Next message: Lew Hodgett: "lv-ab: Re: Navigation in rock infested waters"
Yes, I have and use this chip burner. The charts are all on the CD, but it
costs $90-$100 per area to open them and the areas along the east coast are
small (Norfolk-Charleston is 1 area, Charleston-Jacksonville is 1 area,
balance of Florida is 2 more areas (Not sure if that includes west FL),
Bahamas-Carib is 3 areas, (1.5 for Bahamas, 1.5 for Carib), Chesapeake-Del
Bays is one area, NJ-NY is another and does NOT include Hudson River & Erie
Canal), And this allows the charts to be copied onto only 2 Garmin serial
numbered machines. Beyond this, they send you a new disk for free from time
to time, but you have to pay to upgrade EVERY AREA! You even have to PAY
$75 to upgrade a NEW area that you just bought the unlock card for, if you
have not unlocked that version CD before. If by chance you buy an outdated
CD, Garmin will give you the latest ver free, however that DOES NOT update
any older areas that you previously unlocked.
There gets to be a question of cost if you go very far, and a question of
price gouging for charts that are mostly copies of NOAA charts for which
Garmin pays absolutely no royalties. Then there is the modified $35 blank
camera chip that they charge ~$200 for.
Other than above, the Garmin 182C is a nice machine and it is outdoor
mountable, and has a very bright, although tiny screen. I even relay my
depth sounder to it so I don't need to view 2 screens.
My recommendations: If you need more than 3 Garmin map areas, get a laptop
with a CD burner instead. If you are cruising far, get a laptop, an SSB
radio with Pactor 3 modem and a spare laptop. If you have a sailboat,
possibly mount a flat monitor on a swing arm in the companionway and use a
wireless mouse for control. The charts are free from other sailors as you
go. I have NEVER SEEN an original chart or program disk on any other
cruising boat, only copies.
The charts used on PCs are much more detailed than charts on plotters,
detail has been removed from plotter charts to make them fit on those chips
as the plotters have no hard drive. Of course, the hard drive is why PCs
crash and plotters usually do not. In many cases plotter charts are not
good enough to navigate harbor entrances, especially in Bahamas. The
computer charts are the paper chart copies, viewed on a sizeable screen with
the same detail as the paper, or possibly better with zoom in. The Garmin
charts are loaded to the PC prior to chip burning and can be viewed there
and used as a PC based chart, but why would you want these overpriced charts
that lack detail when better is available for free?
What is premium navigation equip these days is a plotter tied to a radar of
the same brand, then one unit is placed inside and one outside and each can
act as both units so there is active radar and charts at each location and
they can even be overlaid. Big $$ and still poorly detailed, expensive
charts, as other brands of chart chips are possibly even less detailed than
Garmin. I am waiting for an economical radar that will combine with a PC
chart program. Until then, my antique Furuno CRT radar still spots ducks.
Lee Haefele
Nauticat 33 Alesto, Currently attending Seven Seas Cruising Assoc gam in
Melbourne FL
> Gramin makes a chip "burner" so you can copy charts from a
> CD (or presumably a hard drive) to the chip. In theory, you
> could download charts from the chip and save them to your
> hard drive, then make a new chip. Of course that would
> violate the license agreement if you gave the charts to
> someone else....
>
> Giff
> S/V PHOENIX
>
> Subject: Re: lv-ab: Chart plotter
>
>
> I have 182C, it is a great unit, can be used outdoors, but the cost of the
> charts is astronomical. If you could find a way to use a laptop, charts
and
> programs can be copied from other sailors along the way. Or possibly, buy
a
> program, getting latest model, then burn chart CD copies from others. I
> like Capn, but I have older ver 6.1. I have laptop and 182C, if I were to
> choose again, I would skip the plotter, but I have inside steering with
dry
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