"KLC Lewis" wrote

FWIW, I have two Garmin GPS units -- one on Essie, one on the Trophy 180,
and they both set up easy as pie. I don't recall ever having to "register"
either unit to get them working, and I have a bluechip card that I use in
both of them, depending upon which boat is going out. Never a problem.

That's very interesting. Maybe the chips, which are the same price as equal
coverage area unlocks from the CD, are more swapable from GPS to GPS. I
went with the CD so I could do trip planning on the computer at home and
because you can get an unlock code for a new area in minutes instead of
waiting for a chip to arrive in the mail. You could do it with a laptop via
WiFi somewhere.

When you unlock a region on the CD, you have to enter the information for
your GPS at the same time. The software then encrypts the data card so that
the maps will only unlock in the two GPS units you entered information for.

Can you stick your data card in a USB card reader (available for ten bucks
from Radio Shack) and read the charts back into Mapsource on a computer?
I'm curious but I'll bet not. The would have killed the rational for buying
the CD if they allowed that.

I wonder if you can make a back up copy of your data cards with a card
reader. I'll bet they have figured out a way to prevent that as well.

--
Roger Long