Advice/Info requested....Garmin Panoptix Livescope

A friend and I are looking to go in together and purchase a Garmin Livescope Panoptix system.

I've been with a guide who used it once on the ice and it was simply amazing.  That was 2 years ago.

And...we are curious if there is a way to take that thing and then get it on a boat for open water fishing.

Anyone do this?  How do you convert it to open water?  Any pros/cons to be aware of concerning the unit itself?  Should we wait and look at Lowrance and/or Humminbird?  And...where should I look at purchasing the unit to get the best price?

Very curious to hear from those that have the unit concerning how it works and how it converts to open water fishing.

Marcum has come out with some awesome Lithium batteries this year that will run this unit all day and then some.

The unit is GREAT!! On my boat I have the Force TM and Garmin 93uhd with LS32 on a pole mount in the front and a Hummingbird Helix 10 on the dash. I call it "business in the front and party in the back". Used it in open water and it eliminates a ton of potentially dead water. The You Tube videos are as you will see with some fine tuning.

I just started ice fishing again after 30 years and plan to use the Livescope and am currently building an ice box for it. Copying one design on You Tube with a Magellan dry box, sweet set up. I completed a transducer pole for the unit (cost about $20. I purchased the perspective mount from the Fish Finders dot com for $99. A bit pricey but will work for both poles. For open water went with the Brew City mount, great choice. Nothing about this is cheap but REALLY fun to use. Did a ton of research prior to purchase. If you have any questions just PM me.

Herb is correct. 18amp is minimum for battery on ice. If you can swing it 30 or 32amp from amped will run forever. Summit makes a lot of the parts you need for a ice fishing setup. 

Vegas better hurry up! 200 rebate ends tomorrow on the scope.

I got the ice package last April. This one came with 12 amp battery. It runs 6-7 hours on boat. You need to get the 18 amp one.

I started making a pole for transducer so spot lock still worked. That did not work that well for motor trolling. Now have the garmin mount for trolling motor. That works better as you can point motor to aim view. 

We set range 40-50 feet and it is amazing to watch fish scatter as boat comes through! The real time view is great. We use side view transducer and the scope to follow breaks. Worth the money!

Have been on ice with it. Can find fish very easy. The problem is on clear ice is they move on you! Now that we have a little snow things have changed. Very easy to watch buddy 20 feet away! Stumps are easy to find. Just killing fish!

Like to keep on forward view and scan around. Need to learn settings as you cannot set and forget!

The you tube stuff is a good starting point.

You have missed best price. Garmin closed out GPS Map units a month ago, 400 off.

Google still has some deals, Amazon is not way to go! The motor mounts can be had for around 75, Garmin wants 100. The ice fishing model has nice wiring harness and base for black box. Like I started with get the 18 amp battery, cuts weight down to half. Amped Outdoors is where I got mine. 150 with charger.

Good luck!