School me on chartplotters

[McZube]

The only thing I know for sure is that I need one.

I don't need a ton of bells and whistles, I just need to see where I am where I'm going. A well-lit screen would be nice. Don't need a fish finder combo. What's the most economical choice for something fairly basic with a reasonably large screen?

Maybe someone near me is thinking of upgrading and wants to sell me their current one. Or maybe the guy who had one for sale at the Herrington Harbor North boat yard sail last month for a bargain price is reading this right now.

Thanks.

 

[Bad Obsession]

I bought a Garmin 441s and I love it. It is a descent sized screen, descent price, and works great.

Google Garmin 441s and then go to shopping. Find the cheapeast price for it and print it out. It should be around $500 or less. Take it to West Marine and make them price match it.

It is an easy unit to use, easy to figure out, and the manual isn't too bad either.

 

[seadaddler]

EBAY

Well you could go to your local WM and tell them same thing and let them show all they have and explain each one than say I need to think and go shopping on the internet.
nick

 

[All U Get]

Hi McZube,
I have a Garmin 192C that was in my yard sale pile. Send me a PM if interested.
All U Get

 

[Terry in Naples]

chartplotter

If you have a smartphone try buying a $10 app like navonics. If you are within reach of cell service or have a gps equiped phone that may work for you. I use my Iphone and Ipad and find it does as well as my Raymarine $2000 set up.

 

[MSter]

McZube,
I bought a standard horizon plotter last fall and really like it. Has built in GPS antenna and charts for North America including Bahamas as standard. 7" screen gives you lots of options to zoom in and out with very good detail. Also can be linked to a compatible radar or AIS with the split screen option.
Model # CP390i at $ 990 or on sale for less occasionally. check Anchor Express !
Good Luck
Mster

 

[MrBill_FLL]

garmin blue charts are the only bad ($$$) part of garmin IMHO. they want you to upgrade a few times a year for 75/pop. I have a old 76s hand held, and its great, except for the small screen.

 

[Deadline]

I'm with Terry

$10 app beats any price for the real thing. It works great on a smart phone, but you'll have to tether it to the cigarette lighter on the boat to keep it powered, much as you do in the car when running a complicated app.

 

[sailaway78]

Garmin

IMHO Garmin is the most user friendly unit going. And now days you don't need to buy the blue charts, which I agree are a PITA, plus expensive. The newer Garmins have all US coastal charts built in. Most also have a depth finder, which, believe me, you will at some point be glad to have.

 

[alexco38]

Re: I'm with Terry

You need to bring a black blanket in order see the screen in bright sun light ;-) $10 is cheap is you can read it. Try it first.

 

[Ward H]

I have been using MotionX Drive GPS on my iPhone for a year. I like it better than the TomTom I have.
So, yesterday I downloaded MotionX GPS. You can set it up for sailing, choose from multiple maps (NOAA, Satelite, etc) , set waypoints, track your course and such. The compass screen shows speeds, direction to waypoit, time to waypoint, etc. Pretty good for a $.99 app.
It might not be the easiest to readin the sunlight but I don't remember when being out in the sun has stopped me from using my iPhone yet.

 

[RobertLangdirect]

Why not display time OUT OF THE BOX?

I almost -- ALMOST -- agree with Bad Obsession. I too HAVE a Garmin 441s but do not quite love it. I think more to the point I would say I am mostly happy with it.

Yes, it has a decent sized screen, is well priced, and works great. Obsessions suggestion to use the web and price match is also good. I agree with his observation about the unit being easy to use as all you do is hit "power" and select a few times and you are in the navigation chart and plotting your movement.

But, that is where we diverge on the unit. As I race and we often start on GPS time, I wondered why the 441 did not display GPS time. So I called a few friends over and they, both owners of various other products that, out of the box display GPS time, coud not figure out how to get time to display.

It is not part of "configuration." It is NOT part of "display." It is not part of "set-up." Rather, in a bizarre trail leading through "cruising," there, and only there, can you find a way to display time on your navigation screen. And then, it does hours and minutes ONLY, so good luck if you want to race with the GPS as your start timer.

Of course, yes, there is a software update that is supposed to allow hours, minutes, and seconds to display. You can go to the GARMIN website and "cruise" your way to it, load it to an SD card and then upload the fix. That may be on my menu tonight as I bought an SD card and downloaded the software yesterday.

Oh, you can get it for $399 at PCNATION.

So "love" is not part of the package for me. But I must say, I am better off with it than without it. But I am told the Hummingbird fish finder has a similar product for less than half the cost. -- So said one of my friends from above.

 

[Stu Jackson]

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...reId=11151&catalogId=10001&page=GPS-Receivers

 

[Nom De Guerre]

You need to bring a black blanket in order see the screen in bright sun light ;-) $10 is cheap is you can read it. Try it first.

This is a good point, but an avoidable issue. I selected the Samsung Galaxy SII (Android) specifically because of it's excellent daylight brightness performance, and my plan to use it as a backup plotter. It was truly a cut above it's competitors at the time (November 2011) for brightness, and I have never had a problem seeing and using the Navionics app, even at high noon.

 

[Gary_H]

I have the garmin 441s as well and am very happy with it. It has the depth finder which can be displayed full screen or split screen with the navigation charts. I got it @ WM after finding it cheaper on line. WM price matched with no problem.

 

[RobertLangdirect]

OK! I am "HAPPIER" with my GARMIN 441, today, than yesterday.

I went to 5 and below and bought an SD card.

I went to GARMIN.com and downloaded latest 441 update.

I went to GOOD TRADE, fired up the GPS (both fairly well practiced events), inserted the SD card, and the UPGRADE FLEW ALONG ON AUTOPILOT! Wow. SOmeone got that right.

The 441 reboots and . . . . and . . . . and . . . . THE TIME STILL DOES NOT SHOW UP WITH SECONDS.

Call Garmin support. Wait . . . . wait . . . . AND WAIT SOME MORE.

Ask Garmin tech support a simple question ... where do I go to configure time? Her answer is to start walking me into the CONFIGURATION and SYSTEMS menu.

WRONG ANSWER. Now I feel better. NOT ONLY AM I TOO STUPID to find the path, but I stumped the tech as well. However, in all fairness, if you see the menu and you see configuration amd the customer prompted with, "How do I configure my system to change the time display to show seconds?" One might think that the CONFIGURATION and SYSTEM memnus are the way to go.

BUT THEY ARE NOT.

RATHER, go to your Navigation Charts. From there, where you are displaying data nad there is NO MENTION of menu, press the menu button.

From the menu that shows up, select, of all the choices, CRUISING. Why cruising, because it is the right choice, not that it is obvious or intuitive.

Then select (OH fuzzy memory) I think, DISPLAY and you will have four or six boxes with text describing the item to display in a relative position on the screen.

Select time.

Scroll over the H:M or the H:M:S option.

Press "select."

Menu, menu, menu, menu, menu, menu to back out.

See time properly displayed.

I offered to Garmin that they should link their CRUISING menus via a button under Configure, so that you could see SYSTEM or CRUISING. At least one following the menu display could fall into setting up the so called cruising options.

Garmin Rep suggested I go online to offer the suggestion.

Well, I am online now and for the Garmin Rep, I ask the rest of the readers to think of what I might be thinking of suggestion RIGHT NOW.

But yes, I am happier as I have H:M:S displaying GPS time.

 

[Benny17441]

If you want a decent screen to reduce glare you need to go color. Our old standart has been the Garmin 182, we had a monochrome and later went to a 182C (color). Got the chips for the Gulf of Mexico, all of Florida and the Bahamas. I have used some newer units but those that have a standard built in map just don't have the mapping resolution we have become accustomed to. From time to time I see the 182s on sale and the prices have reduced considerably.