Pinpoint 7820

[Shack]

I am looking to upgrade my graph and I am looking at the 7820. I have been told that there have been some problems with them. One being if I were to go with the the whole Pinpoint system meaning the motor that it does not work as well as the 7520 or 7420. I currently have a auto pilot 65lb and a raytheon 365. Any info or opinions on the pinpoints would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[iamwalleye1]

I had the 7820 with the 3700 motor and loved it! It is a great system for fishing breaks and shores. The graph is very powerful. I would have gone with the motor on my new boat but the $$$$ killed me. Still using the graphs.

[Doc_wi]

The "20" designation units are stand alone units and you should have no problems that I can think of. A 7820 would be a good unit in any "network" in the future also. The 7420 and 7320 have a different size screen, a bit wider, that would be to your advantage when splitting screens to read two transducers. The Pinpoint sonar units do a great job of showing fish and structure as they are designed to do. I like the flashchart option, memory and review options and the upgradeability of the unit. I have a 1 year old 7520 that I will be adding GPS to this year instead of having to buy a new Pinpoint with GPS. That's big.

Good Luck with your decision,
Wishin' I Was Fishin'

Joel "Doc" Kunz

[srj]

Shack, I bought a 7820 from Reeds Sporting Goods a couple years ago. The choice came down to the 7820 or an x85 as I had a standalone gps. Both Pinpoint and Lowrance reps were in Reeds--the Pinpoint guy convinced me the increased pixel count was big but I thought the 2 year warranty was bigger. I had 3 failures in the first 6 weeks. Jeff from Reeds replaced the units each time. Thanks Jeff. The last unit had the new System 7 software so it was up to date in all ways. The 7820 works great. Until the sun has been up for a while. When it warms up the screen gradually gets black until it is virtually worthless. Bob Healy from Pinpoint (at that time they had not yet been acquired), who identified himself as "the guy in charge" was easy to work with via phone and email. However, the 2 year warranty only applies to certain thingg on the 7820. The screen being unreadable isn't one of them. I have several friends using Pinpoints but not the 7820. They like their units. It was explained to me that the 7820 didn't have the 158 degree glass. For a substantial fee I was told I get maybe get something to work better. At that time the 7820 was only a couple months old. So much for warranty. I still have the emails from Bob Healy--I will forward them to you if you wish. Sure took me a long time to get to the point--7820 is not good.

[REW]

I had a 7820 - with the exact same heat problem. After being returned to pinpoint a couple of times for updates - internal voltage changes etc. I finally exchanged it for a 7520 - which has performed flawlessly.

Pinpoint explained to me, that the real issue was a design specification issue from pinpoint. Pinpoint did NOT specify the high heat glass for the display from the vendor. The vendow supplied a display which works just fine indooors on pcs etc. but definetly does not work in direct summer sunlight.

If you always kept the unit in the shade - I am sure that you would be very happy with the unit -- or if you only fished at night - the display is great and the resolution -- when you can see it - supurb.

I had a SITEX LCD before the pinpoint that acutally had a similar problem. The problem was not as bad as the pinpoint, but again in bright sunlight - I had to keep the unit under a hat - to be able to read the display. Otherwise the display would turn black.

Basically, vendor - high temperature - supply issue.
Take care
REW