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Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
Bit frustrating trying to find the "right" GPS Chartplotter for a new boat. We've been looking for a larger screen plotter, 6 or 7" diagonal, with the possibility of adding on a sonar/fishfinder, between $600 and $1000. Almost everything we have looked at has too many damned features. We're pretty sure we don't want to hook up a video camera or DVD player to it! Anyway, I kind of like the combo units from Lowrance and Standard Horizon. Lowrance has a unit with a built in 30-gig hard drive and two drawers for chips. I wonder about the efficacy of a hard drive on the center console of a small boat out there in the ocean. I don't much like the new Garmin units. In case we go for separates, any recommendations for a color screen fishfinder? It doesn't have to have a screen nearly as large as the plotter. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
Consumer Suckers. Like the quad-zone digital climate control in your pig
SUV. Be nice to your mechanic, and don't take offense at his beaming smile when you show up at his door with the L/F footwell at 60° and the R/F footwell at 85° JR who has nothing but contempt for the consumer-driven idiocy in the design of modern electronics HK wrote: Bit frustrating trying to find the "right" GPS Chartplotter for a new boat. We've been looking for a larger screen plotter, 6 or 7" diagonal, with the possibility of adding on a sonar/fishfinder, between $600 and $1000. Almost everything we have looked at has too many damned features. We're pretty sure we don't want to hook up a video camera or DVD player to it! Anyway, I kind of like the combo units from Lowrance and Standard Horizon. Lowrance has a unit with a built in 30-gig hard drive and two drawers for chips. I wonder about the efficacy of a hard drive on the center console of a small boat out there in the ocean. I don't much like the new Garmin units. In case we go for separates, any recommendations for a color screen fishfinder? It doesn't have to have a screen nearly as large as the plotter. -- -------------------------------------------------------------- Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
"HK" wrote in message ... Bit frustrating trying to find the "right" GPS Chartplotter for a new boat. We've been looking for a larger screen plotter, 6 or 7" diagonal, with the possibility of adding on a sonar/fishfinder, between $600 and $1000. Almost everything we have looked at has too many damned features. We're pretty sure we don't want to hook up a video camera or DVD player to it! Anyway, I kind of like the combo units from Lowrance and Standard Horizon. Lowrance has a unit with a built in 30-gig hard drive and two drawers for chips. I wonder about the efficacy of a hard drive on the center console of a small boat out there in the ocean. I don't much like the new Garmin units. In case we go for separates, any recommendations for a color screen fishfinder? It doesn't have to have a screen nearly as large as the plotter. Good luck! I'm struggling on what model handheld GPS I should buy to replace my old, but working perfectly, Magellan 315 I think the Garmin GPSMAP 60 CXS has a good rep...but the Garmin GPSMAP 76CXS also looks interesting. http://ca.binnacle.com/index.php?cPath=12_286 |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
On Jun 23, 9:38?am, HK wrote:
Bit frustrating trying to find the "right" GPS Chartplotter for a new boat. We've been looking for a larger screen plotter, 6 or 7" diagonal, with the possibility of adding on a sonar/fishfinder, between $600 and $1000. Almost everything we have looked at has too many damned features. We're pretty sure we don't want to hook up a video camera or DVD player to it! Anyway, I kind of like the combo units from Lowrance and Standard Horizon. Lowrance has a unit with a built in 30-gig hard drive and two drawers for chips. I wonder about the efficacy of a hard drive on the center console of a small boat out there in the ocean. I don't much like the new Garmin units. In case we go for separates, any recommendations for a color screen fishfinder? It doesn't have to have a screen nearly as large as the plotter. With the basic guts of the electronics almost identically configured from one unit to the next and workmanship pretty well standardized at a decent level thoughout the industry, the only thing the mfgrs have to "sell" is the number of features available on brand X over brand Y. Additional features (once designed) cost almost nothing to add to a basic device. As a result, everything from TV remotes, cell phones, marine electronics, etc, is now overly complex. Forty years ago we all owned TV sets or radios that had two- three basic controls and three basic functions. We could switch them off and on. We could turn the volume up and down. We could switch to a different station. It now takes four dozen buttons on a high tech remote control to, essentially, turn the darn thing on, turn it off, adjust the volume, or change the program shown on the screen. What the heck sort of "progress" is that? :-) |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
Don White wrote:
"HK" wrote in message ... Bit frustrating trying to find the "right" GPS Chartplotter for a new boat. We've been looking for a larger screen plotter, 6 or 7" diagonal, with the possibility of adding on a sonar/fishfinder, between $600 and $1000. Almost everything we have looked at has too many damned features. We're pretty sure we don't want to hook up a video camera or DVD player to it! Anyway, I kind of like the combo units from Lowrance and Standard Horizon. Lowrance has a unit with a built in 30-gig hard drive and two drawers for chips. I wonder about the efficacy of a hard drive on the center console of a small boat out there in the ocean. I don't much like the new Garmin units. In case we go for separates, any recommendations for a color screen fishfinder? It doesn't have to have a screen nearly as large as the plotter. Good luck! I'm struggling on what model handheld GPS I should buy to replace my old, but working perfectly, Magellan 315 I think the Garmin GPSMAP 60 CXS has a good rep...but the Garmin GPSMAP 76CXS also looks interesting. http://ca.binnacle.com/index.php?cPath=12_286 I wish these makers would concentrate on the important features. I have a nice cellphone, but it has a camera built-in, a camera I used once, I think, on my trip to Hawaii, and just as a gag. More volume on the earpiece part would have been more valuable. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
Don White wrote:
"HK" wrote in message ... Bit frustrating trying to find the "right" GPS Chartplotter for a new boat. We've been looking for a larger screen plotter, 6 or 7" diagonal, with the possibility of adding on a sonar/fishfinder, between $600 and $1000. Almost everything we have looked at has too many damned features. We're pretty sure we don't want to hook up a video camera or DVD player to it! Anyway, I kind of like the combo units from Lowrance and Standard Horizon. Lowrance has a unit with a built in 30-gig hard drive and two drawers for chips. I wonder about the efficacy of a hard drive on the center console of a small boat out there in the ocean. I don't much like the new Garmin units. In case we go for separates, any recommendations for a color screen fishfinder? It doesn't have to have a screen nearly as large as the plotter. Good luck! I'm struggling on what model handheld GPS I should buy to replace my old, but working perfectly, Magellan 315 I think the Garmin GPSMAP 60 CXS has a good rep...but the Garmin GPSMAP 76CXS also looks interesting. http://ca.binnacle.com/index.php?cPath=12_286 The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. I've never heard of, or seen, the 60CXS. At least you are actually shopping. Your buddy Harry seems to be suffering from his narcissism again. Dan |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote:
The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". I owned some Garmin stock a couple years ago, and I was always a firm believer in Garmin GPS products. I looked over a few units recently at the neighborhood West Marine, and I was not pleased by the complexity, the number of features that would be useless to me AND the high prices for relatively small units. We're still looking at Lowrance and Standard Horizon, both "horizontal" units with the right features and reasonable prices. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". They returned my out of warranty GPS12 and my out of warranty StreetPilot C330 in less than a week at no charge. The GPS12 was several years ago and the C330 was a few months ago. I emailed their tech support and they replied with an RMA number. Very simple and professional. Dan |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:30:15 GMT, Dan wrote:
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". They returned my out of warranty GPS12 and my out of warranty StreetPilot C330 in less than a week at no charge. The GPS12 was several years ago and the C330 was a few months ago. I emailed their tech support and they replied with an RMA number. Very simple and professional. Well, good for you. In my experience, it was entirely the opposite. So much so that I'll never buy a Garmin. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
On Jun 24, 3:30?pm, Dan wrote:
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". They returned my out of warranty GPS12 and my out of warranty StreetPilot C330 in less than a week at no charge. The GPS12 was several years ago and the C330 was a few months ago. I emailed their tech support and they replied with an RMA number. Very simple and professional. Dan My only experience ever with marine electronics repair was with Garmin, and it was a good one. My handheld GPS suddenly stopped receiving a signal. There were rumors at the time that if the "hand" had managed to "hold" the unit a little more firmly that hard knock on the cabin sole wouldn't have sent things all akimbo.....but those are rumors I'll neither confirm nor deny. I sent the unit back to them, and a new one arrived in the mail at no charge. I thought that was classy, until I fired up the new unit to test it out. Garmin had taken the trouble to transfer all of my waypoints from the original GPS into the brand new, no charge, replacement unit. That was *really* classy, IMO. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:35:48 -0700, Chuck Gould
wrote: On Jun 24, 3:30?pm, Dan wrote: Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". They returned my out of warranty GPS12 and my out of warranty StreetPilot C330 in less than a week at no charge. The GPS12 was several years ago and the C330 was a few months ago. I emailed their tech support and they replied with an RMA number. Very simple and professional. Dan My only experience ever with marine electronics repair was with Garmin, and it was a good one. My handheld GPS suddenly stopped receiving a signal. There were rumors at the time that if the "hand" had managed to "hold" the unit a little more firmly that hard knock on the cabin sole wouldn't have sent things all akimbo.....but those are rumors I'll neither confirm nor deny. I sent the unit back to them, and a new one arrived in the mail at no charge. I thought that was classy, until I fired up the new unit to test it out. Garmin had taken the trouble to transfer all of my waypoints from the original GPS into the brand new, no charge, replacement unit. That was *really* classy, IMO. Well, then they've changed things big time. I had a Garmin FF - the first one developed a screen crack (under warranty) and I sent it back - it came back with the screen repaired, but it was DOA. Sent that back and it was returned with a "new" unit what was obviously a refurbished unit - the case was scratched and you could see the tape residue from where somebody had taped the case together. Then when I wanted to send it back, the CS said I now had to go through a dealer - big run around. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:35:48 -0700, Chuck Gould wrote: On Jun 24, 3:30?pm, Dan wrote: Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". They returned my out of warranty GPS12 and my out of warranty StreetPilot C330 in less than a week at no charge. The GPS12 was several years ago and the C330 was a few months ago. I emailed their tech support and they replied with an RMA number. Very simple and professional. Dan My only experience ever with marine electronics repair was with Garmin, and it was a good one. My handheld GPS suddenly stopped receiving a signal. There were rumors at the time that if the "hand" had managed to "hold" the unit a little more firmly that hard knock on the cabin sole wouldn't have sent things all akimbo.....but those are rumors I'll neither confirm nor deny. I sent the unit back to them, and a new one arrived in the mail at no charge. I thought that was classy, until I fired up the new unit to test it out. Garmin had taken the trouble to transfer all of my waypoints from the original GPS into the brand new, no charge, replacement unit. That was *really* classy, IMO. Well, then they've changed things big time. I had a Garmin FF - the first one developed a screen crack (under warranty) and I sent it back - it came back with the screen repaired, but it was DOA. Sent that back and it was returned with a "new" unit what was obviously a refurbished unit - the case was scratched and you could see the tape residue from where somebody had taped the case together. Then when I wanted to send it back, the CS said I now had to go through a dealer - big run around. I had one small problem with a Garmin unit years ago, and the Jebbies took good care of me. But I had a small problem with a Lowrance unit, and received the same service. I don't know what the current customer service policies are at either company. You probably have to ship broken stuff to India. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
On Jun 25, 10:48 am, John H. wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:10:30 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:35:48 -0700, Chuck Gould wrote: On Jun 24, 3:30?pm, Dan wrote: Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". They returned my out of warranty GPS12 and my out of warranty StreetPilot C330 in less than a week at no charge. The GPS12 was several years ago and the C330 was a few months ago. I emailed their tech support and they replied with an RMA number. Very simple and professional. Dan My only experience ever with marine electronics repair was with Garmin, and it was a good one. My handheld GPS suddenly stopped receiving a signal. There were rumors at the time that if the "hand" had managed to "hold" the unit a little more firmly that hard knock on the cabin sole wouldn't have sent things all akimbo.....but those are rumors I'll neither confirm nor deny. I sent the unit back to them, and a new one arrived in the mail at no charge. I thought that was classy, until I fired up the new unit to test it out. Garmin had taken the trouble to transfer all of my waypoints from the original GPS into the brand new, no charge, replacement unit. That was *really* classy, IMO. Well, then they've changed things big time. I had a Garmin FF - the first one developed a screen crack (under warranty) and I sent it back - it came back with the screen repaired, but it was DOA. Sent that back and it was returned with a "new" unit what was obviously a refurbished unit - the case was scratched and you could see the tape residue from where somebody had taped the case together. Then when I wanted to send it back, the CS said I now had to go through a dealer - big run around. I've a Garmin GP in the boat and one in the wife's car (she's 'map reading' challenged). Both have been trouble free and worked nicely. I've a Lowrance fish finder, black and white, and it does a good job also. There. Now I've got my $0.02 in the discussion.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Typically, $0.02 brings more information to the table. Your post sir was worth less than $0.02, hell, you could owe us some! ;) |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:10:30 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote: On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:35:48 -0700, Chuck Gould wrote: On Jun 24, 3:30?pm, Dan wrote: Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:57 GMT, Dan wrote: The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx is a great unit from a company that stands behind their products. Oh yeah? Try and deal with direct after going through two of their units in one month. Go ahead - then tell me about the wonderful "customer service". They returned my out of warranty GPS12 and my out of warranty StreetPilot C330 in less than a week at no charge. The GPS12 was several years ago and the C330 was a few months ago. I emailed their tech support and they replied with an RMA number. Very simple and professional. Dan My only experience ever with marine electronics repair was with Garmin, and it was a good one. My handheld GPS suddenly stopped receiving a signal. There were rumors at the time that if the "hand" had managed to "hold" the unit a little more firmly that hard knock on the cabin sole wouldn't have sent things all akimbo.....but those are rumors I'll neither confirm nor deny. I sent the unit back to them, and a new one arrived in the mail at no charge. I thought that was classy, until I fired up the new unit to test it out. Garmin had taken the trouble to transfer all of my waypoints from the original GPS into the brand new, no charge, replacement unit. That was *really* classy, IMO. Well, then they've changed things big time. I had a Garmin FF - the first one developed a screen crack (under warranty) and I sent it back - it came back with the screen repaired, but it was DOA. Sent that back and it was returned with a "new" unit what was obviously a refurbished unit - the case was scratched and you could see the tape residue from where somebody had taped the case together. Then when I wanted to send it back, the CS said I now had to go through a dealer - big run around. I've a Garmin GP in the boat and one in the wife's car (she's 'map reading' challenged). Both have been trouble free and worked nicely. I've a Lowrance fish finder, black and white, and it does a good job also. There. Now I've got my $0.02 in the discussion. |
Boat Electronics? Going the way of over-featured cellphones?
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