# Lowrance iFinder H2O Plus



## HammerHeadHank (May 18, 2006)

Hi, does anyone own one of these : Lowrance iFinder H2O Plus ?
I am wondering if these have a real time speed for trolling ?
Any reviews good or bad ?
The specs do not indicate if they show how fast you are going across the water ? any info on this particular model will be appreciated. Thanks, HammerHeadHank


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## nixmkt (Mar 4, 2008)

I have the H20c. It does show speed, but I have not done any trolling with it yet so I can't comment. Lewzer has a H20. He probably can give you better insight on it. I believe the Plus is the same unit only with enhanced mapping.


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## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

I have the older b/w model with 12 channel WAAS receiver. It is not real accurate at lower speeds but I do use it as a trolling speed indicator. It usually gets no better than a 20ft EPE (estimated position error).
The new ones have the 16 channel WAAS receiver. I haven't got to play with one enough to determine < 2mph accuracy.

That being said my old one does a pretty good job (I think) indicating drift or trolling speed. It gets me down to 0.4mph.

Reviews... I love the thing. Especially with the free lake maps available on the Lowrance website. The contour lines are reasonably accurate although depth will be off depending on lake level at that particular time of year.

Every walleye I catch on inland lakes gets waypointed. This is my fifth year with it and you can really see the patterns and points where the walleyes congregate.
Crappie condos and submerged structure also get waypointed.
It allows you to go back to those points year after year although the precision is not sufficient to put you right on top. You will still have to use old fashioned vectoring or anchor dragging to do that.
Great for putting me on my summer structure when ice fishing in the winter.
Downside... The screen is too small for some of the older people I fish with. They cannot see it very well, even with their reading glasses.
The new color one has a much better resolution though.

The MapCreate software really sucks. The security crap they have built into it makes it useless when you switch to a new computer and try to load the software again. 
It will not allow you to save your work to the card. It also limits you to 5 registered cards which really doesn't matter if you get sd cards with enough capacity.
I use two 1 gig cards. One for east of Misissippi and one for west of the Mississippi.
It is also fantastic for flights if you happen to do that on a regular basis. 
Shows altitude, groundspeed and flight trails. It allows you to ID where you are in the air and what all those neat lakes you seem to see all over in the air and can never find when on the ground.
Well worth the cash and I think much better than the Magellans of similiar price.




> The specs do not indicate if they show how fast you are going across the water ?


Yes it does that. You can customize your screen to show up to 8 boxes of various data. I use 4 boxes showing the time, groundspeed, EPE (estimated position error) and something else I cannot remember at this early hour.


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## HammerHeadHank (May 18, 2006)

Lewzer said:


> I have the older b/w model with 12 channel WAAS receiver. It is not real accurate at lower speeds but I do use it as a trolling speed indicator. It usually gets no better than a 20ft EPE (estimated position error).
> The new ones have the 16 channel WAAS receiver. I haven't got to play with one enough to determine < 2mph accuracy.
> 
> That being said my old one does a pretty good job (I think) indicating drift or trolling speed. It gets me down to 0.4mph.
> ...



Thanks Lewzer, one more question how do you communicate between the unit and the PC ? ( USB ). also you mention a 5 sdmmc card limit, can this be defeated ? The reason why I am asking is someone is selling these all day long , on E-Bay used , and I don't want to find out that I can't use any sdmmc cards !!! I'm not sure what you mean or what registered is ? can't any sd card work with the gps unit ? HammerHeadHank


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## nixmkt (Mar 4, 2008)

HammerHeadHank said:


> can't any sd card work with the gps unit ?


Any MMC or SD card can be used in the unit. I believe Lewzer is referring to the extra MapCreate software and that it won't let you transfer data to any more than five cards. The guts/programming of the units are fairly old (4-5+ yrs) and based on small volume cards (1 gig was huge then). I believe my H20c can only handle 1 gig max itself and says a 1 gig card is the max. You can use a larger card, but the particular file you want to use can't be bigger than that. The H20 capacity may be less.

Com port on mine is one serial communications port, NMEA 0183 version 2.0 compatible. I haven't tried it yet so can't help there.


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## HammerHeadHank (May 18, 2006)

Thanks, to all for your help. But I need to clear this up. Is it possible to download and install the freedom maps enhanced lake maps from Lowrance web site without their proprietary usb card reader,and install on to the Ifinder H2O, and have it function properly ? It sounds like to me that you have to have this card reader , If so then the freedom enhanced lake maps would be of no value without the card reader. Correct ? Anyone ever try to load any of the maps without the their card reader ? Please advise, I am ready to pull the trigger On one of these but it is just for the unit alone. Thanks, HammerHeadHank


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## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

> Is it possible to download and install the freedom maps enhanced lake maps from Lowrance web site without their proprietary usb card reader,and install on to the Ifinder H2O, and have it function properly ?


If you are referring to the free lake maps on the Lowrance website the answer is yes you can. Just download the file to your card with or without the proprietary card reader. Place it in your H2O and it will automatically read the lake and show a more detailed shoreline and lake contour lines.
The card reader is mainly for the software on your computer. You have to use proprietary card reader to save files created on the Mapcreate software. 
If you do not create files on the computer no need for the special reader.
Make sure you get the cig lighter power cord. That thing can eat batteries.


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## HammerHeadHank (May 18, 2006)

Hi,I just wanted to thank everyone for your advice. I am buying the Lowrance H2O. The freedom maps sold me. Thanks again, HammerHeadHank


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## jkeeney20 (Mar 21, 2006)

I have one and wouldn't be caught without it. Use it on every lake I fish.


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