to record your sonar data onto. I don't know if you can record that data to your Navionics card as well and have it work. I don't really see why not, and I hope that's the case, but like I said, I'd hate to see the two of them cause errors with one another and both not work or the data from the GenesisLive maps somehow corrupt the Navionics card. Again, I DON'T KNOW if that will happen, I'm just suggesting caution until people get this thing all figured out.

My guess is it won't take long. You can bet there'll be a few glitches and quirks as people figure it all out, there always is, but Lowrance is generally pretty good at getting any needed fixes out ASAP.

[-JR-]

The new GenesisLive update and Navionics SonarCharts Live are two completely different software programs and data.

The idea is you'll be able to do exactly what you've been doing with your Navionics mapping using GenesisLive, the only difference will be it's FREE.

In the GenesisMaps info I've seen they suggest using a blank card to record your sonar data onto. I don't know if you can record that data to your Navionics card as well and have it work. I don't really see why not, and I hope that's the case, but like I said, I'd hate to see the two of them cause errors with one another and both not work or the data from the GenesisLive maps somehow corrupt the Navionics card. Again, I DON'T KNOW if that will happen, I'm just suggesting caution until people get this thing all figured out.

My guess is it won't take long. You can bet there'll be a few glitches and quirks as people figure it all out, there always is, but Lowrance is generally pretty good at getting any needed fixes out ASAP.

So far I have made some live maps on my Nav card ,as I drive my boat, the chart starts to change .
So my question is why would I pull my card out and put it in my computer and do what you call a down load. Does the mapping I just did, change again ?

[Willowtrail]

So far I have made some live maps on my Nav card ,as I drive my boat, the chart starts to change .
So my question is why would I pull my card out and put it in my computer and do what you call a down load. Does the mapping I just did, change again ?

There’s a lot to it JR.

The navionics is a subscription based card. In order to be able to do SonarCharts Live you need an active subscription. $99 US per year. The base layer maps in most of the lakes I fish a horrible and wrong.

The genesis maps will map any body of water, and is free forever other than a $15 micro SD card. You can then upload the sonar files created from tour mapping to www.genesismaps.com to a free account and get free social maps. I’ve been doin for this way for years and getting great detailed maps only it wasn’t live.

The new feature has up to 1/2’ increments for better separation. You could before and still can do custom color pallets so you can have different depth layers. Not a feature available on SonarCharts Live.

There’s a lot to it and I haven’t been able to use it too much yet, only had on the water 2 times but it’s been great.

No need to hit record, just set the overlay and it’s all automatic.


No, you can not record genesis live to a navionics card

[Walleyedude]

So far I have made some live maps on my Nav card ,as I drive my boat, the chart starts to change .
So my question is why would I pull my card out and put it in my computer and do what you call a down load. Does the mapping I just did, change again ?

I'll be honest JR, I don't follow you. You lost me.

The new GenesisLive mapping program works exactly the same as the Navionics SonarCharts Live program you've been using. You don't need to put the card into your computer or down load anything.

[Walleyedude]

I had my first chance to use the Genesis Live mapping today.

Granted 4 hrs and a few spots won’t tell the whole story, but I am VERY impressed.

It worked flawlessly. It maps from 0-25 mph. Above 25 mph it shuts off and restarts when your speed drops again. Smart move I think. The contours are instant and more realistic on the first pass or two than the SonarCharts live software, after that, they create very similar maps. The ability to change the contour interval and depth shading with GenesisLive is a really nice touch.

You can also overlay the Genesis Live mapping onto your existing Insight Genesis maps, both the private maps and the Social Maps, which is really nice when getting started with it.

The only downside I can see so far is that the base map for Genesis Live is pretty bad. I’d plan on overlaying it on the Social Map background for sure until you get some mapping built up.

I didn’t try overlaying it onto the Navionics map or getting them on a split screen. Maybe tomorrow...

Overall, a very positive first impression. Thank you Lowrance!