GPS / Sounder Deal

[Captain Steve]

DD, you get your chip at WM????? west coast coverage from your graphic will do for me.

[Captain Steve]

OK, DD fedex brings mine on friday.....get it hooked up yet!????

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I got my Navionics Chip at west marine. I ordered it online but they backordered. I cancelled that and picked it up at a local store that had it in stock. You need the SD card chip. The Navionics West Coast chip would work, but you might want to get the Lowrance Nautipath chip. It's $100 less and has the entire US, west and East coasts.

I have the unit installed. It's a great fit at the pedestal. I just mounted it on the RAM mounts my previous one was installed on. I put the depth/temp and the water speed transducers on the starboard transom. (I left my old depth transducer on the port transom alone.) The GPS antenna is on the pole at the starboard transom.

It's all powered up and the display is excellent. I also really like the content of the Navionics charts. I loaded my waypoints and routes via a .usr file created on my laptop with Memory Map. You just stick the .usr on a SD chip (not the chart one) and put it in the tray which holds two SD chips.

I've not had it in the water yet, but when I first powered it up the depth transducer was sitting on the ground behind the boat. The 50kHz transducer was getting great ground penetration and it was reading the air temp. We've spun the speed wheel and it works as well so the next step is to get out on the water.

You'll want to turn off the key press beep really quick. I was also disappointed that while it has a NMEA183 com port, they don't send the cable. You have to order it at www.lei-extras.com. I ordered and promptly received a reply that it is backordered and will not ship for 4-6 weeks. I'll have to wait to connect up my Autopilot.

Overall I couldn't be happier. It's a great unit at an un-beatable price. the 7" color screen is big and bold yet doesn't over power the pedestal.

Pictures to follow in a bit.

[Frank C]

Hmmm - my new LMS-332 (5-inch display screen) came with the NMEA-2000 network cables. It's completely different than the older Lowrance wiring, so I still don't have the new wiring pulled.

Everything is done via NMEA ... the depth and speed xducers, even the GPS antenna puck - they all connect to the display via the same NMEA cables. You can add a fuel consumption xducer too - also connects via NMEA-2000.

[Captain Steve]

Thanks, Duane.....I dont have an autopilot and will only require the output to my VHF radio for the DSC to send the lat and long.

Ordered my Gold Navionics chip from Defender for 174.95!

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Steve,

You'll need the same, not included cable, to hook up your VHF. Without iy there is no way to get NMEA183 out of the unit. You can hook up to 4 NMEA 183 devices to the same cable, so when you do get the AP you'll be set.

Frank,

I guess they have to include the NMEA 2000 cable otherwise you couldn't hook anything up.

[Captain Steve]

Is this the right one??

NDC-4 Part # 119-31 $17.95
NMEA adapter cable???

Just checked fedex.com....mine is on the truck out for delivery!!!

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

That's the one. Mine's on order but they don't have it in stock for 4-6 weeks.

[Captain Steve]

Thanks, Duane!!!! hope that this will be my weekend project...after the naming ceremony with Rich and the Third Day!

[Terry]

Not to hijack the thread or anything but this thread does address displays a bit. Since I am stuck in la la land with a garmin handheld (GPSMap 76cs) and the itty bitty color display screen that it has I am curious as to what others are using for an external display. I tried using a notebook for the real-time tracking on MapSource -(garmin product) but when the sunlight hits it the display vanishes so I have to keep it below and go down to check every so often. The Garnin purchase was a mistake in retrospect but I did not have the hindsight when I bought it. With $650 for initial purchase plus another $350 for the two regions of charts I am into it for $1000. I use the home notebook on long trips but since it is from home I won't count it as part of the boat bucks cost. So I either deep six the Garmin and buy a whole new system like Duane or perhaps someone has an idea for an inexpensive sunlight readable display I can plug into the notebook. The rugged outdoor notebooks are very pricey and geared towards the military or mega yaght user. I need a cheaper alternative. On my last trip I kept my charts up in the cockpit and checked my GPS position on them to get the bigger picture, zooming in & out of the garmin was a pain and not as accurate as viewing a large paper chart. Somehow I'd like to get the charts out of the cockpit and a larger display put in. Any ideas?

[Frank C]

IMO, my older, monotone Lowrance was fine as a cockpit display. It was about 4" diag, low in resolution. I could split the screen to show speed/depth with the map, or expand the map to full display.

My new LMS-332 has an even bigger 5" diag display, qtr-VGA (means 320x240) also ample for me. Both mounted on an instrument panel hinged to the aft lip of the sliding hatch, so visible from the whole cockpit. Candidly, when motoring the map isn't ideally sized, but I'm usually not looking for discrete data at 15 knots.

Steve & Duane have an even larger Lowrance 7" diag, full VGA display, which should be fine from my mounting spot, even extravagant on the pedestal.

In your shoes, I'd be loathe to punt those charts, even if the dispaly needs to sleep with the fishies. IMO, laptop displays just cannot serve in sunlight, so I think you're prolly stuck with a larger Garmin display. Why not watch eBay for a Garmin in the 5" range? You might fine a used one, might find a close-out on prior year's model.

[Catigale]

Terry - I love my Garmin 76CS since I carry it with me on every boat I sail on, and use it to maintain my trip logs...just download to computer.

I also like that I am not leaving the most likley item to be stolen attached to the boat ..it comes home with me after every trip.

I do agree about the screen....but thats the drawback of portability of course..

[Terry]

I also like that I am not leaving the most likley item to be stolen attached to the boat ..it comes home with me after every trip.

I have to agree with you there Steve, I have a nylon computer suitcase that I load up with everything - GPS, Depth Sounder display, handheld compass, Binoculars, Anemometer, Camera, Hand held VHF, extra batteries etc. etc, and carry it back and forth every time for fear of theft.
I originally bought it for the portability, thought I might use it in the car or if/when I ever go hiking again, but I only use it in the boat. On my last trip the real-time tracking feature did not work on the notebook so I had to make use of paper charts for the big picture. Apparently Garmin disabled this feature on the last software upgrade in favour of a dedicated add-on called 'nRoute' which is available for free download, they could have told me this before, I only just found out. So now I am back to the notebook, perhaps I can get my hands on an external transflective sunlight readable display to plug into it. It is nice to see the big picture while being zoomed in on the garmin to the immediate sailing area, with the notebook I can see both on a cloudy day, otherwise I have to put the notebook below. I tried using one of those monitor arms from Staples that clamp to the companionway ladder and used bungee cords to hold it from swinging. With the notebook securely strapped on to it and the hatch pulled all the way over I could see it fairly well and it held even when heeled over 35 degrees but I have banged my head on it too many times at dock or anchor so I took it out. (Almost deep sixed it last time I hit my head). The 76cs is a nice little unit but the display is something else - like the color though.

[Frank C]

... It is nice to see the big picture while being zoomed in on the garmin to the immediate sailing area, ...

That's another nice feature of Lowrance's software. They enable a split screen with the wide-area view in one panel and a zoomed-in view in the adjacent panel, with user-defined zoom settings on both sides.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

If I were you I would look for a deal on a Garmin now that you already have their charts. Unfortunately all their sub $1000 units still only have 240x320 screens. The resolution is almost as important as the size. Most of the Lowrance/Eagle units of the same dimensions now have 480x480 screens. This makes things a lot clearer even though the screen is still the smaller 5".

The new 7" one I have is 640x480. It's size and resolution are great for split screen and also is the perfect size for the pedestal. It's not out of scale there and makes it easy to read when you are just sitting back and cruising at the helm seat. (I could never tolerate having to go below to view the map and didn't even like the prospect of it being at the companionway. It was also much easier to wire at the pedestal as well.)

Laptop displays just don't cut it in the sun, however my Pocket PC screen was very good in the sun. It has a razor sharp 640x480 display and served well hooked up to the old GPS for many years. I'd still be using it if I hadn't found this deal on a all in 1. It was a great chart unit as long as I kept it close. It still will be on board as the backup with my bluetooth wireless GPS. It's a pretty cool combo, the GPS tucked up under the dodger at the companionway and the PPC in your pocket getting position data were ever you roam. I also have topo's on it for shore trips and it has my street navigation software for in the car.

The other device that may soon be a great choice is the UMPC's that are slowly trickling out on the market. The Ultra Mobile PC's run the full windows XP OS and could run your Garmin software directly with no problem. They tend to have screens in the 7" range and are fully sunlight viewable just like the pocket PC's. Street prices today are just under $1000, but they are expected to be around $500 when the market matures. Their flat form factor also is easier to protect in a waterproof enclosure.