Simrad GO7 XSE
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 10:57 am
About six months ago an article in the old forum announced the introduction of the Simrad GO7, a touch-screen chart plotter with internal GNSS receiver and SONAR. Very recently Simrad announced an updated model for the GO7, the GO7 XSE.
The principal improvement in the GO7 XSE appears to be its design to use the also recently announced TotalScan SONAR transducer. The TotalScan transducer is an array of transducer elements in a single housing, allowing for several modes of SONAR operation with a single transducer instead of individual transducers for each mode. The GO7 XSE and TotalScan transducer will be able to operate in the following modes of SONAR:
--Broadband Sounder, the trade name for conventional downward-directed pulsed SONAR using 83-kHz and 200-kHz frequencies, very short pulse length, and wide-band detectors;
--CHIRP, the confusing name often applied to frequency modulated SONAR using pulse-compression detection methods;
--SideScan, the confusing name for side scan SONAR using left, right, and downward beams simultaneously over a very wide fan angle;
--DownScan Imaging, a trade name for using high-frequency (400 to 800-kHz) downward beams;
--StructureScan, a trade name sometimes used for side scan SONAR
Simrad literature often combines these terms in confusing ways, for example referring to "Broadband Sounder CHIRP" or "StructureScan® HD SideScan" (assuming HD must mean high-definition). In spite of the confusing use of trade names or nebulous terms, and the concatenation of these terms to form even more confusing descriptors for the product, it seems that the GO7 XSE may offer some advantages over prior models, principally in being able to work in many modes with a single transducer.
After a cursory study, it appears that the innovation or improvement or major difference between the earlier GO7 and the new GO7 XSE is found mainly in the SONAR capabilities, namely:
--XSE has built-in capability for FowardScan, the awkward name Simrad uses for a forward-looking scanning SONAR;
--XSE has built-in capability for StructureScan, the awkward name Simrad uses for side scan left-center-right SONAR at various frequencies;
--XSE can work with the TotalScan transducer to implement some of those capabilities, but would require a special transducer for forward scanning SONAR.
To facilitate use of the TotalScan transducer, I suspect that the connector on the GO7 XSE must have changed to the new black 9-pin connector called the xSonic connector from the older-style blue 7-pin connector that was used on the GO7.
Both the GO7 and GO7 XSE have SONAR that can utilize "Broadband Sounder CHIRP", sometimes called by Simrad as "Broadband sonar CHIRP", and exactly what that means is still unclear. As I mentioned, for many years now Simrad has been referring to "Broadband Sounder" as a trade name for what is believed to be conventional pulsed downward-directed monotone or single-frequency SONAR using conventional frequencies from 50-kHz to 200-kHz, and using very short duration pulses and very wide-band detectors. The nebulous term "CHIRP" seems to suggest using much longer duration emission of frequency-modulated signals, and then, upon detection of these signals, processing them using a method known as pulse-compression which greatly enhances the effective target resolution and the effective detector sensitivity. I cannot understand how the two methods can be combined as is suggested by such odd terms as "Broadband Sounder CHIRP." However, since Simrad has never offered a good definition of Broadband Sounder or CHIRP, I suppose they are free to apply those terms to any of their products in any manner, but the risk of doing that is to make the terms have little or no meaning. For example, exactly what "CHIRP fish-finding sonar," another phrase coined by Navico, actually means is unknown to me.
Lately there has been a great use of the term "CHIRP" or "chirp" in the advertising and marketing of SONAR to recreational boaters, so perhaps the combination of "Broadband Sounder" and "CHIRP" is just some advertising manager's way to describe some capability of the product in terms that remain consistent with prior advertising terms with the addition of the latest buzzword for SONAR.
The GO7 XSE uses the HEROIC user interface which is described as being "intuitive and tablet-like". It apparently has multi-touch gestures to invoke certain control features. It is not clear to me if the HEROIC interface is something new with the XSE or if it was part of the original GO7. I couldn't find a mention of HEROIC with the GO7, but it is used with the GO7 XSE. The user interface of both products is entirely through the touch screen, as there are no conventional buttons for control, other than an ON-OFF switch.
The GO7 XSE has a feature called by the trademarked name TripIntel, apparently to mean trip intelligence. This means the device can track and display trip information, including historical trip data, in various ways, including overlaying the data on charts. One example mentioned is the display of a track of a prior voyage on the chart. Being able to show an array of track points gathered on a prior voyage is not exactly a new "technology" (as Simrad describes TripIntel); most chart plotters allow the user to load a collection of track points from historical data and display them on the chart plotter. Calling this function a "technology" and branding it as TripIntel is something new. One would hope there is more to TripIntel than Simrad can explain in a sentence or two in their earliest promotional pieces. I suspect they aren't doing justice to the real features of TripIntel with the limited descriptions they provide. There must be, one would hope, more to it.
I have not seen pricing for the new GO7 XSE. I suspect that its introduction may also affect the price of the GO7 (plain), now perhaps an obsolete product. The product is often sold in bundles which include electronic chart cartography software and transducer hardware.
The GO7 XSE remains nicely agnostic about electronic chart cartography and which charts from which publishers it will use. As did the GO7, the XSE can use Navico's own Insight Genesis charts, Jeppesen's C-Map® charts, chart from Navionics, and charts from NV Charts.
To know exactly what transducers will be offered in bundles will have to wait for vendors to post those bundles and their prices. Simrad expects to have the GO7 XSE on the market in February of 2016. A 5-inch display version, the GO5 XSE is also coming.
Putting aside the confusion about the actual SONAR, what it does, and what Simrad likes to call it, the new GO7 XSE looks like an attractive device for small boats because its SONAR capabilities seem quite broad and being able to realize most of them with a single transducer seems attractive to boaters who don't want their boat transom to look like a transducer testing laboratory. If you have any comments, feel free to chirp in.
The principal improvement in the GO7 XSE appears to be its design to use the also recently announced TotalScan SONAR transducer. The TotalScan transducer is an array of transducer elements in a single housing, allowing for several modes of SONAR operation with a single transducer instead of individual transducers for each mode. The GO7 XSE and TotalScan transducer will be able to operate in the following modes of SONAR:
--Broadband Sounder, the trade name for conventional downward-directed pulsed SONAR using 83-kHz and 200-kHz frequencies, very short pulse length, and wide-band detectors;
--CHIRP, the confusing name often applied to frequency modulated SONAR using pulse-compression detection methods;
--SideScan, the confusing name for side scan SONAR using left, right, and downward beams simultaneously over a very wide fan angle;
--DownScan Imaging, a trade name for using high-frequency (400 to 800-kHz) downward beams;
--StructureScan, a trade name sometimes used for side scan SONAR
Simrad literature often combines these terms in confusing ways, for example referring to "Broadband Sounder CHIRP" or "StructureScan® HD SideScan" (assuming HD must mean high-definition). In spite of the confusing use of trade names or nebulous terms, and the concatenation of these terms to form even more confusing descriptors for the product, it seems that the GO7 XSE may offer some advantages over prior models, principally in being able to work in many modes with a single transducer.
After a cursory study, it appears that the innovation or improvement or major difference between the earlier GO7 and the new GO7 XSE is found mainly in the SONAR capabilities, namely:
--XSE has built-in capability for FowardScan, the awkward name Simrad uses for a forward-looking scanning SONAR;
--XSE has built-in capability for StructureScan, the awkward name Simrad uses for side scan left-center-right SONAR at various frequencies;
--XSE can work with the TotalScan transducer to implement some of those capabilities, but would require a special transducer for forward scanning SONAR.
To facilitate use of the TotalScan transducer, I suspect that the connector on the GO7 XSE must have changed to the new black 9-pin connector called the xSonic connector from the older-style blue 7-pin connector that was used on the GO7.
Both the GO7 and GO7 XSE have SONAR that can utilize "Broadband Sounder CHIRP", sometimes called by Simrad as "Broadband sonar CHIRP", and exactly what that means is still unclear. As I mentioned, for many years now Simrad has been referring to "Broadband Sounder" as a trade name for what is believed to be conventional pulsed downward-directed monotone or single-frequency SONAR using conventional frequencies from 50-kHz to 200-kHz, and using very short duration pulses and very wide-band detectors. The nebulous term "CHIRP" seems to suggest using much longer duration emission of frequency-modulated signals, and then, upon detection of these signals, processing them using a method known as pulse-compression which greatly enhances the effective target resolution and the effective detector sensitivity. I cannot understand how the two methods can be combined as is suggested by such odd terms as "Broadband Sounder CHIRP." However, since Simrad has never offered a good definition of Broadband Sounder or CHIRP, I suppose they are free to apply those terms to any of their products in any manner, but the risk of doing that is to make the terms have little or no meaning. For example, exactly what "CHIRP fish-finding sonar," another phrase coined by Navico, actually means is unknown to me.
Lately there has been a great use of the term "CHIRP" or "chirp" in the advertising and marketing of SONAR to recreational boaters, so perhaps the combination of "Broadband Sounder" and "CHIRP" is just some advertising manager's way to describe some capability of the product in terms that remain consistent with prior advertising terms with the addition of the latest buzzword for SONAR.
The GO7 XSE uses the HEROIC user interface which is described as being "intuitive and tablet-like". It apparently has multi-touch gestures to invoke certain control features. It is not clear to me if the HEROIC interface is something new with the XSE or if it was part of the original GO7. I couldn't find a mention of HEROIC with the GO7, but it is used with the GO7 XSE. The user interface of both products is entirely through the touch screen, as there are no conventional buttons for control, other than an ON-OFF switch.
The GO7 XSE has a feature called by the trademarked name TripIntel, apparently to mean trip intelligence. This means the device can track and display trip information, including historical trip data, in various ways, including overlaying the data on charts. One example mentioned is the display of a track of a prior voyage on the chart. Being able to show an array of track points gathered on a prior voyage is not exactly a new "technology" (as Simrad describes TripIntel); most chart plotters allow the user to load a collection of track points from historical data and display them on the chart plotter. Calling this function a "technology" and branding it as TripIntel is something new. One would hope there is more to TripIntel than Simrad can explain in a sentence or two in their earliest promotional pieces. I suspect they aren't doing justice to the real features of TripIntel with the limited descriptions they provide. There must be, one would hope, more to it.
I have not seen pricing for the new GO7 XSE. I suspect that its introduction may also affect the price of the GO7 (plain), now perhaps an obsolete product. The product is often sold in bundles which include electronic chart cartography software and transducer hardware.
The GO7 XSE remains nicely agnostic about electronic chart cartography and which charts from which publishers it will use. As did the GO7, the XSE can use Navico's own Insight Genesis charts, Jeppesen's C-Map® charts, chart from Navionics, and charts from NV Charts.
To know exactly what transducers will be offered in bundles will have to wait for vendors to post those bundles and their prices. Simrad expects to have the GO7 XSE on the market in February of 2016. A 5-inch display version, the GO5 XSE is also coming.
Putting aside the confusion about the actual SONAR, what it does, and what Simrad likes to call it, the new GO7 XSE looks like an attractive device for small boats because its SONAR capabilities seem quite broad and being able to realize most of them with a single transducer seems attractive to boaters who don't want their boat transom to look like a transducer testing laboratory. If you have any comments, feel free to chirp in.