kmoose

Received my long awaited 7610xsv Friday evening (Thanks Gil!) and got everything hooked up and back together Saturday. The next day I got my sled down to the water after church for shakedown and configure run out of Crystal River while the weather was still holding.

My helm array is as follows: Garmin 3010 and 7610xsv plotters. Garmin auto pilot, GMR 18xhd, GFS10 flow meter and a JRC ff60 scope. The ducer I'm running for the Garmin is the GT 50 TM and the JRC is running an Airmar 264n 200 kHz.

The Garmin 7610xsv lived up to all the hype and did a fantastic job multitasking through all my attached Garmin equipment. The touch screen quality and function exceeded all my expectations and thwarted any concerns I had about function, even in a moderate chop. If you think your Ipad or phone works great... the Garmin touch is just as good or better.

Sonar function: I had some experience the 1040xs and the 7600 series with the dual band Side VU and Down VU is a considerable upgrade and performed amazingly well in the shallow water I tested it in. The chirp function was great as well and I'm looking forward to trying it out against my JRC in deeper water this weekend.

Fuel Metering: Outstanding for just utilizing it for fuel usage. Very comprehensive and well laid out. The only thing it didn't do was provide an average fuel economy but that can be calculated from distance and gallons used. Maybe a software upgrade opportunity.

Radar: All I can say is WOW! Spectacular separation and function. Has a bird mode and even at a lower gain I could see birds pass 1/4 mile out on a 3 mile range. If Simrad can do a better job then good on them. The Garmin unit is all I could ever want.

Chartplotting: Well, I wondered if Garmin would have gotten the hint from the waypoint management issues present in the 1040xs. Unfortunately they didn't. I dumped about 2500 waypoints in it and like the 1040 it places groups of waypoints into little files all over your screen giving you little to no perspective. I won't go into a long explanation but for me the 3010 does a thousand times better on waypoint management. For many I'm sure it would be fine but I'm sticking to my 3000 series to do the heavy lifting for navigation.

Bottom line, the 7610xsv is well worth the investment for sonar, radar, fuel management and autopilot functions alone. I would buy it again without question. The 10 inch screen is has plenty of real estate for my usage and the units configuration abilities are endless. I'm sure there will be some software tweaks as time moves on and hopefully they will enhance the waypoint management functions better or at least allow the file function to be turned on or off in the future.

Below are some screen shots I took today. The one Side Vu shot is of a small wreck that was clearly visible as I went by it.

Tampacruiser

Thanks for the great review. I can't wait to get my gear and have it installed and reading all these threads of people using theirs just makes me green with envy!

semperfifishing

Nice review..you covered all the bases.

How did you like the Dual Range on the radar?

swankster

Great review. Thanks for posting!

Badbagger

x2 !

jmacari

Position of the GT 50 TM on transom? Type (deep V/ modified V) of hull? Boat model/ manufacturer?

kmoose

The install is on a 23 SeaCraft deep V with a single outboard on a short bracket. The ducer was mounted dead center in front of the outboard which worked out fine with no issues even though it is not recommended.

kmoose

I only had enough time to configure the single range but it's on my bucket list for next weekend.

Question: Is there a way to have the radar go to auto standby when you go to a screen not involving radar? The spin up time is so short that touching the screen to activate upon returning would not be an issue. I really hate to let it stay spinning the whole time and turning it off requires going to the menu. Maybe the setting is there but I haven't stumbled on it yet.

Lima Bravo

How long is the initialization time on that radar by the way??

bluewaterpirate

And do the updates current is V5.40 and for the sonar V2.40 that comes with the V 5.40 update.

This link covers all the unit updates

http://www8.garmin.com/support/colle...t=010-01306-03

Two GT51 transom mounted transudcers .....



Sonar display as seen on my 741 networked with my 7610



GXM 52 data ....

kmoose

I didn't time it but no more than 5 seconds to spin up and transmit.

nitro943

Tom
howdo you like the gxm52 with the new unit? Any better than the gxm 51?

TroyBoy30

dont they all do this? ive got close to 3000 waypoints loaded on each of my 1198s. if you zoom out far enough, you cant see the lake for all of them. if i zoom in its not an issue

bluewaterpirate

I've been using the GXM 52 for over a year I like it they keep adding additional functions to the SSST displays ie high/low resolution etc.

jaxy

great reviews big thx, one question Tom is that pic 376ft with gt51 ? great bottom detail

kmoose

Not the 3000 series. I'll post up some pics and screenshots comparing the two. Icon size and type limitations also have a lot to do with my issue. Hundreds of large file icons covering my areas until I zoom way in doesn't work for me. I have icons that mean certain things and if they are hidden in files I can't see them until I open them in an area with a lot of waypoints.

bluewaterpirate

Yes GT 51s

jaxy

thx bluewaterpirate , looks like gt51 is 1 bad @ss transducer

brosinus

awesome! thanks for the revire

jmacari

Thanks for that. I'm trying to figure out where to mount a GT 30 TM on a 21 Contender (deep V); I want to get it as close to the keel (on transom) without causing cavitation/disturbance to my outboard. So if your not having any cavitation problems, I may have to try a similar location. I don't want to pair up 2 GT 30 TM's; already have a thru hull TX and a TM150 TX......hate to have 4 TX's on the boat (give the fish a headache..LOL)