Lowrance 5150c

Phoenix of Hamble

Phoenix of Hamble

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Aug 2003
Messages
20,966
Location
East Coast
mishapsandmemories.blogspot.com
Just bought one of these..... a terrific piece of kit..... a crystal clear and sharp display, quite quick, easy to use, good resolution at 480x640 and best of all..... very competitively priced... just £379 from JG at the moment with complete Nauticpath charts for the UK and Western Europe as far as the Balearics...

I also bought the PC planning kit, which in reality is a dedicated card reader with LEI's encryption/protection software on it, and the free download Emulator, allowing you to read your charts on the PC, create waypoints and routes on the PC and transfer them to the plotter, and take GPS tracks from the plotter back to the PC.....

Only one little quirk in the installation.... if your PC already has a SD/MMC card reader, you'll need to disable it prior to using the LEI one, otherwise it won't find your charts......

Highly recommended overall though.....
 
You mean you've got some money left? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Just read the account of your trip - at least you know that the engine doesn't overheat. Congrats - a hassle-free passage by the looks of it.
 
Sadly it was £59..... which isn't great value when you consider that the software is a free download, so really you are paying the whole amount for the LEI modified SD/MMC card reader...... galling when you consider that a non modified one is available for not much more than a few quid....

However, it does allow me to prep my waypoints and routes down below, so I guess that its a small price to pay!

On the other point, I would love to join the Yahoo group, but I spend too much time on this darned computer already!
 
Make sure you specify Nauticpath charts and not Navionics.
With Navionics cards the tidal heghts and currents data is all wrong. Lowrance have known about this a long time and can't seem to fix it.
 
MagnaCarter: Would be interested to know if you looked at Garmin Bluechart before choosing Nauticpath or could CMap be better than both?
 
Sinbad,

C-Map does look good, and is certainly better, but would have cost considerably more..... no make that dramatically more.....

Wouldn't buy Garmin charts out of principle after they abandoned their users a while back with an unexpected format change and no backwards compatibility.......

I was nervous about Nauticpath after some comments made on here, but frankly having seen them now, I am more than happy with them.... if you use a plotter as intended, eg as a backup to paper, rather than a replacement, then the Nauticpath charts are more than good enough.... certainly for my part of the sailing world, the detail is enough to happily get back into my marina in a complete whiteout without too much trouble....

Not at all worried about things like air clearances or bridge heights.... i'd revert to paper and pilots for that sort of stuff anyway....
 
Fair comment, but here aren't too many bridges across the Solent, so not really a worry for me. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
As of last week my understanding of the situation is that all Lowrance plotters using Navionics cards give wrong tidal data.
The UK importers are Silva. They have a Helpline on 01506 406288. Ask for Ian. They are aware of the problem and Ian claimed that Lowrance will come up with a solution in a matter of days - a bit hard to believe as Lowrance have had complaints from UK customers for at least the last 9 months.
What I find particularly annoying is that UK retailers such as Redcar are selling Lowrance products without informing customers of what is quite clearly a product fault. Indeed I returned a Lowrance plotter to Redcar last week for a refund and they have not refunded either the delivery charge or the my return postage.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Sadly it was £59..... which isn't great value when you consider that the software is a free download, so really you are paying the whole amount for the LEI modified SD/MMC card reader...... galling when you consider that a non modified one is available for not much more than a few quid....

However, it does allow me to prep my waypoints and routes down below, so I guess that its a small price to pay!

On the other point, I would love to join the Yahoo group, but I spend too much time on this darned computer already!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep - that's why I asked ...... I was quoted about 50 quid just for the reader ... Pity as I would really like the facility - but refuse to pay for a reader at that price ...

Onto others comments about comparisons of chart cards ... I agree with you totally - the Nauticpath has served me well around Solent etc. In fact I have just bought Europe East to cover Baltic etc.

Some moan about lack of coverage of pontoons display in marinas etc. - to me that is not what it's there for ... it's an aid to nav to assist you from a to b ... not a Pilotage machine.... replacement for paper or other such as pilotage books etc.

Others also remark on about the tide fault ... I for one ignore it as I have tide tables - paper, on PDA , on PC etc. and do not rely on one source.

The pricing of the plotter and chart card - budget .. QED. But IMHO does an excellent job without killing the bank account.
 
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Some moan about lack of coverage of pontoons display in marinas etc

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Yeh that was me, but not exactly a moan, an observation. I also pointed out that some detail was seen to be missing, rocks around Guernsey, a little more important, wouldnt you say?

However, the good news is, the latest software update has improved the charting detail, as far as I can see, I've only had a brief look but the rocks that were missing have appeared.

No pontoons though, so still cant set an accurate waypoint to get me back onto my berth! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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