Ok, I know there are a TON of people that are gonna crap all over this post. Just to let you know right up front; I don't care what anyone's opinion is. I know that there are going to be a lot of people that are going to try this. My goal with this post is to let you know that if you are going to set this up, that it may not be as simple as plug and play. Shortly after watching this video I contacted Garmin support with questions about which Chartplotter units would mirror to Active Captain. First of all the Tech guy was surprised at the question and had never heard of this capability regarding AR Glasses with their gear. He let me know that only the Ultra 2 units and GPS Map units had the capability to mirror to Active Captain via the HELM feature. So that means many of us will have to buy a new Ultra 2 unit or GPS Map unit. He was pretty excited about the possibilities and I sent him a link to the video as well. He said it would be a topic of conversation at their Monday meeting, so I would expect something from Garmin in the future along these lines also.
The second issue I found was that for Iphones only the 15 has the USB-C cable port on the phone. I would assume most Android phones do, but don't know for sure. Unfortunately I have an Iphone 14, so I researched what my options would be for my phone. It is possible, but requires an Apple adapter that's lightning to HDMI, then an XReal AV adapter from the Apple adapter to the glasses USB-C cable. Then it looks like the glasses should mirror the Ultra 2 screen through Active Captain on the phone. A second issue to consider is that the glasses are powered from the phone, so I also ordered an extra MagSafe 10000mAh charger that can just sit on the phone to charge both the glasses and the phone, because I would imagine it will suck juice big time.
I got my XReal Air 2 glasses yesterday and updated the firmware on my laptop. Once I found the USB-C port that would push the video signal out, I was able to see the computer screen, and they are COOL! I can see already that eye strain is going to be a problem. They make my eyes hurt a little, but they do include a spare frame that you can take to a local optical store to get a prescription set. I may have to do that, because for certain, specific situations I can see these being very handy. I can't envision using them all the time, however.
I don't have all of the gear yet, but will soon, and plan to use them on the last icefishing trip of the season in a week. Hole-hopping for roaming crappies is one of the main goals that I have for this tool. I won't be keeping any fish, and they will come from water less than 18' deep. Since I got Livescope and other Panoptix gear I have caught way more fish. I also keep way fewer fish than I ever used to. For me, I love to play with the tech stuff, but I realize there are a lot of people with the opposite view. What amazes me is how many people want to force me to change what I want to do. I don't want to force anyone to do things how I want. What the heck is up with that? People got to face the fact that technology advances, and until we get forced back into caves, it's going to continue to advance.
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