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Using car GPS

2210 Views 15 Replies 13 Participants Last post by sailingdog, Jul 2, 2009

ricardoasilva

Discussion Starter · Jun 30, 2009

Hi All.

I've been playing around with an idea in my head and could use some help...

I've never sailed with a GPS, and was recently thinking it may come in handy in some situations. I have a Garmin Nuvi 205 for my car and was wondering whether you can somehow adapt it for use on the water...

Thanks

R

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

deniseO30

· #2 · Jun 30, 2009

my hand held Lowrance H20 gps works great with the nautipath software installed. without that it just shows highways, cities and towns, not anywhere near detailed as my garmin nuvi that talks to me and more.
I'm sure all the makers of these electronics don't want us to have combination units, and pretty much make it so we have to buy things.

patrickrea

· #3 · Jun 30, 2009

I use both a Garmin GPSMAP 176C and an Etrex Legend with BlueCharts and road maps loaded. Works great.

sailingdog

· #4 · Jun 30, 2009

Well, it can probably be used to some degree, since it should be able to give you your lat/lon position.

Then you can plot that on the chart.

night0wl

· #5 · Jun 30, 2009

I have a Garmin 76Csx as a backup GPS. I've also bought Bluechart & City Navigator NT charts for my area. With a 2 gb microsd card in the 76Csx, I'm able to load up all the charts I want into the device.

It is a bit costly as a backup GPS. Device + cost of the base charts (1 region) + region unlock codes if I travel.

ricardoasilva

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 30, 2009

Good idea SailingDog... never thought of that. I suppose you can also play around with landsights if you're doing coastal navigation, although you won't get depth until you plot your position on the paper chart.

mitiempo

· #7 · Jun 30, 2009

but it's nice to know where the nearest restaurant is...
Brian

tommays

· #8 · Jun 30, 2009

Well

I have tryed things with the car GPS and the tricks it uses to make it appear its tracking your car as drive around a cloverleaf overpass are the same things that make it suck on a boat

And there not worth squat for geocatching eather

PalmettoSailor

· #9 · Jul 1, 2009

sailingdog said:
Well, it can probably be used to some degree, since it should be able to give you your lat/lon position. Then you can plot that on the chart.

Can you do that with a nuvi? My wife has one in her company car and while I have not pushed every button, I have played with the nuvi a good bit and have not seen where I could get the unit to display raw position lat/lon. There is a screen to input a lat/lon you wish to navigate to, and the unit will draw a nice magenta line to the destination but I haven't found how to make our Nuvi show me the lat/lon of my current position.

Just as commentary, I started using GPS in airplanes long before they became common for use in cars. As the aviation handheld units evolved over the years, they had automotive capability added as a "nice to have" feature, but retained all the aviation funtionality, which made them very useful in my opinion. I feel like the latest evolution of car units are incredibly "dumbed down" from even earliest aviation units with automotive features. The 3d view doesn't provide the same situational awareness to help YOU decide when a detour might be a good idea and the mapping display sux compared to older units. It seems now the units are tailored and marketed to people that want to blindly follow the magenta line and eventually get there, not folks that want to see where they are, the suggested route and be able to evalutate possible alternatives.

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geraldartman

· #10 · Jul 1, 2009

I have a Magellan Cross over for about $100. It has streets, topo and marine. You can plug in XL marine charts for high res location. Topos are in the 90 meter range, limited but usuable. $100 is less than most handhelds an I drive way more than sail most unfortunately. I am working on that in getting my US25 into the water.

TSOJOURNER

· #11 · Jul 1, 2009

Hybrid GPS

Garmin cam out with mod #640 for around 1,000$ that display both road and marine.
The problem with most road units is that they don't show marine markers, etc.. but as mentionned before it will help you with at least find your position and then you can go on your charts.

donhaller

· #12 · Jul 1, 2009

Just to throw something else into the pile of suggestions. I have a Blackberry with GPS and Mapping App installed. As long as I have a wireless signal in the bay, I can have it "tell me where I am" giving the Lat and Long in raw coordinates which can then be charted. I tried this last month on my Coastal Navigation Checkout Cruise and it worked pretty good.

So if you have an installed GPS app that will tell you coordinates you could use it in conjunction with a real chart.

swimnfit

· #13 · Jul 2, 2009

SsilingDog, you are absolutely right. I have been trying to thoink of a way to do that with my NUVI 760. From the main screen you go to "Tools" then press "Where am I"?. Lo and behold there is the raw Lat and Long. Can't wait to give it a try myself.

timebandit

· #14 · Jul 2, 2009

I use a garmin 276c that has both. I think it came from aircraft because it has altitude.

Sometimes when looking for a grocery store near a dock I switch to auto mode to find one close.

sailingdog

· #15 · Jul 2, 2009

Glad to help...have fun... BTW, I'd point out that I have yet to see a GPS unit that can't display the LAT/LON position on some screen someplace. Some will take a bit of futzing with, but all the ones I've looked at, from major manufacturers at least, will do it.

swimnfit said:
SsilingDog, you are absolutely right. I have been trying to thoink of a way to do that with my NUVI 760. From the main screen you go to "Tools" then press "Where am I"?. Lo and behold there is the raw Lat and Long. Can't wait to give it a try myself.

sailingdog

· #16 · Jul 2, 2009

Glad to help...have fun... BTW, I'd point out that I have yet to see a GPS unit that can't display the LAT/LON position on some screen someplace. Some will take a bit of futzing with, but all the ones I've looked at, from major manufacturers at least, will do it.

swimnfit said:
SsilingDog, you are absolutely right. I have been trying to thoink of a way to do that with my NUVI 760. From the main screen you go to "Tools" then press "Where am I"?. Lo and behold there is the raw Lat and Long. Can't wait to give it a try myself.

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