Thanks Mark--it may reduce the number of trips I need to make to the device on the boat.
Per your email, it appears that I should put a blank SD card into my 540 so that Garmin can initialize it before I load the routes, etc. on the card via my computer with MapSource. After that, I put the SD card back in the device, which Garmin now recognizes, and load the routes onto the chart buried within the 541. Presumably if the card with routes is placed in the device before initialization, Garmin might initialize it and write over the info on it previously. It seems that MapSource could take care of the initialization but then I probably need the device serial number, blah, blah... which still requires a trip to the boat. Talk about a "...rope-a-dope..." Anyhow, I did get the unlock code from Garmin and have downloaded the latest version of MapSource. I bought an SD card so I guess I can plan the routes, etc., without loading them on the card until after it is initialized by the device. I wonder if the above procedure is discussed in the MapSource help files or if the user is warned to initialize the SD card at the device before loading routes on it. This would seem like a reasonable alert to the user. Thanks, Charlie Nelson [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Marek Dziedzic <[email protected]> To: cnc-list <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Mar 19, 2014 9:38 am Subject: Re: Stus-List iPad/iPhone app for route planning (now MapSource etc.) Charlie, MapSource is licensed in a funny way (you have to install it from the Garmin CD at least once; after that you can upgrade it to the newest version). If you can open MapSource on your computer, you can simply download the newest version from here: http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209 and upgrade what you have. The maps are licensed separately. If you have the BlueChart v.2 loaded already, nothing to worry. If you don’t, you need to get it unlocked. You can talk to Garmin about it or you can find other ways (warning: not all of them perfectly legal). If you have a map (of any kind) loaded in your MapSource, BaseCamp etc. you can create routes and waypoints (and tracks) and transfer them to your Garmin device. I don’t know the 540, but if I can guess from using the 421, the proper way to transfer data between your computer and the device is using a SD card. The important step that many forget about is to put the _fresh_ card into the device _before_ creating routes etc. Garmin device would “initialise” the card for you with its serial number and this would allow you to direct the saved routes and waypoints to the device. After creating the route, you just move the SD Card to the device and “import” user data (this is what I think they call it). I hope this helps Marek _____________________________________________________________ Message: 6 Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 11:29:28 -0400 (EDT) From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Stus-List iPad/iPhone app for route planning Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Thanks to all for the advice about route planning. It turns out that I had a copy of Mapsource that had been used for a Caribbean trip several years ago. Your comments started me on a search for it. If I understand the listers correctly, I should be able to use it for route planning on my computer and then transfer the routes to my Garmin 540 on board via a standard SD card. Since I had only used it once, I was able to get a code from Garmin to use it again (the last time) for no charge. They want more money for opening it again! (Sounds a little old-fashioned by today's standards IMHO). Ironically, their web-site simply refused to let me "...navigate..." to this code--which I pointed out was a little strange for probably the world's largest and likely best source of ...NAVIGATION... gear! :>) Of course I could have purchased Homeport and used my 540 for the charts and then transferred the planned routes back to the 540 as well--at least I think that is the case. At least I saved a trip to the boat this way. Charlie Nelson Water Phantom [email protected] _______________________________________________ his List is provided by the C&C Photo Album ttp://www.cncphotoalbum.com [email protected]
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