Northstar 6000i Chartplotter/Fishfinder

[JGH]

After a l-o-n-g wait, I just took the plunge on a well-maintained used 25' center console. --127-3-

Part of the package is a Northstar 6000i chartplotter/fishfinder. http://www.northstarnav.com/Products/Chartplotters/Northstar-6000i/ I am climbing a steep learning curve on marine electronics, and would be interested in anyone's thoughts on this unit or Northstar electronics generally. Thanks.

[DaleH]

Northstar's heritage on GPS 'may' be mixed, but not 'mixed' in a bad way. Meaning, Northstar's GPS systems were always held in extreme high regard and thus were always pricey, competing with the top Furuno units for the #1 spot.

But Northstar recently was acquired by Brunswick, who also acquired Navman, a GPS and electronics Mfg'r from Austrailia. Navman's products, cases, and who knows - maybe their software too - was folding into this "new" Northstar name. I think this was done to add a lower-price GPS capability to their offerings.

Now my brothers and I run 3 Navman GPS units and have for the part 5 years. They have proved to be bullet-proof, have tremendous simple-to-use ergonomics, great color screens, and re-draw much faster than any Garmin unit I personally have ever seen. They run C-Map chips, which may or may not be an advantage, depending on your preferences and your specific area.

I cannot speak to their fishfinder capability, but I'd equate the $600-$700 Northstar fishfinders I've used on friend's boats to be pretty much equal to the similar-priced Furuno depth units. But ... even knowing that, I'd probably go for the Furuno, as there might be things in the software coding (algorithms and such) that I think the heritage of Furuno gains the upper hand and experience with.

I'd say you have a pretty darn good unit there!

I myself don't care for combo units, but I have never tried Northstar's version. A friend has a Raytheon C120 or such huge color combo ... and the way the screens present the data in combo mode is retarded! Now, think about a fishfinder, what are you reading. Depth right? That's what I thought too ;) , but when you use this machine with GPS, radar, and depth all 'on' at the same time, it displays the fishfinder screen as the bottom 2" of screen for 12" in width of the display. You can't see CRAP on it with any definition! And we've tried fixing the display ... what an absolutely retarded display orientation in my opinion ...

[JGH]

Thanks for the thoughtful post.

[kennethpina]

The northstar is a good unit. Just make sure you have the latest software update for it. They had a few issues but they fixed them. Most of the issues where related to the platinum charts.

on the other response about the raymarine c120. You can split the screen in any configuration you want. there are almost unlimited settings and display possibilitys. I usually use split screen in half side to side configuration. One side fishfinder the other side gps with the radar overlay. cutting up the screen three of four ways just gets to small.