Review on Enhanced SEO: Lowrance WiFi-1 Wireless Bridge (000-11068-001) by Paulo Heisler

I bought this expecting to be able to connect it to my phone in WiFi hotspot mode, hoping that both would have internet access for my HDS Gen2 Touch (for SonarChart Live) would provide views of the display through the GoFree app. It doesn't work - the HDS can connect to the internet through my phone, but the GoFree app can't find the HDS. I assume you actually need to buy a pair to support this configuration - ugh! (Also see the end of the review - to connect it to any type of access point I had to turn off the entire security system.) Using this on a Wi-Fi hotspot for the GoFree app is what I expected in the Able to select different sonar types than those displayed on the HDS unit. That won't work either - it just mirrors and manages the main block. It's not that big of a disadvantage, but it's worth knowing. In other words, you can't buy this and mount a tablet next to your HDS to get a different view (it would be great to be able to view StructureScan on the tablet and just do a graph and 2D on the HDS). The biggest downside for me is that it won't connect to any of my wireless networks when security is enabled (WPA2 with AES encryption); When I try to connect to a network with WPA2 enabled, I enter the password, click connect and after a few seconds it tells me it can't connect. I've tried this on my home network (Ubiquiti AirOS hotspots) as well as two different Android hotspots (Galaxy S7 edge running Marshmallow and Nexus 9 running Nougat) - all the same issue. It connects successfully only when I disable all AP security. This is with the current firmware version (6.0) on the HDS Gen2 Touch which should update the WiFi-1 if it requires newer firmware. I don't know if I had a bad block or if it's just broken in the current firmware for that. I'm returning mine as I was really looking for Sonarchart Live functionality and don't want to run an open hotspot on a boat. I think I might consider using a pair of small Mikrotik APs (one as a client for the AP and one for the tablet connection) with one of Simrad's Lowrance to RJ45 adapters. From what I've read this should work, it just can't be configured through HDS.