Roger Long wrote:
I feel a little better. My adventure into Garmin world left me with
two GPS units registered. One was a ghost with a unit ID matching
the serial number of the real one and a serial number that came from
God knows where. Since you can only get the charts to unlock with
two units, this meant that I wouldn't be able to load them into a
back up GPS when I purchase one.

I wrote and email to technical support asking them to please kill the
ghost GPS. Immediately after, I went back to the Garmin site and my
account to look around some more. The ghost GPS had already
disappeared! It clearly wasn't a case of the fastest technical
support response on the plant becaust it was less than a minute since
hitting the sent button. The Garmin system must have automatically
checked, figured out that something was bogus, and killed the record.

Cool.

(I'd still buy something else though)

It's easy to confuse the Unit ID with the serial number of the unit.
However, connecting the unit to a laptop or PC with Mapsource installed
searches for and displays the Unit ID, since without this, no connection is
established to enable data, map or chart transfers between.the unit and the
PC,

Unlock codes require the unit ID, area code, and software code (type), for
Garmin to generate the unlock codes. Unlock codes that will often work with
the PC will not unlock maps/charts for the instrument, although unlock codes
for the specific instrument will unlock maps/charts on your laptop or PC.

The reference codes that are supplied with the software you buy, eg
Bluecharts, have to be supplied to Garmin, together with your unit ID,
before they can supply you with an unlock code for that instrument, and ONLY
that instrument. True, Garmin allow you 2 sets of codes with your software,
and it would seem that you would have to re-register your 2nd instrument
(when you buy it) and explain to Garmin that you have mistakenly supplied
them with the wrong unit id the first time you sent the info to them,
otherwise they will assume that you already have 2 instruments and have
used up your allocation of unlock codes.

I don't see the point of buying a second unit, since you will already have
the charts on your laptop and some of these on your handheld GPS. Garmin
however do recognise that some people will own 2 GPS mapping units, hence
their software allows 2 such installations.

One tip Roger. When selecting charts to upload to the unit, you may overlook
the fact that some larger area charts contain smaller area charts, ie the
same area is covered on 2 or more charts, but be aware that the detail
contained in the small area chart can be substantially greater than that
contained in the large area chart, so that zooming in to a large area chart
does not give you the same amount of detail as using the smaller area chart.
I therefore tend to ignore large area charts when uploading and instead use
more small area charts in my instrument (a GPSMAP60CS).

I have also found that road maps, (City Select and City Navigator) over-ride
the BlueCharts when loaded to the same unit, and you have to untick such
maps in the Map Page before you can use the BlueCharts. This can be a
nuisance in coastal areas when you may have used the road map to drive down
to the marina and want to use the BlueChart to navigate out of the marina
and along the coast. This may be specific to my particular instrument, but
it's worth checking if you are faced with a chart with no detail!


Dennis.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote

One tip Roger. When selecting charts to upload to the unit, you may
overlook
the fact that some larger area charts contain smaller area charts, ie the
same area is covered on 2 or more charts, but be aware that the detail
contained in the small area chart can be substantially greater than that
contained in the large area chart, so that zooming in to a large area
chart
does not give you the same amount of detail as using the smaller area
chart.


Are you saying that, if you have both charts loaded and active and zoom in,
the unit will give priority to the large scale chart and suddenly present
you with no detail as you sail into a bay or harbor? This is a very
important point because it could lead to loss of a boat and life in a high
stress situation. Having to suddenly go back into set up and turn off the
large scale chart just as I'm entering a harbor would probably be enough to
lead me to Ebay the whole thing. I'll check this on mine but I'd appreciate
your (or other Garmin user) clarifiying as these kinds of operation are not
always consistent.

The road / chart conflict I know about. That's why I'm segregating road and
marine data on two separate data cards.

--
Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:
"Dennis Pogson" wrote

One tip Roger. When selecting charts to upload to the unit, you may
overlook
the fact that some larger area charts contain smaller area charts,
ie the same area is covered on 2 or more charts, but be aware that
the detail contained in the small area chart can be substantially
greater than that contained in the large area chart, so that zooming
in to a large area chart
does not give you the same amount of detail as using the smaller area
chart.


Are you saying that, if you have both charts loaded and active and
zoom in, the unit will give priority to the large scale chart and
suddenly present you with no detail as you sail into a bay or harbor?
This is a very important point because it could lead to loss of a
boat and life in a high stress situation. Having to suddenly go back
into set up and turn off the large scale chart just as I'm entering a
harbor would probably be enough to lead me to Ebay the whole thing.
I'll check this on mine but I'd appreciate your (or other Garmin
user) clarifiying as these kinds of operation are not always
consistent.

The road / chart conflict I know about. That's why I'm segregating
road and marine data on two separate data cards.

No, I am saying that if you load the large-scale chart, but miss out the
smaller-scale chart, you will have only the detail which is included on the
large-scale chart, so either load both, or just the small-scale charts. The
Garmin always seems to seek out the chart with the greatest detail when you
zoom in. These smaller charts do not always overlap anyhow, so you are best
to load the large-scale charts as well as the small-scale ones. If you find
yourself in an area not covered by a small-scale chart, you will know,
because as you zoom in, you lose detail.

Be careful when using the selection tool in Mapsource and examine the
highlighted chart borders carefully. As a check, list the charts you have
selected before uploading them to the Garmin, including any Tide and Marine
Services files since these are very useful when calculating HW and LW and
range without having to use your tide tables from the almanac. If you forget
to load these you have to do a complete reload of all the charts together
with the Tides and Marine Services files.

This is the way it works with my 60CS, your unit is obviously a CSx unit so
maybe using data cards does eliminate the problem of the Garmin deleting all
the charts in it's memory before loading new ones, i.e. you can't add charts
to the ones that are already there (in my 60CS that is), you have to upload
the whole of the old portfolio plus any new charts you may have forgotten.
Built-in memory probably behaves differently to SD card memory, so ignore if
all this is bull****!

I have found that having a pocketable chart display unit, which contains
good detailed charts, is a great asset, and saves having to leap up and down
the main hatch to check your laptop screen. I am getting too long in the
tooth for this game, and can do without the excercise! The BlueCharts are
superb in this area (West of Scotland) and I can usually manage without
resorting to paper stuff!

Dennis.

Dennis Pogson wrote:
Roger Long wrote:
"Dennis Pogson" wrote

One tip Roger. When selecting charts to upload to the unit, you may
overlook
the fact that some larger area charts contain smaller area charts,
ie the same area is covered on 2 or more charts, but be aware that
the detail contained in the small area chart can be substantially
greater than that contained in the large area chart, so that zooming
in to a large area chart
does not give you the same amount of detail as using the smaller
area chart.


Are you saying that, if you have both charts loaded and active and
zoom in, the unit will give priority to the large scale chart and
suddenly present you with no detail as you sail into a bay or harbor?
This is a very important point because it could lead to loss of a
boat and life in a high stress situation. Having to suddenly go back
into set up and turn off the large scale chart just as I'm entering a
harbor would probably be enough to lead me to Ebay the whole thing.
I'll check this on mine but I'd appreciate your (or other Garmin
user) clarifiying as these kinds of operation are not always
consistent.

The road / chart conflict I know about. That's why I'm segregating
road and marine data on two separate data cards.

No, I am saying that if you load the large-scale chart, but miss out
the smaller-scale chart, you will have only the detail which is
included on the large-scale chart, so either load both, or just the
small-scale charts. The Garmin always seems to seek out the chart
with the greatest detail when you zoom in. These smaller charts do
not always overlap anyhow, so you are best to load the large-scale
charts as well as the small-scale ones. If you find yourself in an
area not covered by a small-scale chart, you will know, because as
you zoom in, you lose detail.

Roger,

Have just re-read my last post.

Please substitute the word "area" for the word "scale" in my previous post.
Small-scale charts cover a LARGE area and large-scale charts cover a SMALL
area!

You would think I'd been navigating for 2 weeks instead of 45 years, the old
brainbox must be suffering from all this global warming!

Dennis.