CD rom or chip for GPS?

[traveler]

I bought a garmin Map76CSx this spring...finally going to some software for it. I'm clueless:) For starters I just want a MN chip..fishing Red lake among others. Do I want Lakemaster or Navtronics? Chip or CDrom, and why??

Are there 2011 chips available, or doesn't it make much difference?

[BobT]

It all depends on what your GPS is compatible with and how you want to use it.

First, does your GPS accept SD cards? (chip) If not, then your limited to the CD.

An advantage of the SD cards is that the entire Lakemaster software is contained on the one chip. You can just plug and play (insert the SD card and you have your lakemaps loaded).

A disadvantage of the SD card "might be" that it could slow down your map update rate on your GPS. I don't know this for a fact so someone else can either confirm or deny this.

Another disadvantage with SD cards it the potential for losing them.

An advantage of the CD version is that you can preview your maps, create/review waypoints, create/review tracks, create/review routes, and merge all of these with Google Earth for an added unique feature. If my concern about speed is a true issue, then another advantage is that you can selecct and download smaller map sections to your GPS, which will prevent this problem if it is a problem.

You can create and save your own map files so you choose them for downloading to you GPS. This means you don't have to go through the process of selecting your map sections every time you want to download them to your GPS. Today you want to fish on Mille Lacs so you have created and saved a map file for the Mille Lacs area on your hard drive and you download it to the GPS nice and quick. Tomorrow you decide to go to Otter Tail and again, you have a saved file and you just download it and go.

[traveler]

Thanks Bob...just the kind of info I was looking for. My GPS does take microSD cards. Are all SD cards for GPS the "micro" size?

[MN Mike]

I believe all Garmins now are MicroSD, there might be a Nuvi or 2 out there that take SD cards and I have a Colorado 300 that takes a SD card but that unit is a discontinued model now days.

No Navionics data for Garmins, not compatible. Your pretty much looking at Lakemaster or Garmins Bluechart and you would want the Lakemaster anyway, if you get the Lakemaster chip, you will receive the MicroSD data card PLUS the SD adapter.

I run the Woods / Rainey chip in my Garmins and it's pretty slick.

Mike

[croixflats]

Navionics is not available for Garmin. Like BbT mentioned the added features of the CDRom, best route my opinion. As the 76 does not have down loadable space you will be using a micro card, I believe they all have converted to this. You can get a sd card adapter if need be for say you were to make your other card for a Garmin chatploter/sonar

How the CDrom works is you get 2 unlock codes, 1 code per unit and up to 2 units. You load the CDrom onto the computer plug your GPS , with a blank micro SD card installed, into the computer and follow the Qs from the installation wizard and then you will have the removable Miro sd Card.

[traveler]

My GPS came with a microSD card...wonder if it's blank, or?? How do I check?

[MN Mike]

Garmins site says that GPS you have shipped with a 128mb MicroSD card. Some sites say the biggest card that GPS will handle is 2 GB but that is PLENTY if your using a CD for mapping software.

If you haven't loaded anything on it, it should be empty, if you have a card reader on your computer or printer, it should read any data on it.

Mike

[croixflats]

That card is to small to hold all the info from Garmin/lakemaster. I believe the total info on the CD is something like 305 mb

[MN Mike]

I've never used the Lakemaster CD's before, do you have to load the whole state on in one chunck or can you select areas and just put them on the chip?

I know with Garmins Topo DVD's you can just select areas of a state and upload those, those files are pretty small.

Mike

[traveler]

Good question,...I'd like to know that too. I only fish north, no need at all for the southern 1/2 of the state. For me, that is:)

If i could just pick and choose and load only the data I need that would be a plus.

[BobT]

The lakemaster software on your PC works in conjunction with Mapsource. The Mapsource software has a map selection tool that you can use to select various pre-defined sections of the state. As you select areas they are added to a file list. At the bottom of the list you can see how much data you've selected. When you're done selecting the areas you want, you can save them on your hard drive and give the file a name. When you are ready to download you can open the file you've created and download it to your GPS.

For example. I have a Garmin Rino120. It is only capable of 8Mb of data so I've created various map sets. One I named CentralMinnesotaLakemaps. This mapset includes the Alexandria, Osakis, Ottertail, area map sections and is just short of 8Mb in size. When I'm going to go out on the water in this area I open the map set and download it to my GPS.

I also have land topo maps as well. When I went deer hunting a couple weeks ago I hunted up near Mt. Iron so I opened my map set I named DeerHuntingWithBrother and downloaded it to my GPS.

I almost forgot to mention that these files that I saved with my map sets can also include routes, tracks, and waypoints specific to those areas so you can download these at the same time.

I go fishing in Canada every year and I’ve created and saved files that include tracks of roads that aren’t on my basemap, tracks on the water that I’ve created with the boat, waypoints for the area, etc.

The more you use the software the more things you find you can do with it.

My neighbor asked me to measure a couple farm fields he was renting out so he knew precisely how many acres they were. I took my ATV and tracked my route around his fields. When I got done I merged the information with Google Earth and printed his fields with satellite view for him. Turned out pretty neat.

[McGurk]

I like the idea of using the CDRom/DVDrom on a laptop to manage your data, and am leaning towards the mapsource data also. My question is; if I own 2 different GPS units (a Lowrance in the boat and a Garmin handheld, for example) would I be able to load data onto both of them from a single purchase of this software? Does it monitor what units you are using and limit it to one?

[croixflats]

You can download to 2 separate units but they have to be Garmin units as their format is different than other manufactures so being the format is different I would not think MapSource would work for Lowrance.

2 other things with the CDrom mapsource you use it on multiple computers and I believe if your card gets damaged or lost you can make a new one for your unit.

[BobT]

My hunch is that McGurk is correct that mapsource is not compatible with Lowerance. There might be other software out there that can convert the files from one format to another though. Maybe that could be an avenue to explore.