Have Garmin shot themselves in the foot?

oceanfroggie

oceanfroggie

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Garmin seem to have no PC passage planning tool for G2 Vision cartography. Of the big three (ie Garmin, Navionics and C-MAP), they seem to be the ONLY one lacking this vital supporting product functionality for their newer range of plotters (ie 4xx, 5xx, 4xxx and 5xxx) series. You cannot view G2 charts on a PC/laptop unlike BlueCharts G1, hence it's impossible to route/passage plan at home, only on the boat. This seems nuts!

Are they mad to dump MapSource? (ie or a card reader for G2 Vision cards)
 
I think they have, because I'd rather have a Garmin 3 series plotter running G1 Mapsource than a 5 series of the same screen size irrespective of price, for the simple reason that I'd rather do my passage planning on a 19" pc screen with a mouse and a qwerty keyboard than mess around stabbing buttons with relatively limited functionality on a chartplotter.

Oh, and I don't really need 3D imagery or "realtime" photos of the places in front of me. Nice to have but not vital.
 
Well I think they also have problems with the G2 and G2 Vision Charts. It seems as though they have dropped the G2 for a G2 Vision chart. My G2 compatible unit will not support Vision cards so it would seem after an upgrade from my mapsource system that I now have an obsolete plotter already.....not to mention that I cannot plot on the PC any longer.
 
A joke indeed - I love my MapSource Bluechart G1 GPS (276c) and especially being able to pre-plan a route at home. Even just to pass away those boring winter evenings with MapSource on the laptop learning about the sea floor /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
It seems as though they have dropped the G2 for a G2 Vision chart.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where does it say that?
 
It doens't say anywhere, but try looking around now for the supply of G2 only charts that are non-Vision. Very difficult to obtain and becoming rarer. G2 Vision not backwardly compatible to G2 units apparently at least according to MES of Bristol.
 
Yes but all the G2 plotters also work with either G1 charts on the programmed garmin data cards or G1 Bluecharts off CD/DVD via a blank garmin data card (eg: 3000, 2106 series, etc). G2 was a shortlived minor upgrade of the G1 charts.

G2 Vision is a whole new ball game, but a marketing disaster imho due to the lack of a PC planning tool imho. I will be switching to either Raymarine wide screen or NavNet if they don't produce some sort of MapSource type solution for G2 Vision. Also a problem for all the plotters with pre-loaded charts as folks won't even have a G2 Vision micro SD card so what will thet plug into MapSource! They made a big boo-boo on this one and took their eye off the ball just at the time they launched some great new kit, but kit many experienced navigators won't touch I suspect due to the oversight of an off-boat planning solution. Long like G1 until this is sorted out.

Agree the 3000 series is a better bet than the 4xxx or 5xxx series in the mean time.
 
I've got a 525 and asked a couple of fellas I know at Garmin. I'm going to point them here. They are a good set and lets see if the post anything! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Regards,
Tony
 
Garmin where asked about this apparent ignore the customer move by various groups I belong to ... Map Authors, GPS Navigator etc. Garmin's answer was to ignore the questions. Seriously - even one guy had a garmin guy fishing with him in USA .. and he asked him then - guy shrugged shoulders and walked off !!

Wish you luck getting an answer.
 
I've spoken to my contacts and the prod team have been given this link. I'm pretty hopeful we'll get a reply to this. They were very positive about getting this feedback...so lets see!

Cheers
T
 
Optimism shines through !!

The GPS nav group has Garmin people as members ... they also monitor Map-authors ... hasn't made any difference !

Lowrance is set to leave them standing with mud on their faces ...
 
The new G2 Vision format has blown all the independant or home grown chart makers off the plate (ie GPS MapEdit, etc). It seems a closed proprietary format so not possible to make your own charts of uncharted or inland areas.

It's such a shame, Garmin gear has imho been the leading plotter for years, but the lose of G1/MapSource makes their products a lot less attractive. I'll stick with the 3xxx/2xxx series for the mo, or switch to NavNet/Raymarine when upgrading the nav setup.
 
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