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Boat Forum / Electronics / December 2007How to Make Best Use of New Chartplotter?
Just picked up a boat (Sabre 32) and a new chartplotter (Garmin 545). I also have a laptop onto which I downloaded the free charts for my area. I know I can wire in my Datamarine 2000 series speed and depth sensors to the Garmin. I know I can wire the GPS output to one of those new fancy radios. But what is the best way to hook up the Garmin to the laptop and what specific software should I install onto the laptop to take advantage of the maps, the Garmin GPS data and the laptop? Any other suggestions for getting the most out of these devices? Thanks. Richard > Just picked up a boat (Sabre 32) and a new chartplotter (Garmin 545). I also > have a laptop onto which I downloaded the free charts for my area. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > maps, the Garmin GPS data and the laptop? Any other suggestions for getting > the most out of these devices? Thanks. I use Garmin's MapSource BlueChart Americas charts (purchased on a retail CD) on a PC. That lets me see the charts on a large display and use the mouse and keyboard to place waypoints and build routes on the PC. Then I can use the USB ports on the GPS and PC to upload the data to the handheld GPS receiver (GPSMAP 76Cx) for use while doing boat deliveries. I see the same charting in both places and it works very well as far as how the route planning is done and how well the routes work out on the water. In some cases I travel with a laptop and can do the route building and transfers while on the road. I'm not familiar with the 545 but a recent discussion of another 500 series chart plotter here sort of indicated that Garmin has done little or nothing to encourage or facilitate the things I can do with my handheld and a PC. If I recall right, the other one would allow you to export some data (routes and waypoints?) but there was little or no capability to interact directly with the chart plotter from a PC or to build routes somewhere else and bring them to the chart plotter on some form or portable media. I'm not really answering your question but am curious to know if the recent Garmin chart plotter implementations are as inept as they appeared to be a first glance. Did you get any charts or anything else with your that could be installed on a PC and used as I use the Feel free to email for more details or to exchange some files in formats that would allow you to test the import capabilities of the 545 a little. Jack  SignatureJack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net (also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com) >In some cases I travel with a laptop and can do the route building and >transfers while on the road. I just made arrangements for my laptop to have its very own cell phone. Since I can get rid of a dedicated land line, it won't be all that much more expensive. Much better bandwidth that the old dialup. Most motels have a broadband arrangement available, but I can use this in the car. I don't drive, wife does that. Casady >> In some cases I travel with a laptop and can do the route building and >> transfers while on the road. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Most motels have a broadband arrangement available, but I can use this > in the car. I don't drive, wife does that. If your laptop has built in wireless networking (or if you have a PCMCIA wireless network card) experiment with that too. Just about anywhere you go (truck stops, near public libraries, schools, etc.) you can find wireless networks and often you can log on to them without any further ado. That will give you an free Internet access and an incredible increase in speed and bandwidth compared to the cell phone card. A typical cell phone card will get you about 384k max throughput whereas a wireless B/G network will have many many times that, like 11 to 54 MB. Look for a download on the free NetStumbler utility and it will help you find the networks and sort out the details on wireless networks available. Jack SignatureJack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net (also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com) >That will give you an free Internet access and >an incredible increase in speed and bandwidth compared to the cell phone >card. > >A typical cell phone card will get you about 384k max throughput whereas > a wireless B/G network will have many many times that, like 11 to 54 MB. I am getting 26k with the ordinary phone line. 384k looks pretty good. My first box, the HP 86, had a $400,400 baud modem. Still faster than you can read it.About as fast as the dot matrix printer. Casady >> That will give you an free Internet access and >> an incredible increase in speed and bandwidth compared to the cell phone [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > My first box, the HP 86, had a $400,400 baud modem. Still faster than > you can read it.About as fast as the dot matrix printer. I can remember lusting after a 1200 Baud modem, and then a state of the art 2400 Baud Volksmodem. But 400 Baud? No. You've been at this a little longer than me. My first PC was a Franklin Ace, an American made Apple ][ (or was it ][e?) clone. I discovered the joys of Apple DOS and CP/M-86 with that. But then the Navy dragged me, kicking, screaming, and fighting every step of the way, into the world of PCs. That was at about PC-DOS 1.0 and by MS-DOS 3.0 I was pretty well PC committed for life. Yeah, I know, Apples are better... I just had too much work that had to be done on PC's to find the time to own another Apple. Running WordStar on a dual 360K floppy disk system under CP/M-86 or PC-DOS, now that was a lot of fun! Jack SignatureJack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net (also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com) |
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