Garmin Bluechart G2 - replacing lost card?

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I've just bought a boat whose inventory included a world chart in the above format. The previous owner is deceased and the only SD card in the plotter is an empty Micro SD adapter. I don't relish the prospect of arguing with toss with the vendors, the PO's beneficiaries who know nothing about boats and don't speak English. I'm sure nothing underhand has taken place and suspect the the MicroSD card containing the chart has been mislaid during the winding up of the estate.
So, when these charts are purchased from Garmin I assume they have a means of restricting their use to a specific device. Is it the case that a replacement card or download is available? Are chart purchases correlated to the plotter's serial number?
I've tried a dummy purchase from the Garmin website but have to pay before finding out the details of the process.
 
No constraint on using any card in any compatible device. No 'lock' tying card to device. Time to buy a card for whatever area you need. Usually cheaper from a dealer than Garmin directly. Only possible avenue would be if the charts had been downloaded and you had access to the account. Might be worth going through everything to be sure the card isn't there but Micro SD is easily mislaid.
 
My Garmin 4012 came with a built in World Map which has very little detail. I use a Bluechart mini sd to provide the detail which I am very pleased with. I made a copy of the sd card to act as a backup but this would not work in the 4012, there is some kind of affinity link between my 4012 and the original sd card.
However, the backup copy is usable on my Windows pc using the Garmin app, I think it’s called Homeport. This app must ignore the affinity check.
I have always found the UK Garmin telephone support very knowledgeable and helpful, worth a try.
 
Garmin's system works like this ;

Buy Chart (G2/G3/G3 Vision doesn't matter) on SD card - map is locked to SD card, SD card free to move between devices.
Buy Chart via Download - map is locked to device on which it is first installed/activated....chart cannot be re-downloaded for another device, but can be re-downloaded for same device.
 
MikeCC said:
No constraint on using any card in any compatible device. No 'lock' tying card to device. Time to buy a card for whatever area you need. Usually cheaper from a dealer than Garmin directly. Only possible avenue would be if the charts had been downloaded and you had access to the account. Might be worth going through everything to be sure the card isn't there but Micro SD is easily mislaid.
Click to expand...
So if you download the chart to your own card there are no constraints on copying and redistributing? I'm far from keen to spend £2k on something which I technically already own!
 
Thanks for replies. The inventory stated "Garmin BlueChart World Map (2018)" and there was what amounted to a handing over ceremony when the broker gave me the SD adapter with jokes about its high value.How I wish I'd inspected the SD card more thoroughly at that point. I also have the original receipt for the detailed world chart.
I've since spoken to the Garmin dealer who installed the system who is very helpful and is going to contact Garmin but he is not optimistic for reasons MikeCC describes.
I suspect the previous owner mislaid the microSD and I feel very uncomfortable about haranguing his brothers at this time (his beneficiaries) over this but I also feel very uncomfortable at having to spend north of £2k on a replacement.
 
Quiddle said:
So if you download the chart to your own card there are no constraints on copying and redistributing? I'm far from keen to spend £2k on something which I technically already own!
Click to expand...

There is copy protection on the card, you are supposed to only use the originals in the plotter which will only recognise original cards not copies (though this is changing with the move to using Active Captain and downloading via that with registration to a user id). Copies can be used on a PC with Garmin's Homeport software.

I suspect that unless you can locate the original SD card you are stuffed. I'm not up to date on the law on this but I'm not at all sure that you do, in fact, 'technically already own' the software depending on the licence terms (some are nontransferable), this has not been an issue in the past as the physical medium (in this case the SD card) had normally been transferred with the boat so the software company is none the wiser, but I see it becoming more of an issue now with the charts being registered against a user id.
 
Blue Sunray said:
There is copy protection on the card, you are supposed to only use the originals in the plotter which will only recognise original cards not copies (though this is changing with the move to using Active Captain and downloading via that with registration to a user id). Copies can be used on a PC with Garmin's Homeport software.

I suspect that unless you can locate the original SD card you are stuffed. I'm not up to date on the law on this but I'm not at all sure that you do, in fact, 'technically already own' the software depending on the licence terms (some are nontransferable), this has not been an issue in the past as the physical medium (in this case the SD card) had normally been transferred with the boat so the software company is none the wiser, but I see it becoming more of an issue now with the charts being registered against a user id.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Not what I wanted to hear but hey ho.
 
Quiddle said:
So if you download the chart to your own card there are no constraints on copying and redistributing? I'm far from keen to spend £2k on something which I technically already own!
Click to expand...
No, my understanding is that when you choose to download, and transfer to your own SD card, then put it into a Garmin device, that device will add a unique lock-code, such that the map is then locked to that device and cannot then be transferred.

In that respect, buying charts on a Garmin SD card is the more transferrable approach to it.
 
Quiddle said:
I've just bought a boat whose inventory included a world chart in the above format. The previous owner is deceased and the only SD card in the plotter is an empty Micro SD adapter. I don't relish the prospect of arguing with toss with the vendors, the PO's beneficiaries who know nothing about boats and don't speak English. I'm sure nothing underhand has taken place and suspect the the MicroSD card containing the chart has been mislaid during the winding up of the estate.
So, when these charts are purchased from Garmin I assume they have a means of restricting their use to a specific device. Is it the case that a replacement card or download is available? Are chart purchases correlated to the plotter's serial number?
I've tried a dummy purchase from the Garmin website but have to pay before finding out the details of the process.
Click to expand...
If the "world chart", I strongly suspect this a the Garmin base chart, is in the plotters internal memory then this can be downloaded onto a card and use with their "Home Port" software on a PC.

I'd be interested to know if there is a detailed "world chart" as you tend to buy the bits you need.
 
Sandy said:
If the "world chart", I strongly suspect this a the Garmin base chart, is in the plotters internal memory then this can be downloaded onto a card and use with their "Home Port" software on a PC.

I'd be interested to know if there is a detailed "world chart" as you tend to buy the bits you need.
Click to expand...

There is indeed a proper "world chart" available, not just the simplified base map. - HXWW001G

Interestingly it seems only available in the older G2 HD format, they haven't updated for G3 yet.
 
sailorbenji said:
There is indeed a proper "world chart" available, not just the simplified base map. - HXWW001G

Interestingly it seems only available in the older G2 HD format, they haven't updated for G3 yet.
Click to expand...
Wow, thanks. Never knew it existed. I am having issues updating my UK card since the take over by Navonics!
 
Little Grebe said:
Takeover was the other way around
Click to expand...
Really does not matter who took over who. Garmin advised the lovely people at The Sea Chest that my out of date UK chart would be need to be replaced by not one but four new Navionics cards at £250 a pop due to the age of my plotter (and it ain't that old).

I've moved onto NV Charts as they have both paper charts and electronic ones with free updates. OK not on the plotter, but that is my secondary navigation device and data recorder.
 
Little Grebe said:
Unfortunately Garmin have form for trying to 'encourage' people to upgrade their plotters by no longer supporting their older proprietary formats

My plotter's navionics card covers the UK and much of the near continental waters so not sure why four would be required.
Click to expand...
It's nearly 10 years since I was creating maps for Garmin devices, but back then, the format itself changed very little but the security mechanisms did . For those creating maps (using non-Garmin code), you could ignore the security mechanisms as long as you didn't mind creating maps that could be installed on any device (which we didn't).

However, Garmin DID introduce a nasty trick that placed their equipment in chocolate teapot territory for us - you could only install a chart that lay within the area covered by the built-in low-resolution global map. And that went to 80N and 60S. As the area I created a chart for was at 68S, that meant we couldn't install the chart I'd spent weeks creating! As the instrument was installed in a commercially coded RIB customized for use in Antarctic waters, we couldn't just replace the plotter, either.

Because Garmin are widely used in many different sports, there's an active community out there modifying and creating maps for them. I'm way out of touch with it now, and the software I used is no longer supported. They are pretty much alone in having this sort of user community; the other GPS manufacturers haven't diversified the way Garmin have, so there isn't a big enough user base to support reverse-engineering the formats and creating software to reproduce it.
 
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