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

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:15:24 -0500, Jack Erbes
wrote:

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

On Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:09:56 -0500, Jack Erbes
wrote:

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