Topic: Is weather sense BS?

[castle rock clown]

I'm looking at the 2014 Humminbird catalog and see that none of the new units support weathersense. I was dismayed with to 700 series being discontinued as they seemed a nice companion to the premier units. I like the 700s on my smaller boat and can carry the info transfered into it, can't do that with 500 or 600s. So, was weathersense BS to begin with, or does Humminbird have something coming out in the future?

[Bob B]

I think it just wasn't a popular enough option for HB to keep supporting it.    I also think there were probems with the subscription through the 3rd party provider.
As I recall from old posts there were a few on here that had one...maybe they will check in. 

As far as the 700 series goes....Yeah, they were pretty good units for the price, but I think you can now pick up one of the new 800 series for close to the same price.....899, and 859.

[castle rock clown]

3rd party provider? Would that be xm weather?  I was referring to the weathersense barometric pressure tracking accessory, I hope it doesn't need a subscription.

As far as my opinion on the 700s, I like having it right next to my 999 at the console. Two of those large frame units is a but much. Plus I like the quick adjustability of the matrix mount.

[Bob B]

Yeah, my bad......I was thinking about the XM weather

[ITGEEK]

Actually, I think that Weathersense is kind of neat.
It's not that expensive, and it works just fine.
There is no set-up or adjustment with it.
You can reset the weekly trend through your unit if
you want to.
So far, I haven't needed to replace the battery on mine.
It's just another piece of environmental information that is
there if you wanted to look at it.
Will it help you catch fish?
It didn't for me.

My guess is that not many people bought it.
It seems to me that Humminbird is going to cater to what the
majority of their users are going to buy.  Not what a few die-hard
perfectionists want.

I think that's why they went to the internal GPS with the 1199.
It's just so simple for the users.  They don't have to do anything
but turn on the machine and they have instant mapping capability.

Who knows, maybe Weathersense will still work with all the units,
but Humminbird just dropped it from the spec sheets.
If Humminbird has dropped it, and you want it,
you can always buy a barometer.

[Humminbird_Greg]

The AS-BP WeatherSense is not supported in the 2014 model units.

[George]

I have a weather sense and used it for 2 months before disconnecting it.  Living in Oklahoma where high winds are prevalent and weather changes quickly, I thought it would be a good for safety, it turned out to be a nuisance with so many warnings which continually had to be reset.  If they would allow us to pick the information we wanted to alert us it would probably be good.  My receiver is like new and in one of my boxes in the garage, do not think it will ever see the light of day again.

George

[ITGEEK]

George,
I think you are talking about XM Weather (fisherman's package/Skywatch).
Yes, it does have a lot of warnings.
But, the warnings only show up when there is bad
weather in your area.

[snowman48047]

I know this post is a couple months old but,  Didn't the XM weather sort of replace the weather sense?  I have the weather sense for my 787 and I love it.  All it really does for me is give an up to date barometer reading BUT when that rading drops like a stone the fishing stops.  I have been had mornings with extremely great catch rates and then simply stop.  I can always check that barometer reading and se why.  I would rather have that than pay a subscription for weather reports.  I have all that on my phone and I know how to look at the sky and clouds.  I wish HB would continue using the weather sense or add that simple barometer feature to the newer systems.

[ITGEEK]

snowman:
You are talking about two completely different things here:
Weathersense is just a barometer that shows the real-time, current barometric pressure where it is installed.  It can also save and display the pressure trend 12 hours back.  Once you buy the module, you don't have to buy anything else, except the battery will need to be changed about every 5 years.

XM Weather is real-time satellite weather that costs you monthly.  You can zoom in and out on the map and see weather coming from miles away.  It also has a weather forecast which will show you the forecast within the next 1/2 hour.  There are multiple wind/storm/flood/lighting warnings displayed on the screen.  XM Weather is not cheap.  It costs about $200 for the satellite receiver, and $9.95  a month from Sirius for the skywatch/fisherman's package.  I think there is also a one time start-up fee from Sirius of $19.95.

You can have both of these systems working at the same time.  I have them and I think they are neat.

If you ever upgrade to a Humminbird '9' model (or newer), you don't need to be concerned with either of these accessories ever again.  They won't work with the newer models. You can thank Humminbird for not supporting them anymore.

[snowman48047]

I totally understand the difference between them and I was saying I would like to have a barometer reading on the newer units, ie; 900,1100, XXXX.  IMO, radar and forecasts are not needed (nor is the subscription expense) as I can look at the sky. I get HB not supporting the expensive XM but adding the barometer part to the newer systems should be fairly easy and cheap.  Just another addition that would put them above the rest?

[ITGEEK]

You can look at the sky, but you can't look at the sky 100 miles away and know if a storm (with lightning), is headed directly for you.
Lightning can kill you 30 miles away from the storm.
Throughout the world, 10,000 people a year are killed by lightning.

I agree, it would be very easy and cheap for Humminbird to keep Weathersense, since they have already developed the software for it.  But, they have chosen NOT to support it.  So it's a dead issue.