Everything is so freaking complicated and expensive. Awhile back i asked around about what fish finder to get, hummingbird, garmen or Lowrance. Overwhelmingly people said get a hummingbird helix. So I got a hummingbird helix 7 g4. First off it’s so complicated to use. I am not very computer smart. Electronic computer stuff drives me crazy. I hate these stupid iPhones. But then I find out my nearest lake, the one I fish the most isn’t even mapped out. So I call hummingbird to see what’s going on and they tell me I needed a lakemaster vx card with smart strike. So I watch a few YouTube videos about it and the smart strike looks pretty neat and everything but it’s $200 dollars. And it’s only for a few states. Not the whole United States. Some states like Minnesota Or Wisconsin you have to buy a card for each state. So if you wanted the whole United States you would hale to buy like $1000 dollars worth of cards. So with the advise of hummingbird I bought the lakemaster vx Great Lakes card. Well $200 dollars later I find out the my nearest lake still isn’t mapped out on that either. My brother in law has a garmen and he has no cards whatsoever and his has every lake around mapped out. Even little mud hole lakes that no one knows about are mapped out. Looking at all the lakes around on his garmen they are all mapped out and probably over half the lakes on my hummingbird around here are blank. But I can get a navionics card for my hummingbird and have all the same lakes as the garmen but it’s like another $200 dollars. Needless to say I wish I would have got a garmen.

Lie you, I'm not very tech savvy and don't want to be. I've got a Garmin that does way more stuff than I want, but I've figured out bottom structures/contour and depth is good enough for me!

I feel your pain. I bought a Lowrance hook 7 with sonar, structure scan, side scan, GPS, charting, etc. several years ago. Its a nightmare to operate. Not to mention, malfunctions frequently and I have to restart it. Wife absolutely hates it.
I bought a little Garmin Striker Vivid for the trolling motor and absolutely love it. Very easy to operate, great detail, and has performed flawlessly.
My next one will definitely be the larger version of the Garmin.

Does this attach to your existing trolling motor or is it built in?

Attach's to my existing trolling motor - very easy install. Just fasten transducer to the trolling motor and run the wire to the Garmin unit. Will try and get a picture in a little bit.

Here you go.

I got a lowrance hook 7 three years ago and still havent figured it out yet.Now the on off button doesnt work all the time.Poor instructions too.

Exactly - and sometimes it goes to standby for no reason - which is a dark screen - can't see anything in the sunlight and have to re-start the stupid thing.

My biggest complaint is not having map of my nearest lake and having to spend 200 dollars on a card to get it when garmen comes standard with it. Not to mention I already paid 200 for the lakemaster card that hummingbird told me to get. You pay that much for it it should have every lake in the country mapped out on it and not have to buy cards for every state.

It’s so complicated I will never learn all of it. I’ve had it a year and I can do a few things on it but I’ll never learn how to use half of it. Half the time I get lost in it and don’t know where I’m at or how to get back to where I was.

MIght try selling it on market place.

I have the same Garmin no maps stern mounted but with auto draw I go slow and make my own maps of actual bottom and my preferred travel route way pointed out

Autochart live.

I thought the Helix had the ability to make it's own maps? I've never used one but have been researching the helix and solix and was pretty sure I remember reading that

It does. Its autochart. You get only so much space unless you buy a zero ines chip.

Thanks for answering my question, Rockfarmer.

Yea, depending on your lake size, it would be worth finding someone a little more tech savvy to go with you once to use the autochart, which uses your transducer to create its own map and will save it so you will have it for future use. Garmin is a GPS business so it goes without saying their mapping is superior to lowrance and hummingbird

OK, so does the helix 7 g3 have auto chart? Or is it another chip or card you have to buy? How much of the lake do you have to cover to map the whole lake? This is about a 1400 acre lake.

Yes, it will have autochart live. Your unit will have a certain amount of storage space built in. The amount of area it will cover depends. The slower you go, the better the detail will be but the faster you will run out of memory space. If you need more space you can get a card that is called a zero lines card. Its about $70-75 last i looked but would be able to do a lot of mapping. I use mine on the big rivers to get contour lines at the channel edge so I can use my trolling motor to work the ledges for catfish. I don't know exactly how much the internal storage will hold but it's quite a bit. I usually run about 8 -10 mph and it gives me as good of detail as the lakemaster maps.

To use auto chart do I have to take the lakemaster card out?

YouTube is your friend.