Big screen GPS/Fishfinder?

[jimski2]

Does anyone out there know of a way to connect a small gps or fishfinder to a laptop so as to have a big screen view at a cheap price? I think there may be a "cable" available that could make this happen.

[Hookedup]

I asked Raymarine and Lowrance and was told I had to buy two units. I do not see why they couldnt make a unit with a video output. Sean

[tjc360]

Nothing cheap. Garmin, Raymarine, Furuno et all worked hard to prevent that. Now if only Heathkit was still around, then we might have an option.

Cruzpro has a Box/transducer set-up that will hook into your laptop. Last time I looked it was about $800 for 320W peak-to-peak, 50/200. Kinda pricey for that kind of performance. Some of the higher end units do have a video output....but at that point you have already bought the high resolution display.

Seems kinda strange that I can buy a small screen DVD player at Walmart for about 100 bucks, w/ much better resolution than a $1200+ fishfinder AND with the old technology paper graph Lowrance 15 and 16's, I could darn near tell if the rocks on the bottom were round or pointy. But nobody can get that kind of combined performance these days for less than the price of a used car

[jimski2]

With a 12 volt DC / 110 volt AC inverter, [3 types?], I can charge the battery and power up my laptop on the boat. With a Sprint USB device, $60 a month, + taxes, or $800+ a year,I can connect to the internet, and the GPS will locate you with a CD Lake Map? Things are starting to get out of control, maybe I should just get a chartplotter?

[Schools Out]

well if your currently paying for road runner some other internet for $50 a month you wont need to buy it anymore with a wireless internet service for your laptop.. I have used the verizon VZ navigator and it is pretty fast.. so that 800 a year is already being partly paid