New DI units

I haven’t been keeping up with new products as much as I’d like, but I’m a bit excited about a couple I just saw out.

I’m referring to the new Lowrance Elite DSI sonar and the Humminbird 596C HD DI sonar .

I’ve posted the difference between Humminbird and Lowrance before, and had a lot of good opinions. I’ll keep it short this time.

I currently run Lowrance units. My sonar is a 510c if I remember right, pretty basic sonar. I do my mapping on a 332c, and no longer use the sonar on that unit. If I were to get one of these DI units, I would keep running the units that I currently use. So that of course leads to the main question- will I be able to run either of these DI units while using the other sonar at the same time (I’m worried about interference)? I can’t remember right off what frequencty my other unit is running at, but I believe it would be 192 or 200. Just curious if anyone had any further knowledge of this. I’m going to go look at their sites right now and see if I can find any useful info.

Of course I would like to have the SI unit as well, I believe there is a real use for such an item in a lot of instances while on the water here in NE. But the big advantage of getting one of these DI units would be the price, for starters, and I could keep it separate from the other units and keep using the system I’m used to. Also, I wouldn’t have to get a bigger screen for anything, as I would not be adding anything, besides another screen, if that makes sense.

Finding new crappies piles would be an obvious bonus, and seeing new things while trolling would be great too.

Of course, I know another option would be to ditch the 510 and just go with the new sonar, but I’d really prefer to keep them and just add another and use it for DI only. I’d like to avoid making the screen smaller by having to split it.

I’m eager to hear any opinions, reviews or suggestions you can offer. Thanks in advance–

I’m pretty sure the DI runs a different frequency than the standard sonar. On the HDS units, the downscan / sidescan transducer runs at 400 and 800Mhz I believe. I often run downscan on one unit and 2D sonar on the other one without issues.

I run the 997.

My 2 cents is that I rarely use DI. When scouting, the SI is much more valuable. When locating fish relating to structure (i.e. walleyes on a breakline or at the base of a reef), the split screen view with SI/regular 2d sonar is what I run.

If I was going to spend some $$, I would go all the way and go with SI. I think DI without SI isn’t THAT big of an improvement over regular 2d. DI shows big structure like trees, etc quite nicely – but its been my finding that fish tend to “stick out” much better on 2d (big red blobs) vs DI images (smaller white streaks which are harder to see, expecially if you have a smaller screen size)….

Good luck…

Thanks guys, that’s a good start.

I know what you mean with it not being a HUGE improvement, but it sure would show me some new things around these areas that I’ve never seen before. True, I’d have to be right on top of it, but where I fish, there’s not really a lot of ‘big water’, and you can see a lot in a day. I can really see it coming in handy with my crappie fishing too; I know I’d find tree piles that are there, but I have never seen. Trust me, I’d much rather go with SI, but $500 vs $1450 is kinda attractive too.

I went out to the Kearney Cabela’s store this am, and I was purely shocked that they had both models in stock. At this point, I wanted to see the difference in picture quality between the two. In my opinion, the Humminbird really blew the 5x away, and it didn’t appear to be close. Just seemed more crisp, a much better picture, and had more detail. I have to say I was diggin it.

There’s an option where you can actually go in and change the frequency from 455 to 800, a real nice feature. Looks to me like it wouldn’t interfere with my other toys at all, which thrills me because I wouldn’t have to change what I have now.

But yes, the SI sure is nice to have, I know…..now where’d I put all that cash….

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In my opinion, the Humminbird really blew the 5x away, and it didn’t appear to be close. Just seemed more crisp, a much better picture, and had more detail.

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Makes sense that the Hbird looked better. The Elite 5X is 480X480 pixels whereas the 596C is 640X640 pixels. That is a huge difference in resolution.

Very true, JD. I really thought the ‘bird looked nice. I could get used to staring at it all day and learn some new things. I’m excited to see things I never knew were there.

Hey Brian, think one of those new DI units will pick up a virtually brand new 6′ Cabelas XML and Abu Cardinal 401 in 27 feet of water? I can give you the coordinates down at Harlan.
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Don’t ask….. just make sure you check that your rod holders are tight

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There’s an option where you can actually go in and change the frequency from 455 to 800, a real nice feature. Looks to me like it wouldn’t interfere with my other toys at all, which thrills me because I wouldn’t have to change what I have now.

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You might want to dig deeper into this option before opening your wallet. I seem to remember reading somewhere that this option doesn’t actually turn off the trasmit or ping of a frequency, just the display of it. I’m not sure if that’s the correct terminology.

Here’s some info for example:
http://www.xumba.scholleco.com/viewtopic.php?p=6188&sid=f77979b0bdf2331b2cc52a07d61018ac

I believe this statement is correct. I have a 798 HBird and also a Lowrance next to it. There was interference on the Lowrance, although it still worked, just some vertical lines.

You might want to dig deeper into this option before opening your wallet. I seem to remember reading somewhere that this option doesn’t actually turn off the trasmit or ping of a frequency, just the display of it. I’m not sure if that’s the correct terminology.

Here’s some info for example:
http://www.xumba.scholleco.com/viewtopic.php?p=6188&sid=f77979b0bdf2331b2cc52a07d61018ac

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Thanks guys, I appreciate that. I’ll check those links this weekend, been gone a lot this week. Sure hope I can run one…lots of snags this week that would have been good to actually see.

Finally had time to read that link, and yup….looks like I’ll still have interference, the way I read that. I mean, I could just use the ‘bird instead of the Lowrance for the traditional sounder, but the main goal is to stay away from any and all split screens.