Raymarine Dragonfly
 

Dragonfly
 

I've been using one for 6 months on a PA14 and I love it. Great picture and my test each time on the water is if I can drop a 4" jig head to the bottom and see it bounce I'm happy. It's helped me to catch more fish for sure. I use the original 5" model with GPS. The 5" or the 7" would be my choice. The transducer fits in the transducer spot perfect.

I have the Dragonfly 7 mounted on my hobie pro angler 14. I used this ram mount

http://www.rammount.com/part/RAP-BB-201-14U

to keep the finder high off the water and close to the chair so that I can easily observe and adjust view. I love the picture on the DF7, but am on my 3rd unit in less than one year for reliability issues. You can see my set-up on this post:


http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/s...ad.php?t=26441

Reliability Issues?
 

Can you elaborate on this? What are the issues that you have encountered? Did they involve damage when the Kayak rolled, or did it just crap out? The gentleman I bought the kayak from said he rolled his kayak and his Lowrance malfunctioned after that. he said the head unit was fine, but he had water intrusion in the SD Card slot where the Navionics Chip is inserted (which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be water proof). If I buy the Dragonfly, I will get it from West Marine with the 2 year extended warranty plan. It's about $70 more, but WELL worth it. I will definitely look into the taller ram mount. I like your set up, and I really like that bloody YFT you're bouncing onto your lap!

Back to me
 

I have the first generation and they changed the micro card door(it's a magnetic operation) after with some complaints about the door failing sometimes underwater. But I rolled mine (PA)three times in a row(I know)trying to learn how to surf launch in 3' surf, the launch attempt was a complete failure but the dragonfly is still working great

I returned my dragonfly 5 and back to my old HDS 5 for the following reason:

1. GPS zoom in/ zoom out "steps" is to big, can't fine tune the zoom to my liking . HDS 5 has better zoom capability.

2. Sonar in auto mode sometime lose it's bottom lock. Switch to manual and it work again.. not reliable as HDS 5.


Other than that dragonfly 5 is very good in all other aspect .

1.Not as bulky and heavy as HDS .
2. HDS has magnetic card reader door( no good), Dragonfly has tight rubber seal door ( better)
3. one cable instead of two.

I have a PA14 also, and did not see the transducer fitting in perfect. First had to do cut out the lowrance mount guides. Then found that it was trapping sand between the plate and the transducer causing a degraded picture, so had to refabricate the mount and cut the transducer cover out to give the unit unobstructed transmissions.

Dragonfly 7 reliability issues include: broken plug-in pin, inconsistent operation (fails frequently in the morning, but works well once the sun is up), Failed card reader, On/Off button sticks on, and short in power cord( since the power and transducer cord are connected, have to replace both)

I have rolled twice with the DF7. Thankfully the unit kept working after the rolls, which during one incident was huge peace of mind as the unit indicated I was drifting back to the beach(with the 2 fwd hatches submerged, was unable to pump the kayak out). About 2 weeks after the second roll, the card reader stopped working, and I believe the roll incident excellerated corrosion that caused the failure. The on/Off button failure occurred right before a tournament, being that I did not have time to deal with re-rigging, or wait the 6 weeks for raymarine to make a repair, I bought a new unit from west marine with the 2 year warranty for an additional 84.50. Regardless of which brand unit one buys, if it is going on a kayak, a warranty is a good investment. The unit I bought at west marine has never been rolled, and is starting to have the same button sticking on problem that I had with the original unit.

I purchased the Dragonfly7 last August, when it failed for the second time right before a kayak tournament, I did not have time to re-rig or wait 6 weeks for another repair, so I purchased a new unit last march, the magnetic card reader doors are identical on both units. I blame a rolling of the kayak for accellerated corrosion leading to the failure of the card reader in my first unit. The water proofing standard on the website says IXP6 and IXP7. How can it be both? Unsuitable activities for IXP6 are any sustained immersion. The fact that your unit has survived 3 rolls without incident seems like a miracle.

Electrolysis
 

Well, unfortunately when you run DC current over salt water (12 VDC from the battery), it immediately starts to corrode due to electrolysis. It's the same thing that happens when you blend ferrous and non-ferrous metals and submerge them in salt water. Some metals are more prone to electrolysis, thus they are intentionally used to divert corrosion away from the "important" components. If you've ever owned a boat with an outboard, you will see zinc anode plates affixed to the lower unit. By doing this, electrolysis occurs at the anode, and not on the outboard. So if salt water (even in minute amounts) gets into that card reader, and there is DC battery current pumping through it, it immediately starts to corrode. This could probably be overcome by smearing a really thin layer of clear silicone over the edges of the door to the SD Card. Not only will it help keep it closed, but it will waterproof it as well. If you do it, make sure you don't use 5200 or 6200 RTV silicone/adhesive, as you will probably never get the door back open. I haven't done it, but I think I will with whatever unit I buy.

This is a GREAT and simple fix for solving the transducer issue.

Agree, regardless of which brand fishfinder one buys, priority should be to add additional waterproofing to all openings: Dialectric paste on the plug pins, silicon, or electric tape over the card reader doors..etc.

Thanks, It is a solution provided the transducer fits in the hobie lowrance ready area. Wish hobie would make that area larger to accomodate the larger transducers that combine side and down scan into one unit. Maybe hobie could redesign the area to accomodate the full range of sidescan. Having a unit on an arm over the side is a speed killer.

I'm thinking that your signal is going to be slightly degraded regardless of what unit you use because you're transmitting through the plastic transducer protection cover. Those transducers are designed to be mounted to the transom of a boat, and angled just right to reflect what's directly below the boat when you're not on plane. Typically, they are unobstructed. When I was in the Navy, I was a Sonar Tech. That's essentially what your transducer is. It's a simplified version of Sonar (Sound Navigation and Ranging) technology. Sound travels 3.5x's faster under water, and there are 3 naturally ocurring mediums that effect sound travel. These are temperature, pressure, and salinity. The designers of these units use mathematical algorithms to determine averages for particular conditions. Usually the water temperature at the surface is factored in to give you a reasonably accurate reading. What they don't account for is transmitting through a piece of plastic or resin. They do make thru-hull transducers, but these transducers aren't thru hull. JohnMckroidJr's fix for this is the best scenario (IMHO).

I believe the lowrance transom mounted transducers list shoot thru hull capable, they even sell the epoxy to mount inside the hull. But for as much as we pay for the finder you defenatly don't want to degrade your return.

I did not know that. It's good to know. I might have to look into the Dragonfly transducer specs and see it it's listed as "thru hull" also.

Garmin makes a kit for through hull installation also, but let's face it, It the echo has to go through a layer of plastic(twice...out going and receiving), it is going to be weaker return.