Humminbird AutoChart Live

[Petras]

So I've got the Helix9 that is set up for autochart live and i understand that i can do 8 hours of recording on the units memory alone. I see that HB sells a "ZeroLine" sd card for $100.... do I have to buy that in order to be able to store more data? or can i use just a normal SD card? I'm not looking to share my info with anyone or anything, just would like to have more room for data and need to know if it's really necessary to spend the $100 or can i just spend a few bucks on a normal one.

 

[dean nelson]

Think it takes the zero line card but don't quote me on that. I have the auto chart pro chip in mine and it must auto save to it because when I swaped out my bad helix 9 the data stayed the same. Make sure you have everything working perfect before you flip it to mapping or you will get bad spots in the map that are a bitch to clear up such as this 100 foot deep hole in my folks neighbors yard.

Took me 62 passes to get it smoothed out to this.

 

[Petras]

Nice dean. I've got mine set up pretty good other than I think i need to lower the ducer just a touch. If I get up any higher than about 15 mph my depth reading goes to shite. When I mounted the ducer I mounted it just a touch high so I think I just need to lower it a hair and it should be good to go.
What is the difference between the auto chart live that's on the graph and the pro card? Is it worth it to buy it? I've only had my new boat out twice. First trip was pretty much strictly a motor break-in outing so I haven't had much time pissing with the helix 9.
What speed were you running to make that map? I watched some videos on you tube and the guy in the video was making his maps at a speed slow enough to not be on plane. I'd imagine the slower a guy goes, the more accurate the map is right? Sorry for all the questions, I'm going to check out WC as well to see if Mr. Halfen has posted much about Autochart.

 

[Captainbrad]

This will be year #3 with Autochart Live for me. My advise is buy the card. (you must have the zero lines card so the unit has a basis to map) Also if you go in someone else's boat or get a new unit your data will come with you. As most here know I fish the Red River which has no maps so I made (make) my own. I call this a game changer for uncharted waters. I prefer to make maps 4-6 mph to get a good solid coverage.

Here is a good video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxG_afpWsrY

 

[dean nelson]

I was generally going around three but that's top end for the little boat. She only pings once a second so if your mapping steep breaks then you have to slow down to let it catch up. At time especially up real shallow I would go full stop so it had time to pull all the lines in line with how they really are. It comes down to the map is what you make it and the more passes at slower the speed the more details you will get. If you just do quick passes you will have dropoffs that look serrated like a knife (see picture below) from the game and fishes map of Sakakawea. What happens is you drag shallow water deep then deep water shallow as the software is permanently playing a game of connect the dots. To get to the hyper accurate map like the one I made takes a very long time. But just a good general map of an area can be done very quickly.

As for auto chart pro i got a deal on it since it was on sale online and scheels matched so it was worth the price. It allows me to make true 3D maps that you can drop into and fly around as well as mapping using the sidescan data overlaid on top of the topo map. It also let's me map what the bottom is made of and overlay that and the weedbeds in 3D.

 

[RustyTackleBox]

I believe you CAN use a normal sd card but you won't be able to use that with the autochart software and the zero line card gives you the 0 foot marks on most lakes (basically just the image of the lake from a satellite view on Google maps)

 

[Petras]

ok, right on, thanks guys. guess i'll be spending some cash on a zline card then

 

[dean nelson]

Just was playing around with mine and set it on raw data. It gives an idea how many passes it took especially up in the northwest corner. They have a few million lakes preloaded into the cards but for up here they don't matter much since the lakes are very different. You can see parts of the base map poking out on mine.



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This will be year #3 with Autochart Live for me. My advise is buy the card. (you must have the zero lines card so the unit has a basis to map) Also if you go in someone else's boat or get a new unit your data will come with you. As most here know I fish the Red River which has no maps so I made (make) my own. I call this a game changer for uncharted waters. I prefer to make maps 4-6 mph to get a good solid coverage.

Here is a good video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxG_afpWsrY

Do you ever run side to side to get the lines to orientate correctly? Be pretty tight to do but would be interesting to see. Thought about mapping part of the mo sometime just to see how convoluted that SOB is. Obviously the map would be good for all of a week but would be fun to see.

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Just saw this on the Sakakawea map this is what happens when you skip a spot. The map tries to fill in the blank and you get these false lines.