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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Garmin Bluechart format change

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lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/03/2008 : 19:41:03

Those of you planning to purchase a new Garmin marine chartplotter or GPS/Sounder, listen up! Garmin has totally changed it's cartography file format for many Marine GPS models. If you own Garmin cartography purchased prior to 2007, including "Blue Chart", "TOPO US", "Inland Lakes", and others using the MapSource program on your PC to transfer the charts to the GPS, THESE CHARTING PRODUCTS WILL NO LONGER WORK ON GARMIN'S NEW PRODUCT LINE!. The "old" cartography used a proprietary Garmin file format called "IMG" (the compiled maps had a file name ending in .IMG). IMG maps are compatible with a huge range of Garmin receivers, including handhelds like the ETREX, Legend, 60/76 series, and marine chartplotters with model numbers in the 100, 200, 300, and 400 series, up to the now-discontinued 498 GPS/Sounder.

The "new" Garmin GPS/Sounders in the 300, 400, and 500 series use a new map file format that is not compatible with IMG. In addition, these new receivers have neither RS-232 Serial or USB connectivity, so you can't connect them to a desktop or laptop PC - the only way to get data in or out is via an SD card. While this may sound like an advantage in some ways - there's no optional data cable you have to buy - the "advantage" is really only to Garmin:

If you buy one of these new GPS's, and later want to upgrade or supplement the built-in maps, you will have to buy Garmin's "Vision" series SD Cards. If you already own Blue Charts that you purchased for an older Garmin receiver, they won't work. Even worse, "Vision" cartography is only available on Garmin proprietary SD cards that can not be backed up to either a PC or another card (get it wet, especially with salt water, and kiss your purchase price goodbye).

None of the "Vision" series cartography is available on DVD or CD. Why is this bad for the end user? First off, it's very expensive (and you thought the original Blue Charts were expensive? Ha ha!). For example, the old Inland Lakes DVD had the whole country on it, about 3800 lakes, for about $120. With the "Vision" cartography, you have to buy five pre-programmed SD cards, at $120 each , to get the same coverage. Even more annoying is the fact that these new "Vision" cards work ONLY in your GPS receiver. You can't look at the cartography on your PC in MapSource. That means you can't pre-plan routes or waypoints on your nice large PC computer screen

, using the cartography you just paid a bundle for. Have you ever plotted out a route with 30 or 40 waypoints on a tiny GPS screen with only a four way rocker to spell out the names of all the waypoints? I have, a few times, and it's a horribly slow and tedious process. As far as I can tell, that's the only way you can work with "Vision" cartography since the Garmin SD cards are designed specifically to not be readable on a PC (I'm sure this is fundamentally a copy-protection scheme, therefore it benefits only Garmin).

The only "good" news about these new receivers is that the internal storage format of Routes, Tracks, and Waypoints appears to be compatible with MapSource, so you can import/export your user data (via MapSource to your own SD card), you just can't transfer maps or use your "Vision" cartography in MapSource for route planning.

If you haven't already figured it out from the above tirade, I recently bought a Garmin 440s for Magic (my new C-22), and didn't find out about the map format change until after I had the unit and transducer installed (at which point it was non-returnable since I had soldered all the wiring connections). I tried to ask some questions about compatibility before plunking down my $750, but the "associate" at West Marine didn't really know squat about the technical details of the GPS's and couldn't answer any of my questions. Anyway, if you have already invested a significant amount of money in Garmin IMG (Blue Chart & Inland Lakes) cartography, you might want to steer clear of these new units that require "Vision" cards and try to find a Garmin 398 or 498 if there are still any available.

Larry Charlot
Catalina 25WK/TR Mk. IV #5857 "Quiet Time"
Folsom Lake, CA

"You might get there faster in a powerboat, but in a sailboat, you're already there"

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 08/03/2008 : 20:29:40

Thanks for the heads-up! I'm considering a new primary marine chartplotter, using my 276C as backup and in the car. Garmin is big in the car market, but for marine, there are some good alternatives that aren't as proprietary. They're all good electronics... Let's look them over and talk about them.

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redeye
Master Marine Consultant

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3476 Posts

Response Posted - 08/04/2008 : 10:23:04

rant on. . .

OPEN FORMAT

or just waiting to have everything you purchase become useless.

I can't tell you have frustrating this has become for photography.

On a digital camera there is a button that tells you when the camera is obsolete.

I'll not give garmin any more money...

rant off

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Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 08/04/2008 : 20:47:32

It doesn't ease the pain, but all that information is available at Garmin.com. Doing the homework isn't always fun, but it gives you a better picture of what you are buying. I like the Garmin user interface, I think it is well thought out and fairly intuitive for my brain. The downside is obsolescence and infrequent, expensive updates. I use my Mac with MacEnc nav software for for serious work and handhelds in the cockpit - not as convenient as a chart plotter, but I get free NOAA charts with frequent updates and I can read Mapsource and other systems if I want.

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 08/04/2008 : 21:21:02

I like the user interface on my Garmin 276C, but not their new interface. They eliminated some key buttons (like Nav and Page) so now you have to fish around in more levels of menus to do simple things. Simpler is better, but I don't quite agree with their definition of simpler. I do like SD cards instead of Garmin's proprietary memory sticks (as in my 276), but they've traded proprietary hardware for proprietary data... Grrrrr... I guess I'll be hitting the booths at the boat shows this fall.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.