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Purchased a Hummingbird Smartcast a week ago. Had it out 4 times and only worked well once. I plan on returning it to BPS tomorrow. I'm pretty disappointed with Hummingbird. The RF technology shouldn't be that complicated for a company like there's.
Chuck
What is this product?
I have had one for a couple of years and do not use it much. I think it works decent, though. You get what you pay for. They're pretty cheap. I wouldn't expect great performance.
I have one too that I have only used a few times. Walmart marked it down to $40 so I thought why not. It works fine though.
What are they???
It is a fishfinder. You cast out the transducer (wireless) and it sends the info back to main unit which runs on about eight AA batteries I think it is. I have used it when out in my canoe. You can use it wherever you want. I tied the transducer to heavy cord. It is about the size of a little duckling so you never know if a bass might not want to eat it. :D
It is a depth finder/fish finder. It has three option....worn like a watch, fishin pole mounted and/or regular type led Disply. The "transducer" is wireless. Hummingbird calls it the RSS (remote Sonar Sensor). You attach the RSS to the fishing line like a bait and throw it out In the water. It then transmittal data via RF and the receiver processes the info just like a typical depth finder.
The issues I had...
1) up to ten minutes to latch/connect each time I used it.
2) slow refresh rate
3) random loss in signal, mostly after each cast
4) put it in my pool and it said it was 11ft. My pools is 7ft at deep end and it was in the middle
Know 1, agreed. However, RF technology has been around for a long time. I would expect for 99.00 allot more. I use lots of RF devices all on different freqs and never experience that kind of data loss. Given the size of hummingbird I would expect a bit more. The performance I experienced is one of a prototype.
Chuck