GARMIN GPSMAP 78sc ULTRA microSD

[Sea Angel]

I purchased a GARMIN GPSMAP 78sc for a Christmas gift to Sea Angel. This portable handheld came with the 'g2 marine map pre-installed. It is very informative.

I added the North America NT and TOPO 24K Southeast Map DVDs for me to install. I also bought a microSD card at Radio Shack to give me enough memory to load all the maps.

I note that the instructional material does not specify the size limit of the SD Card, but tech support indicated 4Gb to 32GB would work. I added a 16GB ULTRA SANDISK card. The ULTRA is for the speed. The combined maps added abt 5.1GB of memory needed.

After loading the 2 added maps they could be read by my CPU on the assigned drive. The '78sc internal program would not list the new map files.

GARMIN Tech support was very diligent and patient, spending abt 3 1/2 hrs working thru all kinds of test with me.

We finally determined that the ULTRA SD card was faulty. Every test run on the test thru my card reader using it as a stand alone checked OK. The fault appears to be the SD's speed.

I went back to Radio Shack and purchased a standard 16GB microSD card (less cost), returning the original ULTRA SD card. Radio Shack gave me a full refund on the ULTRA.

All seems to be working. Now, I have the 'knowledge bell curve' to attack and the need for more 'AA' batteries.

The lesson here is: patience.

Now, where did I put that toy?

Art

[Will-C]

I'm not sure how much your Garmin unit cost but I'm thinking buying an Ipad and being able to download free a Garmin app and pay a nominal fee (around 50 dollars) for maps makes better sense. The Ipad can do so much more. We rig up a wireless router with a cellar modum in our tow vehicle and on the boat then you have access to the internet world, music, emails ,google. Active Captain,etc plus a number different land or water navagation options. Plus the screen size is a real plus. To each his own but IMHO my days of buying just a GPS unit are over for a boat or a car application.
D.D.

[Captains Cat]

I'm using an iPad both in the boat and in the vehicles. It's great to have something I can really see. The bluetooth will play through our radios too so we can hear it easily as well. Have both the Marine Garmin stuff and the Road Garmin stuff. Anyone want to buy a small Garmin GPS for the car?

Sally's iPad2 has the external bluetooth GPS and my iPad3 has the built in GPS. Don't use cellular on either but both are wifi capable. Can get wifi from my Samsung Galaxy 3S while away from a fixed wifi.



Charlie