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Richard Lane

wrote:
On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:45:53 -0700, Richard Lane wrote:

The 540s plotter/sounder can display graphical tidal data but only seems
to display this data for stations within ~30nm of plotter gps location
but "animated" present tidal data is available anywhere the chart is panned.
Is there any way around this limitation since it makes trip planning
impossible for trips 30nm radially from the planning site?
Clearly the data must exist in the 540 blue chart memory. I was hoping
to avoid having a laptop on board for trip planning.
Dick

Page 26 of the owners manual, which you can download for free from Garmin's
website if you lost yours. You can get both tide ad current predictions for
anywhere that you have charts for.

Basically from the home screen, select "information", then "tides" and select a
location from the scrollable list.

I have the owner's manual so have the 540 running now. I am presently in
Mountain View (SF Bay area) and the the furthest tidal point on the list
is Ocean Beach San Francisco some 30.3 nm from me. If I pan to Port
Townsend Washington (my home port) then there the "information" screen
is not available until I select "stop panning" which of course brings me
back to Mountain View California and the local tides.
Eureka! I have just found how to get the tidal data in Port Townsend
whilst in California. If I am panned to Port Townsend then zoomed in to
1.2 nm, little diamond boxes appear with tide and current stations,
"hovering" the 540 cursor over one of these shows the present tidal
state (which I already knew of) if however I press "select" with the
cursor on the diamond box then a new set of tidal stations appear local
to the position of the selected station. I am allowed to change the date
to my planned trip date thus allowing for tidal set at the time I
predict to make the passage.
Thanks to you all for making go back and experiment again with the 540.

Answer to Jack: I have not tried uploading planned trip data to the 540
because I haven't yet wired the three data lines to a serial connector
but since one of the interface modes is Garmin/Garmin I believe it to be
possible. Incidently when will Garmin abandon the old and rarely
available on pc's serial port for usb? I presently use a 45xl on the
binnacle wired via a $50! Garmin serial to usb adapter to a Sony laptop
in the cabin and find that the system hangs if the adapter is connected
before the 45xl and Sony are powered up. I am planning to mount the 540s
on the binnacle guard and leave the laptop ashore having usually planned
the trip ahead of time. I use a spreadsheet to predict my SOG for each
trip leg assuming some 4 kt VMG and have found it to be close enough for
my usually 35 nm trips (dog needs to pee after 7-8 hrs).
Thanks again, Dick