Author Topic: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????  (Read 1408 times)

Offline hays47

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If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« on: Feb 18, 2019, 11:01 PM »
I think most of us electronics nuts. Would agree that Panoptix and Livescope are the best technology for finding fish on the ice.
It is also the most expensive and not affordable to the vast majority.

I have an idea that would make a great finder on the ice. It would not have the range of the Panoptix and Live scope. But it will give a lot bigger search pattern than standard flashers or Graphs today. Instead of seeing a six foot circle. You would be able to see 40 foot circle. Range would be dependent on depth. At a price around a Helix 5 or 7 G2 Ice runs today.

Actually not only idea , I have already done it. I really don't care about any financial reward. If they gave me the first prototype to test would be enough for me.

What I can not come up with is a good idea. To present this to Humminbird. The corporate world views with a jaundiced eye to consumers ideas. At best you get some form letter thanking you for your interest. Humminbird jumped into the ice game a little late. But the Helix g2 ice setups are first class.

Too bad Humminbird doesn't have a northern facility. Might promote their ice department even better.
Echomap 94  Chirp with panoptix ps-22.
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Offline Royalwapiti

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #1 on: Feb 19, 2019, 06:37 AM »
If you have an idea you want to market to them or anyone it is best to get it patented first.  The first corporate entity you show it to will tell you they are not interested and six months later they will have it on the market...

I was reading some old threads (like from 2003-2004) on Jesse's Hunting Page, a forum for outdoor activity.  One guy presented an idea to Bass Pro, he didn't have a patent, the next year it was in their catalog.  No credit to him.  Another came up with something, he never would say what it was (I think it was a screw in arm that bowhinters use to hold their bow or other gear) but he kept an online diary of his marketing efforts.  He patented his product and made it in the Cabelas Master Catalog, edition 1.  He told all his other potential buyers it was there, quite an accomplishment.  They soon came out with Edition 2 of the catalog and it was gone.  Half the people he told that he was in the catalog couldn't find it in their edition of the catalog.  When he called them out on it, they said each page of the catalog needs to hit $30,000 in revenue, his 1/8th page needed $3250 in revenue (monthly maybe).  The preliminary sales were off and they wanted him to make up the sales difference in order to keep it in the catalog.  So they asked for $2500 to keep it in their catalog.  He said get lost.  Before he knew it his marketing consultant and all were gone.

Long story but retail is cut throat and every one of these sellers will screw you over in a heartbeat.  You have to disclose everything to them, your cost margins, profits, etc.  They will dictate the price they pay you for it. Walmart is the worst.
You can't get the fruit if you don't go out on the limb.

Offline hays47

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #2 on: Feb 19, 2019, 07:40 AM »
Guess this forum ain't much for inspiration.
Echomap 94  Chirp with panoptix ps-22.
G.E.F.M

Offline esox_xtm

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #3 on: Feb 19, 2019, 08:11 AM »
I'd think that could be fairly easily accomplished. Really all it would take would be a change in cone angle of the transducer. A poorman's version mounts a regular one on a stick on an angle and pans around the hole for extended vision. I've done that.

The hard part would be to create a "selectable" cone angle where you'd have a very narrow view right down your hole for jigging and the ability to widen it to a search mode. If you think side finder there's probably no limit to how wide that cone angle can be. I would think the interpretation out toward the cone edges (if very wide) might be compromised.

Back to redneck engineering... How about a mounting rod that includes a means to tilt your existing transducer from up above. Look straight down, tilt the 'ducer and look off to the side and back to straight down again just by pulling a trigger or manipulating a lever. Nothing "new", just an accessory. There goes my 4th million dollars...  ::)

Nothin' wrong with thinking outside the box. Lotsa folks say "It'll never happen", I say "Why not?" Maybe it'll be new for 2020  ;D

Edit: Just thought about this over breakfast. The technology is already there with H-bird. Simply get a side scan unit or, even better, a 360. I remember reading a couple years back about guys modding a mount to use a 360 on the ice. Lotsa technology already exists, just have to find a way to use it for our purposes. Thing is now everyone's chasin' Garmin. Lowrance is not far behind and H-bird is bringing up the rear. Be interesting to see what the next few years brings us in sonar changes.



To fish or not to fish? That's a stupid question!



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Offline Unclegillhunter

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #4 on: Feb 19, 2019, 10:28 AM »
Guess this forum ain't much for inspiration.
which would y’all rather have had, folks blowing sunshine or folks suggesting that you maybe facing an uphill struggle? Listing potential pitfalls? Don’t know about going to a manufacturer with an idea, but do know about trying to get a national chain to carry a patented product. You have no idea the hoops you have to jump through until you say never mind. Only to go into that retailer two years later and well there it is . Apologize for lack of inspiration. Good luck with your idea!
Keep it safe! JDL

Offline Philip

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #5 on: Feb 19, 2019, 10:55 AM »
I dont really see any benefit to marking a fish thats 40ft away *Somewhere* in the circle.. Just this past sunday I was sitting 10 feet away from my buddy and his graph was marking 6 fish and I had none... this was happening for a while. If I had a ultra-wide transducer  I would have marked those fish and been not even close to catching them
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Offline esox_xtm

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #6 on: Feb 19, 2019, 11:01 AM »
If you're fishing a dead hole, which way in 360 degrees are you going to move and how far to get on fish? I get it. Just another tool to be more efficient.

@Phillip: If you'd had a 40' side view and your buddy wasn't there you think you think you might have drilled another hole? With side finder and 360 you do get a good sense or where that object is in relation to yourself.
To fish or not to fish? That's a stupid question!



“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”― Lewis Carroll

Offline Philip

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #7 on: Feb 19, 2019, 11:04 AM »
If you're fishing a dead hole, which way in 360 degrees are you going to move and how far to get on fish? I get it. Just another tool to be more efficient.

@Phillip: If you'd had a 40' side view and your buddy wasn't there you think you think you might have drilled another hole? With side finder and 360 you do get a good sense or where that object is in relation to yourself.

oh, is this some kind of feature? I'm not super familiar with Humminbird, it sounded like he meant a basic flasher with a massive cone
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Offline stinkyfingers

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #8 on: Feb 19, 2019, 11:46 AM »
This side view concept has been floating around for 30 years at least and I know that because I recently found an old prototype I built about that time and it certainly wasn't my own original idea at the time. Takes a boat transducer on the bottom end of either a tee or cross bracket that hangs free in the hole to below the ice and acts as a gimbal to ensure that its shaft is always plumb. Then the transducer can be angle adjusted to show the bottom straight down or at any angle up to 90 degrees from vertical. As it happens, I'm working on building a new one today utilizing an Eagle Fishmark II finder that I bought for the purpose thirty years ago and forgot about until last week when, in frustration at not being able to get over some wandering schools of kokanee, the bulb came back on. This particular fish finder has a 20 degree transducer and shows fish as arches, old school style. These kokes typically school in 30 to 70 feet depending on the plankton so a piece of graph paper and pencil should dictate the optimum angle for the 20 degree transducer. At that point I should be able to rotate this unit through 360 degrees to pick up bearings and distance to do some drilling. If this works like I think it will, I'll certainly report back.
We're born, we live for a while, and then we die.  Sounds like a good reason to go ice fishing.
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Offline Huntindave

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #9 on: Feb 19, 2019, 01:08 PM »
This side view concept has been floating around for 30 years at least and I know that because I recently found an old prototype I built about that time and it certainly wasn't my own original idea at the time. Takes a boat transducer on the bottom end of either a tee or cross bracket that hangs free in the hole to below the ice and acts as a gimbal to ensure that its shaft is always plumb.
One can do the same with any transducer that works with the head unit one is using.  All that is required is a method to "hold" and aim the transducer rather than let it hang from a cord.  The only advantage to using a "boat" transducer is a boat transducer will have some type of provision for mounting already molded into the transducer housing.
It would be pretty easy to make a molded cup for a "ice fishing" transducer to be quickly secured into, when one wanted to use it as a directional sonar. Pop it into the cup for side scanning, pop it out and let it hang for jigging a hole.
take care,
Dave  :>)

Offline Royalwapiti

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #10 on: Feb 19, 2019, 06:01 PM »


Edit: Thing is now everyone's chasin' Garmin. Lowrance is not far behind and H-bird is bringing up the rear. Be interesting to see what the next few years brings us in sonar changes.

I suspect HB is coming out with something this spring. They are starting to put their Helix Mega units on sale for $4-500 off.  Need to rid them off the shelves. I almost bought Helix 10 Mega SI last year, bought some $1600 Swarovski binoculars instead, in 5 years my binos will still be worth $1400 the HB will be worth $100. 
You can't get the fruit if you don't go out on the limb.

Offline fishEH

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #11 on: Feb 19, 2019, 06:20 PM »
If you don't care about financial reward, as you state in your first post, just make a YouTube video of yourself using your Tech. If it's good enough someone at Humminbird(or another manufacturer) will pick it up.

Offline Philip

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #12 on: Feb 20, 2019, 11:16 AM »
If you don't care about financial reward, as you state in your first post, just make a YouTube video of yourself using your Tech. If it's good enough someone at Humminbird(or another manufacturer) will pick it up.

Yea but if the "side scan"  (aka pointing your transducer) option theyre talking about is the same as what OP is talking about, this is nothing new.
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Offline hnd

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #13 on: Feb 20, 2019, 01:25 PM »
their own version of livescope yet it can be retroactively usable on my legacy 898c.  lol. 

Offline Kevin23

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #14 on: Feb 20, 2019, 09:14 PM »
I just remembered that I've seen something that may work good for scanning under the ice.. but I cant place it. It was an extendable rod with a handle and a cup at the end that you set your transducer in, then you angled it under the ice so you could shoot and scan around looking for fish/structure. No clue how practical it is, I kind of just wrote it off because i dont really need it. Anyone seen what I did and can remember who made it?
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Offline hnd

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #15 on: Feb 21, 2019, 07:41 AM »
there were guys that fished the NAIFC who created some bracket that they could use side imaging and sweep it around a hole to mark structure on gps.   They showed it on like the first season of Ice Men. 

Offline jrjach75

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Re: If you had an Idea for Humminbird ????
« Reply #16 on: Feb 21, 2019, 09:44 AM »
I just remembered that I've seen something that may work good for scanning under the ice.. but I cant place it. It was an extendable rod with a handle and a cup at the end that you set your transducer in, then you angled it under the ice so you could shoot and scan around looking for fish/structure. No clue how practical it is, I kind of just wrote it off because i dont really need it. Anyone seen what I did and can remember who made it?

I think it's called The Beam Bender

 



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