Updating electronic charts

[Misterbreeze]

The charts on my Garmin GPSmap555 are of uncertain antiquity and I'd like to update them. I was recommended to try London Chartplotters, but their website is down. Are they still trading? They had good reviews on here. If not, where else to try?

 

[Refueler]

Most likely your charts cannot be updated if they are old .. Garmin will offer you a new replacement set ... with possible discount - but still not cheap.

Personally I go to eBay and buy cards that have expired but were updated to the last available ... ie end of previous year. Last card I bought was under 50 quid and covered entire Baltic ... 2024. If I replace with latest card from eBay - it will be a late expired 2025 ...
Compared to over 200 quid for a current card.

I only mention all this as a possibility.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Most likely your charts cannot be updated if they are old .. Garmin will offer you a new replacement set ... with possible discount - but still not cheap.

Personally I go to eBay and buy cards that have expired but were updated to the last available ... ie end of previous year. Last card I bought was under 50 quid and covered entire Baltic ... 2024. If I replace with latest card from eBay - it will be a late expired 2025 ...
Compared to over 200 quid for a current card.

I only mention all this as a possibility.

My charts are 4 years old, i can still update them at half price. I suspect the Ebay ones are pirate copies, that's why they cannot be updated, because you cannot register them to your account.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

I used to have a Navman 5500 which had charts on something similar to CMap. They were very out of date when I bought the boat. I contacted Bookharbour and they had an updating service. The cards were sent down and updated at an around £300, for both cards.

The update was in 2018, contact details below. I am not sure if Chartco exists now. However, worth checking to at least see if it is possible.


Phone: +44 (0)23 8071 4300
Fax: +44 (0)23 8071 4345

Email: southampton@chartco.com
Web: www.chartco.com / www.bookharbour.com
Address: Digital House, Kemps Quay, Quayside Road, Southampton, SO18 1AD

 

[potentillaCO32]

Might be an opportune moment to move to a tablet and navionics

 

[lustyd]

My charts are 4 years old, i can still update them at half price. I suspect the Ebay ones are pirate copies, that's why they cannot be updated, because you cannot register them to your account.

With Navionics they’ve started blocking old cards after they’re updated with a new one so may not be counterfeit. I assume the Navionics ones for Garmin will do the same going forwards too.
Works well for us as we can change region and keep the old one albeit out of date so I never renew on the same card.