Sonar Phone TBox
How to: SonarPhone TBox Install
There are products on the market that definitely are tools that the angler can use in helping them locate more fish. The SonarPhone from Vexilar is one of them and these are reasonably priced and utilize your smartphone or tablet as the viewing screen which in turn, saves you money.
There are two phases for the install of these units, first phase is installing the hardware and the second is utilizing the SonarPhone application. Both of these are fairly simple and the whole process should only take 30 minutes or so.
Upon opening the packaging, there are only two items, the Transducer and the Wifi box that sends the signal to your smart device. Start with the transducer mounting.
On my boat, I have a plastic mounting block on the underside that I mount my transducers to. With a little rearrangement, I am able to have the new SonarPhone Transducer and my other one mounted and ready to use. Making sure that it is pointing forward for least water resistance and also hanging horizontally in the water for the best signal reception.
Next step is the running of the wire, if you have another transducer mounted you can follow that wire into the boat, if not, you will need to run it up the back and into the rear compartment. You want to make sure that it is secured tightly so that while running, the wire stays where it needs to be. Stay away from moving locations of your motor and this way you will have nothing to worry about later.
Once you have the Transducer’s connector into the boat, now it is time to locate and mount the Wifi box. Mounting it near the battery, this keeps it out of the way of other items and also this way it is hidden away. Once the box is mounted, connect the Transducer cables and connect the power leads to the battery.
Now that the hardware is installed it is time to move onto the application part. Go to the Itunes or Google apps store and download the SonarPhone application. You will need to power on the Wifi box and after a few seconds, on your smart device, go to your Wifi settings and connect to the T-Box signal.
Next step we will launch the SonarPhone application. A warning screen comes up and you will agree to that screen. Next, select the Connect Now button and this in turn, will come the Master button, the slave button is if you want others to be able to connect and use their smart device as well with your Wifi box.
The first time using this, it will ask for the default password which is “12345678” and if you want you can change this to whatever you like. Setup is complete now and you are ready to start using the system.
Click the “Connect Now” button and you will see that the by doing a dry signal run, you are displaying a signal on the screen that shows it is working. One you hit the water, you will have a full color screen locator at your fingertips. With some adjustments of the screen settings, you are seeing the same things that those expensive locators show.
You can also use the Navionics Boating app with this and by setting it to the SonarChart Live, you are now in a live mapping mode. This is a great option especially for those lakes that may not have a map for but also by doing this live, you may find some lake structures that you never know were there.
By using these two apps together, there are three screens that you can use. One screen is the color locator screen, one is the mapping screen and the other is a split screen with both of these. After you use it for a while on the lake, you will become very comfortable and will want to explore all kinds of new waters.
Hopefully you were able to get an understanding of how easy this unit is to install and use and if there are any questions that you may have, please leave them here and I will get back to you for those. This unit is very affordable and easy to use and what I like to use it for as well is that I can bring up these newly made maps come ice fishing time and go right to the best locations on that lake.
Kevin Dahlke
