Reviving the Nuvi discussion with a question!

[Phantom]

I took a stroll through the old Garmin threads and did not find an answer to this ...... So here goes--

I have a Nuvi 255W, a unit that I have used on the road for over a year. I am very comfortable with using it and it's various "on the fly" settings. Remembering discussions in the past about Garmin providing a $9.00 map of Winni, I finally got around to hooking my 255W into the Garmin site. After a firmware update (which added a few new options and a useless fuel calculator-btw) I went browsing and found out that Garmin lists the 255W as compatible with the Winni map offered.

Two questions --
As my "settings" do not accomadate "water" -- only Road, Bicycle or Pedestrian what do you set it on?

As the download requires (because of file size) an external/internal memory card - how does the unit know to switch over to the flash card? By the setting? By the mere fact that it is inserted?

I do not want to screw up my 255W Unit for road use - I rely heavily upon it as I'm in sales.
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p.s. -- If this is a redundant question and I just didn't look hard enough in the other threads -- my apologies
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[upthesaukee]

I have a garmin Streetpilot C550. I only have road use with it. I figured for $10, what the heck (I already had Bizer's map). I had to uninstall Bizer's before I could install the Garmin Winni.

You end up with two maps: the Garmin City Navigator and the winni.

The day I installed it, it was raining, so no golf and no boating. Call me fair weather . Living in Alton Bay, I tossed the GPS into my car, got it up and running at my house (a half mile off the lake) and drove down to the bay, pulling into the parking lot of the bay. No indication of the bandstand or no wake area. I was looking out to Sandy Point, and no markers off the Back Bay bridge, the black and red spars. I drove out to Sandy point and no markers, not the flasher and no spars.

I then went home and uninstalled the map and reinstalled Bizer and said a silent thank you prayer to Bizer.

If all you want is an outline of the lake, then spend the ten bucks. If you want some good navigation, get the bizer.

As far as how it knows where to go, I assume, and I do know what happens then, is that when you select the map, it knows to check the internal as well as external sources.

With Bizer, you also have the safe routes from say Wolfeboro to Alton, Center Harbor to Weirs, etc. I also felt the depth contours were far better on Bizer, even with only about a half hour trial of the Garmin Winni map. If you do go with the Garmin, I would select the Road setting, unless you can get "bread crumbs", or your outbound trail, in bike or pedestrian.
Auto will not allow bread crumbs. I set the dock as a favorite, was out in the middle of the broads off Rattlesnake, selected go to dock, and it did its calculation and told me to drive to highlighted route, and then turn left, which was route 11.

IMHO, the Garmin chip isn't worth the ten bucks and time to put it in.

Hope that helps

Dave

[Gatto Nero]

Phantom,

If you don't have marine mode then you'll just have to use car mode. If it's similar to the Nuvi 350 it's not ideal but depending on how you use it it might be okay for your needs. For $10, it's worth a shot.

You will need to physically check the lake chart in the setup and most likely un-check Garmin City Navigator while you're on the lake. Just reset the maps when you get back on the road. You won't mess up anything.

Dave,

It doesn't sound to me like you ever used the Garmin chart once you installed it.

I have both a Nuvi 350 and a recently acquired Nuvi 500. I tried both the Bizer and Garmin charts on the 350 but only the Garmin chart on the 500. If you are going out on the lake make sure that the lake chart is checked or you will not see the lake features. It does not sound to me like you did this. I believe with the 500 both can be checked but with the 350 you will need to un-check the road map in order to see the marine chart.

As I stated in a previous post the Nuvi 350 does not have a marine mode, which made Bizer's chart rather difficult to use. I was told by both Garmin and Bizer that the issue was with the Garmin hardware because it did not support a marine mode, but the bottom line is that Bizer's chart would not differentiate the buoy colors, making it fairly useless IMO. I then went out and bought the $10 Garmin chart, again for the 350, and found that it was slightly better because it showed the buoys as black and white. Not ideal, but usable. To be fair, the screen shot of Bizer's chart is an older version and may not depict what it would look like in the latest rev.

As for the Nuvi 500, the $10 Garmin chart works just fine in boating mode. Now that I have set it up when I get on the water it asks me if I want to switch to boating mode and visa versa when I get back on dry land. The colors work great (sorry, I don't have a screen shot), it does show safe routes through many of the main passages. You can leave breadcrumbs in either car mode or marine mode and then save them as favorites to be used later. I don't recall how well either depicted depth contours so I can't really comment on that.

Now, I pretty much know my way around on the lake in daylight so as long as the gps can show me where I am on the lake at night that's all I thought I'd really care about. It turns out though that the breadcrumb feature can come in pretty handy. The only time I used the 500 this summer was in early September just before I pulled the boat. I set the trip log (Breadcrumbs) as I left my dock and went to Meredith for dinner and saved the route when I got there. On the way back that night I followed the saved route. The only time I felt as though I really needed the gps in this case was through the buoys by spindle point to the north of Eagle island. Normally I would need to slow it down and take out the spot light to get through them safely.

I'm sure Bizer's would do just as well, maybe better, for how I use it but I'm kinda liking the $10 price tag for the Garmin.

[Lakegeezer]

I bought the Garmin Winni map for my Nuvi 205W. I did not have to add an external memory card, as there was plenty internal memory available. To see the lake map, I get into map settings and uncheck the main map, leaving the Winni map checked. If both maps are checked, the lake features do not show. There are good contours and bouy's on the lake map, but I haven't had a chance to navigate with it. At $10, it was worth a gamble. Bizer's is better for showing routes and we know its the best for marking rocks. I'm not very happy with my Horizon GPS unit that I run Bizer's maps in.

[upthesaukee]

No, I didn't take it out on the boat. I did uncheck the Road Map and checked the Winni. I just felt that sitting a couple of hundred yards from the black and red buoys out from the Back Bay bridge, I would see the markers.
As far as the Markers for Bizer are concerned, at the settings I use, I can see the RW or BW for Red or Black OK. My biggest problem is my C550 is terrible in bright light. I would guess the Nuvi 500 is much better.

Like you I know the lake pretty well, at least my end, but occasionally I want that final look, first the chart, next the eyes, and then see it on the GPS. If they all work out, I figure I have a 50/50 change of missing a rock .
I am trying to convince my wife we have a real need for the Nuvi 500, but haven't quite got there yet. Can you spell Santa?

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by upthesaukee

Like you I know the lake pretty well, at least my end, but occasionally I want that final look, first the chart, next the eyes, and then see it on the GPS. If they all work out, I figure I have a 50/50 change of missing a rock .

Ditto the above statement for me too!

Funny how you develop a confidence on a "side" of the Lake. Gatto, I did not look but I suspect your from eithor the Alton or Wolfboro area. Reason I say that is I have no issues navigating the Pitchwood/Spindle spars at nite (at speed) yet on night trips to Alton (i.e. Shipley's/ Sandy Point) I have to cue up my attention when navigating the spars at the Northeast corner of Ratllesnake. Then again - home port for us is near FL#1

To All that answered my query -- a hearty THANK YOU -- Seems like a no brainer for $10. And will certainly be an upgrade as I currently use an old Garmin meant for hiking, which I self loaded with floating lites and certain spars that continually give headaches or surprise me (especially at nite).

Thank You all once again ..................... and Happy Thanksgiving to all (be safe)