HotMaps Premium 2007 Canada -Review-

[jmikail]

This is a quick review of my new HotMaps Premium 2007 Canada chip that I just received. I have yet to get on the water so I will be able to give a more comprehensive review in the spring.

Unit: Lowrance iFinder H20 Color

The installation was easy enough. I just popped it in the back of the iFinder. I then went into the 'Menu' and chose the file for southern Ontario. One slightly annoying thing is that the chip takes a little time to get the requested info (such as zooming in/out & tracking to a new frame).

I specifically went to the Lake St-Francois close to Cornwall. The details were compared to a TrakMaps bathymetric paper charts. The details were decent for depths and all of the navigational tools and markers. But it lacks the high detail of contours and found on TrakMaps charts.

It has about 3 lakes in Canada that have a great deal of detail. They have fish hotspots and extremely detailed contours. I am sure more and more lakes will get this treatment in future HotMaps editions.

All in all it looks great for GPS navigation and with the help of paper charts, will be great for safer navigation and better fishing on new bodies of water.

I'll review it again once I get on the water with it.

[eye-tracker]

I'll review it again once I get on the water with it.

The maps are a good reference but be very careful when navigating with the Hot maps Canada chip. On Mississippi lake many of the islands and rock reefs are located in the wrong area and it often shows me on land when I am actually in 20 feet of water.

In reference to the speed issue, as Navionics adds more data to the SD chips you will notice a slower response from the units. The read time of large blocks of data from a SD card is very slow because of the security features of SD. I noticed this slow response with the new chip in the LCX 110, 112 and GlobalMap 7600.

Looking forward to your review once you are on the water.

-sheldon

[IanD]

I have to agree with Sheldon about the accuracy of some of the Hot Map charts. Last fall I was running down Lake Heney at 42kph according to my GPS. Sweet! Only problem was that the Hot Map was showing me doing that about 60 feet on shore and heading up the side of a mountain. Don't throw away your paper maps.

[jmikail]

That is a little disappointing to hear but I hope that this new 2007 edition has made the appropriate corrections.

I know that I will make sure to give them feedback on errors in their software so it will not be a problem on future editions.

Since I have been playing around with the software it has become clear that some lakes have more detail than others. For example, Rice Lake and Mississippi Lake have high details contours and species-specific fishing hotspots while newer lakes only have basic contours and markers.

I hope the ice breaks early this year (...i.e. late March) so I can get out and navigate and scout spots for the season openers.

[Charles_Sim]

Hey guys,

The hotmaps chips are a little off on some lakes. It often depends on the base chart used.

For Navigational purposes, you should look to the gold and Platinum series of charts. The Hotmaps were developed as a fishing chart. I'll be working with navionics, sending them updated GPS points to help them better align their maps. If you want to help out, feel free to email me co-ordinate that may help. I'll be gather data such as" the tip of island X is 44.33333 /76.22222" or "the point where the X bridge touch the east side of the river is ...." While this may be a little off, the cumulated data may help the future maps.

There are also looking for new smaller lakes to include on their chips in the future. There is a form on the Navionics site to file out. The highlights of this years chip for me is Muskoka, and Nippissing! Locally I know they added a few, off the top of my head.. calabogie. There is a whole list on the Navionics site.

As for the loading speed, the amount of data being displayed is huge, especially when you look at the new Platinum chips which have Satelite overlay, and photos of areas of interest, but I believe the main factor is the processor speed of you unit. It the same with any computing device. an older unit is going to be slower.

jmikail, you might be happier with the Gold chip for the St. Francis. I used it last year, and found it very detailed.

[jmikail]

Hey guys,

For Navigational purposes, you should look to the gold and Platinum series of charts. The Hotmaps were developed as a fishing chart.

Yes, I thought about the Gold XL but it did not have enough of the waters that I will frequent on one chip. I would have to buy two and that gets REALLY expensive. Plus, I am more interested in the fishing since I am not going to venture on to big waters.

I'll be working with navionics, sending them updated GPS points to help them better align their maps. If you want to help out, feel free to email me co-ordinate that may help. I'll be gather data such as" the tip of island X is 44.33333 /76.22222" or "the point where the X bridge touch the east side of the river is ...." While this may be a little off, the cumulated data may help the future maps.

That is a great idea. I will definitely do that when I find errors.

As for the loading speed, the amount of data being displayed is huge, especially when you look at the new Platinum chips which have Satelite overlay, and photos of areas of interest, but I believe the main factor is the processor speed of you unit. It the same with any computing device. an older unit is going to be slower.

When I finally have a bigger boat and dish out 2000$ for a serious GPS/Sonar unit then the Platinum chips will be perfect. For now though, I will stick to the smaller units until I learn to fully utilize the technology.

jmikail, you might be happier with the Gold chip for the St. Francis. I used it last year, and found it very detailed.

Yeah, but I spend equal amounts of time in Quebec and Ontario so I would have to get the other chip, too since the Gold 902 chip pretty much stops at the QC/ON border.

[Wallyboss]

There is a Hard Reboot that you can do to the H2Oc and it will set it back up to better accuracy. I used to be about 100 feet south of my actual location. And now it is pretty well bang on. Here is what I received from Lowrance.
Hi sir,
What you can try is performing a hard reset on the unit. Please remove your SD card and follow these steps in order to try and rectify this problem. 1. turn unit off 2. press and hold the ZIN & ZOUT keys at the same time 3. press and hold the PWR key 4. a tone will sound 5. when tone is sounding, release buttons and immediately press and hold the FIND key 6. while pressing FIND, a higher tone will sound 7. the unit will reset. Turn unit OFF and back ON