Cartography matters?

[rbw156]

I took a look at the Navionics (used by Lowrance) & Blue Chart (used by Garmin) today for an area that I know well (Keyhaven). The Navionics chart was incorrect! So much so that I would have very little confidence in using it to navigate into a port that I did not know. Whereas the Blue Chart, while it used a different style & feel, it was at least accurate.

Is all cartograpgy made the same or are some better?

[jwalker]

Garmin's previous cartography was Navionics and I, too, found it inaccurate.

[jlanng]

On a slightly tangential note, has anyone found any POI's in their UK Navionics cartography?

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by rbw156

Is all cartograpgy made the same or are some better?

Found the Garmin 188c chart of Southern England to be very accurate, Isle of Wight always appears were its supposed to be and I can even zoom into the finger pontoons in Haslar Marina. Haven't noticed any obvious errors and now the chart is 2 years old some of the bouyage may have moved or been changed, but still very happy with it.

Pete

[philip]

Originally Posted by rbw156

I took a look at the Navionics (used by Lowrance) & Blue Chart (used by Garmin) today for an area that I know well (Keyhaven). The Navionics chart was incorrect!

I have used Lowrance with Navionics to get into Keyhaven OK - At least nothing went bump !! - What was the error ?

Cheers

Phil

[rbw156]

The main channel was correct about 1/3 of the way into Keyhaven, but there after it disappeared. I appreciate that charts show LAT, but even so it was materially different to Bluechart.

Further, Navionics failed to show Mount Lake and Hawker's Lake. Both of these were shown on Bluechart.

I also noticed that the Lowrance took about 3 secs to redraw with each zoom and also ignored further zooms until the redraw was complete. The Garmin took about 0.5 secs and further zooms were processed in real time. I appreciate that this is more likely to be the processing power, rather than the chart.

[rbw156]

Is it possible to make a backup copy of the charts as the memory cards are very nickable?

[jlanng]

Apparently not - there was a thread on this recently

[Brian]

If the above comments about Navionics are correct. This is quite serious and would put me off their product.
Does anyone else have any comments, left or right?

[bandf]

G'Day all,

I can't speak for the accuracy in your part of the world, but here in Brisbane, the Navionics cartography is streets ahead of the CMap or Blue chart equivalent. I've been selling and repairing Lowrance and Navionics product for quite a while and have no hesitation in fitting them wherever possible. I also sell Blue chart and CMap but prefer the Navionics where possible. In answer to the other points raised - any current model Lowrance plotter should redraw a full screen chart in under a second - if not there may be a software issue with the plotter. Some early software versions were a bit slow, but updates are available free of charge on the Lowrance website at www.lowrance.com

The MMC Navionics charts cannot be copied onto another MMC. The chart is coded to the serial number of the MMC, and will not duplicate onto an MMC with a different serial number. Generally speaking, all electronic charts are copy protected in this manner. However, a backup can still be kept - just copy/paste the file off the MMC onto PC hard drive to backup a copy. Provided the file is saved back onto the same MMC it was supplied on, the backup will work fine. So if you manage to erase or format the card, all is not lost.

Cheers - Chris