Used Garmin card with Bluechart

[dtempleton]

Hi;

I have just moved S/V Jeanne Marie to the Chesapeake, but my older Garmin 178C doesn't have active charts of the area. I see I can get Chesapeake charts on the older Garmin cards for about $175, which seem steep since the charts don't go to FLA or the NE as the equivalent C-map charts do (I believe). Plus, this unit probably has only a few more years in it.

I have found a Garmin chip for sale where the seller says "I bought this unit on eBay but don't need the card, so am selling it".

Is it correct that his card (and my original card) will only work in the original unit? I asked the seller and he said "no problem", of course. Garmin's web site is useless.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

Dennis

[olson34]

Rumor is that the Garmin charting chip will not transfer to another device -- some sort of ID is encoded when you load/run it.
I have always found that the best answers will come from a full service local marine electronics store. Sometimes even they have to make threatening noises to a manufacturer to get a good answer.... Garmin is not tops on the list for product support, either.

To give the electronics devil his due, Garmin pays a price for their "vertical charting integration" and has a constant struggle to reduce piracy and duplication of their charting software.

In sharp contrast (bad pun) my laptop computer has low-cost nav software and a big scren, but cannot live outside in the sun and rain like a dedicated chartplotter -- oh well, at least my charts are free from NOAA and always up to date.

L

[EJO]

I agree with the Garmin mediocre support.
I bought a boat with a 162C chart-plotter in perfect working order. As I had to move (sail) the boat 80 miles to her new harbor I opted to buy Trip and Waypoint Manager so I could lay-out my trip in the comfort of my home while it was snowing outside. I thought TWM would have a detailed chart which it doesn't so I needed to buy Mapsource Blue Chart Americas according to Garmin support.
I did so and unlocked my charting area where I will be sailing and planned my first sail trip with this "new" boat laying out my course.
Then when it was time to synchronize with my boat chart-plotter it would not transfer my chart which I paid $175 for to the Garmin. Many calls later I still don't have a current updated chart on my Garmin resulting that some of my waypoint show to be on land instead of water.
If I would have known it wouldn't work i would not have bought 2 software programs and a external power supply and connection wire set as for $100 more I could have had a new color chart-plotter/GPS.

[svHyLyte]

Based upon our experience with our 2006C, if the Chip is one programed by Garmin it should work in any Garmin unit that will accept the version of the chip in question. If it is a chip that was created by a user up-loading data from a MapSource CD, it will only work with units with the proper pre-loaded "unlock" code.

FWIW...