Garmin UHD2 94sv Questions

[Dougcole]

Hi All,


I recently bought a UHD2 94sv with transducer for my flats boat (they are on sale at west for $800, which is a great deal) and installed it over the weekend. This replaces an older 6" garmin fishfinder/gps combo which I swap back and forth between the flats boat and the Mainship. I use it at the lower helm on the Mainship as I very seldom ever run the big boat from down there and don't need much from an electronics standpoint. I have a couple of questions.


I have a pair of Garmin 942 and an 18" radome on the upper helm. I almost bought a 742 for the skiff/lower helm but the UHD was cheaper and offered new features so I went with it.



1. The Bluechart g3 that came preloaded on the new machine does not have data for the Bahamas, but my 942s on the upper helm do have it. I'm reluctant to spend $200 on a chip for a unit that I hardly ever use, so I looked on ebay and found a used navionics jax/bahamas chip from 2017 for $45 and I am considering that.



One thing I like about Garmin is that in the past they used explorer charts for their Bahamas data, but I don't think that is the case anymore. My 942s (circa 2019) have the explorer data, so I have not updated the data. I am aware of shifting sands etc, but nothing has changed as far as I can tell, not even post Dorian, so I plan on sticking with it.


All three units have wifi capability, so maybe the easiest thing is just to synch the UHD with upper helm units for data and radar?


2. Transducer. The UHD comes with a nice side view transom mount transducer, which is great for the flats boat, but not so important and not really applicable from a mounting standpoint for the trawler. For the old unit I used a simple inside the hull puck transducer that basically just gives depth but the plugs for it are not compatible with the UHD. Do you know if there is an adapter? I have ZERO interest in cutting a hole in the bottom of the trawler for a transducer that I will seldom use. Any suggestions?


Thanks in advance,
Doug

 

[nobles9596]

The GARMIN ECHOMAP UHD 94sv Chartplotter/Fishfinder Combo with GT54 Transducer and US Coastal G3 Charts is $699 at West Marine today. I almost bought it but I see you cant add on radar to the echo map series

 

[Dougcole]

The GARMIN ECHOMAP UHD 94sv Chartplotter/Fishfinder Combo with GT54 Transducer and US Coastal G3 Charts is $699 at West Marine today. I almost bought it but I see you cant add on radar to the echo map series

That's what I paid as well, I see that I said $800 in my post above, but it is $700.


I don't really need the radar function for this unit, though I think (not sure yet) that I can use the wifi to connect it to my 942s and mirror them for Radar. I do that with an i pad now for the lower helm. I bought this unit mainly for my flats boat, the use on the big boat is just gravy.


It's a nice unit for $700, especially when you factor in the transducer.

 

[nobles9596]

I have a brand new airmar thru hull transducer installed. I looked at the garmin and the raymarine but have not decided. I do like the feature that the raymarine will broadcast wifi to an extra ipad with all the navigation & fishfinder. Love garmin products, a hard decision but great price!