With NOAA giving away "Official" official charts for free and updating them
regularly, it would seem that there is a business opportunity for someone to
build a chart plotter that the end user could use the NOAA charts with.



The current manufactures have no interest in this as they all either produce
or have exclusive relations with electronic chat makers. I currently use
both a chart plotter and my laptop with navigation software that can use
both the raster and vector NOAA charts.



If it existed I would purchase a chart plotter that could use the NOAA
charts. I believe the dedicated chart plotter is more reliable, more rugged,
and probably more water proof than my laptop.



Bottom line I feel that the time has come for a chart plotter that could use
NOAA charts is here. I am willing to beta test such a unit for anyone
already working this problem. E-mail me individually for my electronic,
cartographic, and navigation experience. I am retired and have the time to
donate to this endeavor



Pat Harman



"TomS" wrote in message
...
Anything you buy from Garmin will ONLY read Garmin charts/maps.

I think that this is not the fact... there is a program that lets you
do your own Gamin maps. The program is GPSMapEdit
http://www.geopainting.com/en/
See description at http://plrecgps.pp.org.pl/bin/view/GPS/UserMaps

I have no tested this with a Garmin GPS, but I have used it to convert
Garmin maps to Ozi format, then used another program to convert the
the Ozi files (.bmp and .map) to be used with my Nokia 3230 cell phone and
a bluetooth GPS.
Works fine, the procedure is quite simple and does not require the time
consuming
setting of the chart calibration points manually.

But doing charts from a scanned image for use with a Garmin GPS will
require some more work...

Regards, TomS


"Dennis Pogson" wrote in message
...
Chris wrote:
Hi Thinking of buying a new Garmin Chartplotter GPSMAP 172C which you
also can buy 356 blank data card. Can I then upload my computer charts
on the card and read as the blue charts do? A lot cheaper and I have
more computer charts that Blue chart offers. Assume will need a few
pieces of hard/ software to convert?
Chris

Forget it. Don't waste your money.

Anything you buy from Garmin will ONLY read Garmin charts/maps.

If you want to read other format files, use a laptop with the requisite
software for connecting to a GPS. e.g.-

www.oziexplorer.com


Dennis.