I was at the store the other day and noticed that a few venders such as Lowrance had some pretty impressive combination sounder/chartplotter units in the 3.5" range. I did not realize nice electronics had made its way into small size factors! It's great! I immediately got the idea to put one on my 10' dingy. The chartplotter would be great for marking crab pot locations and with depth would help in setting pots in the right depth.
But....here's what I didn't like. The Lowrance unit did not have any apparent method of updating the charts. When I drilled into detail for San Juan islands and Canadian Gulf Islands, the unit had extremely poor charting and display. Too bad, otherwise it was cool.
I looked at a few others, but did not find anything that really interested me. Garmin is out immediately since they only support their own proprietary format and bad business practices.
So, open ended question. Does anybody make a nice 3.5 inchish chartplotter/sounder combo unit that supports cmap type charting?
But....here's what I didn't like. The Lowrance unit did not have any apparent method of updating the charts. When I drilled into detail for San Juan islands and Canadian Gulf Islands, the unit had extremely poor charting and display. Too bad, otherwise it was cool.
I looked at a few others, but did not find anything that really interested me. Garmin is out immediately since they only support their own proprietary format and bad business practices.
So, open ended question. Does anybody make a nice 3.5 inchish chartplotter/sounder combo unit that supports cmap type charting?