Like an irresponsible child, I have lost my portable chartplotter, a
Garmin 276. I believe I still have the chip for my sailing area: Lake
Champlain. This would be my boats only navigation aid (other than charts
of course).

I prefer a portable battery powered GPS as a quick backup to my dead
reckoning for cruising to parts of the Lake I rarely visit. Being old
and decrepit (hence vision challenged especially when moving from
distance to reading), I preferred the larger, colored, and easy zoomable
screen of the 276C to some of the more famous smaller handhelds and
thought it was worth the money. I felt is was a reasonable size for a
big screen.

What are the experts thoughts on differences between the buttons on the
478 versus the touch screen of the 640? According to the West Marine guy
I talked with, the 640 has to be put in its huge base to be charged and
the huge back would seem to make it less portable than the 276.

I have not seen a 478 and would have to order one blind although one
might be available for several hundred dollars less.

Sorry for the roundabout but here are the questions I can think of:

1) Are the built in charts of these two plotters as good as the chip I
had to buy for the 276C for a body of water like Lake Champlain (i.e.,
do they have all the navigation aides and aides for finding previously
unvisited harbors and gunkholes)?

2) Are either of these a unit that can remain in one's sail bag and
serve as a reliable quick check on position (when I begin to wonder
where is that damn buoy or how far is it to the next mark)?

3) Are either of these really portable?

4) Do either of these not require being installed in the base to charge?
I would likely have to charge them with the engines going using a DC
plug when cruising.

5) What other, more important information should I ask to which you know
the answers?

TIA,

Harlan

Harlan Lachman writes:

What are the experts thoughts on differences between the buttons on the
478 versus the touch screen of the 640? According to the West Marine guy
I talked with, the 640 has to be put in its huge base to be charged and
the huge back would seem to make it less portable than the 276.

I have not seen a 478 and would have to order one blind although one
might be available for several hundred dollars less.


I own a 478. The charts include full information
on marks - including their designations. The unit is portable but not
pocketable. The charging cord plugs into the unit directly. It
doesn't have a "base". It does come with two mounts, one of which I
use in my car, and the other I've rigged so I can mount the unit under
my dodger when sailing. It is battery powered, and runs a number of
hours on battery. Battery is built in and rechargeable.
In the car, I don't normally plug it in at all.

IIRC, when you get it, you get to load one set of detailed marine
charts. I don't really remember the details - check the Garmin web site.

It has reasonable auto support - including route computations and
voice.

The button controls work well, as far as I'm concerned.

In article ,
Marc Auslander wrote:

Harlan Lachman writes:

What are the experts thoughts on differences between the buttons on the
478 versus the touch screen of the 640? According to the West Marine guy
I talked with, the 640 has to be put in its huge base to be charged and
the huge back would seem to make it less portable than the 276.

I have not seen a 478 and would have to order one blind although one
might be available for several hundred dollars less.


I own a 478. The charts include full information
on marks - including their designations. The unit is portable but not
pocketable. The charging cord plugs into the unit directly. It
doesn't have a "base". It does come with two mounts, one of which I
use in my car, and the other I've rigged so I can mount the unit under
my dodger when sailing. It is battery powered, and runs a number of
hours on battery. Battery is built in and rechargeable.
In the car, I don't normally plug it in at all.

IIRC, when you get it, you get to load one set of detailed marine
charts. I don't really remember the details - check the Garmin web site.

It has reasonable auto support - including route computations and
voice.

The button controls work well, as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks for a response Marc.

h