IN-Car GPS to also use on the boat

temptress

temptress

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Gone Sailing -in Greece for a while
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I keep getting lost when I'm driving my car and have come to the conclusion that I need an in-car GPS/Street map as I'm doing too many miles now. So I'm going to treat myself to one as an early x-mass present.

But it would seem to me that if I'm going to spend a not so small amount of cash on this thing that I might as well get one that is useful on the boat as well.

I'm just starting to look into this. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifI have started looking online and in some motor shops but I need to get scientific about this. I suppose ideally I'd like to find a unit that can take some form of electronic chart as well as the street maps but at least give me LAT, Long, CRS, SPD type information.

I would welcome some input and will report back what esle I find here in due course.

Has anyone here done any research on this?
 
I use a garmin Quest for exactly this purpose. It is a great in car GPS, and an OK chart plotter. That is to say the bluechart mapping is superb, but the screen is very small. However as a singlehanding in your pocket dont want/can't go below chartplotter it is better than not having one, but you wouldn't wan't to be soley reliant on it.
I think garmin do a similar mobile gps/plotter with a bigger screen( and price obviously) now.

BTW the quest will give you lat/long, speed & bearing even without the charting software

Hope this helps

Rob
 
Yep I got a Garmin 276C. Great bit of kit for car & boat. Bought it via e-bay with all the options , speaker,charger,maps etc and saved a fortune...
 
I use an old laptop with Fugawi (Ordnance Survey maps) for country driving, Autoroute for city driving and Tsunamis as a really effective & accurate electronic chart plotter.

For about £40 you can get a USB plug-in GPS receiver and the software packages are also relatively cheap on-line.
 
I used a Quest on the motorbike and in the car and its capable of taking Garmin blue charts. But the tiny screen, whilst OK with road directions, would IMHO be too small for sea use. Even on land, route plotting is much more practical done on the PC and then downloaded to the Quest than it is done on the quest. At sea, your chgances of plotting a route round hazards would be limited.

My Quest (along with my bike) met its maker in the shape of a young lady in a 3 door hatch. I've been looking for a replace and thought of the 276. Trouble is, thats a bit bulky to put in your pocket and to leave it in the car is an invite to car thieves. You would even have to remove the mount from sight.

So my conclusion was that I would buy a cheap TomTom for the car and use an old lappy and usb gps for the boat. Costs no more ans each suits the particular use rather better.

Sympathise with the getting lost. I used to do that on the bike, hence the Quest.
 
Just had similar thoughts but ended up with a Garmin 660. It doesn't take marine charts but does everything I want for the car and is loads cheaper than something that would do charts as well. Halfords have a deal on at the moment where it's packaged with a trafiic info receiver. You can get the same info from TomTom etc but you need a yearly subscription.

The reason I didn't get a unit that would do both was I couldn't find one that met my requirements for the car and would take charts as well. Of course someone's going to tell me what I missed now.

My requirements were: European street level charts, Blutooth to connect to my phone and act as a hands free kit, traffic receiver (free not subscription), big(ish) screen. The 660 seemed to fit the bill. Lower cost is the 310 which is pretty much the same but has a smaller screen and is £100 cheaper.

I also found a useful POI database for the safety cameras.

My only complaint is that with the safety camera database installed, I hevent yet found a way to switch off the interminable warning sounds and still have the phone audio. You can mute the audio which turns off the warning sounds but you have to un-mute before you can hear the phone. You can still hear the phone ring though - strange. Also I've so far failed to get the unit firmware updated and am talking with Garmin about this at the moment. They say they can do it with their units and software loader but I've tried 2 PCs and both fail in exactly the same way.
 
I use a Navman Pin 300, with C-eMap and Navstation.

Gives car navigation, speed cameras, etc. vector charts, chart plotting, tides, passage planning, track recording and all pocket pc functions.

All with current consumption small enough to be of no concern.

The gps works when mounted by the chart table inside the cabin which has coachroof grp/balsa/grp and deckhead grp.

Have to change the sd card to go from car to boat.
 
What ever you choose please DO NOT leave your Sat Nav in the car when parked. Thieves prey on vehicles with any indications of a Sat Nav, which includes mounting brackets and sucker marks on the windscreen.

My TomTom was nicked from the Marriott Heathrow car park a few months back. The ‘opportunists’ saw the bracket on the screen and rightly guessed the Sat Nav itself was in the car somewhere and smashed the side window. Seems obvious once you’ve been a victim but now I carry the new TomTom with me when leaving the car, never leave the bracket on show and wipe the sucker marks off the windscreen.

I use a TomTom 910 in the car and a Garmin 178C on the boat, more expensive but both are better suited for their intended uses (i.e. small screen and portable for the car and large screen for the boat).
 
Yes, Garmin 276c. One of the few on the market that can work as both genuine marine plotter with full charts, and also in car with full street maps and audio and visual directions. Need to buy in car kit to make this work, as well as marine charts
 
I've got a Garmin Quest as well. I think its great and prevented marital directions strife. Only tip is if going for the Quest make sure its a Quest2. This has most the nautical feature they promised on the original Quest and failed to deilver!
 
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Garmin Quest .............. prevented marital directions strife.

[/ QUOTE ]

My SWMBO objected most strongly to another female voice in the car telling me what to do and usurping her position! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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