GPS Questions

[kerryd15]

Just doing some searching on GPS units. You will have to forgive me i have not been to a store.

Looking at the garmin oregon 300. comes with a base map as most gps do, says turn by turn directions for driving with the correct map,- I take it this is not audible, just an arrow to turn here or there? It has a micro SD slot to plug in a lake map with contours, highway map, and cities map. What is the difference between city and Hwy map. Trying to make sure I am understanding this correctly. Want something that will help with driving to a new place-couple of times a year and can be used in the boat or for ice fishing. I see garmin came a new model that can do audible directions and lake maps. That would be sweet but out of the price range. This is my first GPS, any experienced advice or other things i am overlooking appreciated. Maybe the new model would be worth it after you have to buy all the maps and stuff?

[croixflats]

The turn by turn has a beeper and the screen flashes as you come up to the turn.

As for a street map I'm not sure of the differences.

The LakeMaster Micro card has detailed street maps on it so that would be useful though in some cases the street maps are not that accurate.

I have the GPS 76 series similar operations but of course different screen. Love it.

I see they came out with the Dakota may want to look into them as they look similar to the oregon and a bit more affordable.

[delcecchi]

If you want a navigating GPS for the car, buy a unit made for that. They can be had for a hundred bucks or so and come with accessories.

If you want something for the boat or canoeing or hiking the oregon units look sweet. But there are other units as well.

[thorski]

Hi Kerry-

I am similar to you. I was interested in a Dakota 20 but couldn't find one in retailers. So, I compared the Oregon 300 to the Garmin 60CSx. I decided to go with the Oregon 300. I am going to use it for fishing in the boat, ice fishing, atving, and occasionally in the car/truck.

I had to order it. I ordered a LakeMaster miniSD card as well. I will order a road map later. I hope I will get it sometime this coming week. I will let you know how I like it..

[croixflats]

I heard some talk of the Nuvi 550 series as verry good unit. That may have what your looking for.

I'm a Garmin fan so someone else may chime in on other brands but IMO Garmin has the quality and offers a huge range of units to choose from.

Contact Dave from ProFishingSupply.com or check out the web site, has other brands to look at also, for your needs great person to work with, Knows his stuff and has verry good pricing.

[kerryd15]

anyone know the difference between Lake master and the mapscource inland lakes maps?

Just looked at the nuvi550- looks interesting. doesn't say anything about lakemaster maps. can you save points and routes on the 550 like you can on the oregon 300? Trying to figure out if i am missing any differences. thanks

[MN Mike]

Kerry,

I setup a Nuvi 500 with a Lakemaster chip here this summer for Kingfisher. The Nuvi 500 comes with a topo map built and I think the 550 just has the base map but you can email Garmin about the specs on that to be sure or check it out at a store if you can find them there. Both units are identical execpt for the maps and both are waterproof.

You can create waypoints and routes on the Nuvi's just like you would on any other Garmin GPS, it's very easy. If you want to call up a waypoint, you can spell it and generally in about 2 letters you have your waypoint on the screen, very slick and FAST with the touchscreen!

This GPS will guide you around cities, get you out of town and on your way to the lake, tell you how far you are from a gas station, restaurant, hospital or even some of your own POI's and get you to the lake. Switch it to boating mode and take you out on the water / ice and to your favorite fishing spots, personally I don't think it can be beat for all around use. Battery life is said to be about 8 hours on these and if you have a spare you can slip that in and be up and running in short order if the first one dies, most of the Nav units don't have access to the batteries, you have to plug them in to recharge.

One cool thing you can do with a Garmin Nuvi? Say you found a spot on Lake of the Woods and caught a bunch of nice walleye and in that mix was a nice fat 29 incher. You snapped a picture of it, now you can take that picture, upload it to your account on Garmin, then link it to the waypoint you created where you caught those fish. Now when you want to head back there, not only do you see the waypoint name, you also see the picture of your 29 inch walleye, I think that is pretty neat!

These things can do so much more too, that's just scratching the surface.

I'll be buying my first color handheld soon and I think the 500 will be my choice after setting up Kingfishers.

Hope this helps some.

Mike

[croixflats]

anyone know the difference between Lake master and the mapsource inland lakes maps?

Just looked at the nuvi 550- looks interesting. doesn't say anything about lakemaster maps. can you save points and routes on the 550 like you can on the oregon 300? Trying to figure out if i am missing any differences. thanks

The Inland Mapsource does not have extensive lake contours like Lakemaster. I asked Garmin about this but with all the questions I had for them I misplaced ( ) most of the info given but what it comes down to Lakemaster is the way to go and it has streets included where Inland does not.

Another thing about Garmin they have great customer service very knowledgeable of all their devices and maps. Experts in their field I would say.

Very nice discription MNMIKE.

[kerryd15]

nuvi 500 users:

can you use the base map while you have the lake master card in the unit, or do you have to put the card in each time? guess im asking if you change to a different mode with the chip already in or put the lakemaster chip in to switch modes.

[MN Mike]

If I'm not mistaken there is a menu in there ( Map Data ) that will tell you what maps are available in the unit ( there is internal memory in these so you can upload maps directly from Garmin to the internal memory ), all you need to do is checkmark the map data you want ( internal or chipped ) and that is the data it uses. I'm pretty sure you can leave your Lakemaster chip in all the time if you want or until you need to replace it with another different data chip for something else.

Mike

[8-Ball]

MNMIKE- How $ is this NUVI unit you speak of?

[MN Mike]

Amazon has them on their site for about the mid $200 range. If your looking for something cheaper there are a lot of Nuvi's that work with the Lakemaster chip, just go to Lakemasters site and when you get to the Garmin chips, below you will see a compatiblity list that you can click on, that will give you a list of all of the Garmin units that work with the Lakemaster chip.

Make sure you get under the right chart because there are different way to put Lakemaster data on your Garmin.

The reason I suggest the 500 series is that they are waterproof, the others are not completely waterproof. I have a Nuvi 250 that is suppose to work with the Lakemaster chip but I haven't gotten time to mess with it. I bought that one for about $100, 6 months ago brand new.

Mike

[8-Ball]

What does the lakemaster chip run MNMNIKE? Do you think the 250 would be sufficient for use in the boat? I like the price..

[8-Ball]

Also- I looked at Lakemaster and they have Mapsource CD Rom, Data Card, and Micro SD Card. Which one do I need with the Nuvi unit. I am assuming I don't need all 3? I see the Nuvi 205 on Garmin HSOforum is 169.00. Where MN Mike did you find it for 100.00?

[MN Mike]

I believe the LM Chip runs about $107.

If I were you I would probably get the MicroSD Card that is preloaded, that might be the easiest.

Where the Mapsource CD's come in handy is for someone like me that has older mapping capable GPS units like my Vista, I can upload maps to that thru my PC connection and the way it looks that will work all the way up to the new ones including the Nuvi's.

The MicroSD chips are 2009 data, the mapsource is 2008, I am not sure how much difference is between them, I would think they are both pretty good.

I can't remember where I got it, I believe it was a one day fire sale at a online store. Seems to me I see either the 250 or the 205's at a few outdoors stores for under $150, shop around, you'll probably find something.

Definetly doesn't hurt to call Lakemaster and ask questions either, I would imagine every GPS unit behaves differently and there might be different things you need to do to make them work properly with the LM chips.

Like most color touchscreens, they are not very veiwable in direct sunlight even though they say they are sometimes, it helps to have a little shade on the screen if your out on a sunny day.

Good luck!

Mike

[8-Ball]

Thanks for the good info Mike. I am going to check into it..