Review of Hook2-7ts

[ronaultmtd]

First the pros...affordable technology, light weight for a seven inch chart plotter/fish finder...easy to use and intuitive controls and menus, bright, clear picture, love the Berley Pro sun shade for keeping screen clean and glare free...excellent value for sonar features of chirp, downscan and side scan as well as charting...now the cons...it doesn’t work...

Well, it doesn’t work when the slip in power and transducer cables don’t connect very well...constantly fiddling with them to get the power and transducer cable to properly seat...and they don’t stay connected...piss poor design...the engineer should lose his certification and turn in his diploma that designed this feature...horrible fault in an otherwise excellent product...when you consider super gluing the power and transducer cable permanently in place to overcome the faulty design...you get the frustration...

[Oldbayrunner]

That's strange Ron, I know its a bitch to get those plugs pushed in far enough but once in I never had problems with them sliding back and losing connection. Only reason I sold mine was I didn't like the card being on the side and needing to take the Berley Pro cover off to take the nav card out each time I wanted to update it, plus I really want a dual card slot.

[ronaultmtd]

Moc and I were out yesterday and I screwed around with the transducer plug a half dozen or more times and the power cord as well..it would get in everything working then lose the temperature I would go to firmly push it in to reestablish connection and it would power off, and again and again...after an hour or so of messing with it, it stayed on the rest of the day...like I said...piss poor engineering to have this stupid kind of issues

[Oldbayrunner]

Trying to be helpful, were you just losing the water temp or was the sonar messing up or losing connection also?

[ronaultmtd]

The water temp would first stop working and then so would the sonar... I would touch the cable to firmly push it back in the power would drop off...then I would push hard on the power cord, restart the unit, go through the default menu and seat the transducer cable...as long as I held pressure all functions were working, the problem i believe is due in part to the fact I put a tiny bit of dielectric grease on the face of the plugs to prevent corrosion like I put on all my electrical and electronic connections. I cleaned the cables as much as I could on the water with paper towel...the grease may have prevented the plugs from fully seating by forming a vacuum.

[Oldbayrunner]

That could be it Ron, those plugs are meant to fit really tight to be water proof. This is the only unit I've seen Lowrance use that type of plug. On mine once the were aligned and shoved in completely they were hard to pull back out. Try using some CRC electronic connector spray cleaner to get the grease off and see if that helps.

[mchottie]

That could be it Ron, those plugs are meant to fit really tight to be water proof. This is the only unit I've seen Lowrance use that type of plug.

That was going to be my question, i'm assuming this is a different type of connector from the standard 'Lowrance' plug and twist blue style? That sucks, why would they change a tride-and-true connector for a junker? cost?

[ronaultmtd]

It doesn’t make any sense to me why they went with a system that is so prone to failure and operator error when the older proven, industry wide system works reliably and is pretty much fool proof...why change? The entire concept of the Hook2 system was to be as “operator friendly” turn it on and go fishing as was possible...

[ronaultmtd]

Review of Hook2-7ts

That is why I went with the 7 inch screen...I have the 5 inch Humminbird 798 and knew I wanted the 7...now the issue with the cables maybe simply a vacuum caused by grease...I got a can of CRC electronic cleaner to spray the head unit and the cables to remove all the dielectric grease...we will give that a try to see if that works to fix the problem...won’t know until I take the Lady Luck out on the water. And that will have to wait until I get back from a visit to my home state of Arkansas for a week...my Brother there says we will fish a lot, so hopefully I will post some pictures in the “Everywhere Else” forum..IMG_0433.jpg

[ReelLucky22]

I've been using a hook 7 tripleshot for almost a year. I agree the connections are a real pain when trying to plug the cables in correctly. The Lowrance unit on my center console boat has a much better way of connecting the cables to the head unit. Glad I'm not the only one having trouble plugging the cables in. My concern is that I may damage the connector terminals from trying to force the plug into the head unit.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[ronaultmtd]

OK, cleaned the cables and the receptacles with electronic cleaner, dried them out, wiped them clean...same issue..vacuum prevents cables from seating...simple solution- cut the o rings off the cables that waterproof the cables...cut grooves in the cables to allow the air to escape the fitting...such a great seal that it prevents the unit from operating..what a great idea! Lowrance should make the engineer who designed these seals responsible for the repair kits for every Hook2 unit sold...mine works great now that I cut the o rings off...

Ok been a couple of weeks since I modified the seals on the power and transducer cables....the unit works perfectly...I absolutely love it...clear screens, crisp views, easy to use, easy to change settings on the fly...no complaints about anything! So much easier to operate than my old Hummingbird 798...the track back feature...zoom in on the highlighted screen...just what I expected when I bought it back in January...the Berley Pro sun visor is a life saver...makes so much easier to keep screen clean and improves the viewing...highly recommend...