Good handheld Gps

[sweept]

I am looking at upgrading from a lowrance h20. Any recommendations? I use lakemaster chips.

[MN Mike]

Is that Lakemaster card you have a SD card or MicroSD?

One thing your probably going to find is that your current Lakemaster chips won't work in any new GPS units you find because those will take MicroSD cards and will not accept the SD cards, plus the Lakemaster series chips you have only work in the Lowrance units.

That being said, lots of people are making the move to the Garmin units, Dakota 20, Oregon 450, GPSMap Series, Vista hcx or the Nuvi 500. Garmin makes a good matrix for a person to compare and find a GPS unit on their site, you might find that helpful.

Pick your price range ($140 - $500 ), Garmin has a lot of GPS units that will take the Lakemaster cards.

Mike

[Norm1980]

I have the Garmin Nuvi 500 good unit imo, I get year round use out of it Use it winter ice fishing, summer in my boat, and in our vehicles. Either way i would go Garmin

[leech~~]

McGurk had pointed out to me in another GPS post that Lakemaster chips will not work in Garmin products.

[311Hemi]

Lakemaster chips will work in Garmin units, you just have to make sure you buy the Lakemster chip that is Garmin specific. One from a Lowrance will not work.

[Tom7227]

I got a Garmin 78s along with the Topo software and the Lakemaster CD and love the setup. Fast to acquire, will acquire even inside the house and is incredibly accurate. Several states allow you to download maps with all the public hunting areas for free. It was tough to switch from my Lowrance products but the guys at the Big C convinced me that the Garmin rigs are tops right now.

[Luck e 1]

I just got the Garmin Oregon 450 for christmas. I was also given the CD rom Garmin/Lakemaster MN to download on my computer...

I have used it twice so far... and here is what i'll say.

Nice bright display that is pretty easy to navigate. Its a touch screen which I like.

the Lake contours can be a little tough to read because it seems like the contour lines are greyish instead of black like I was used to. I hope there is a way to change that.

You can name and categorize your waypoints...AND the routes you travel so you can easily retrieve later. For example...a buddy of mine took me to Pokegama a couple days ago. I had my unit running while in the car so it tracked the directions we took. He took me to a launch area not on a map on the far east side that I was able to log so that way I can easily find my way back.

TONS of features...which take time to figure out.

If you go the CD rom version...the maps are not initially Mac compatible so I had to go through a conversion process that was kinda a pain in the butt. Serioiusly...its 2011...how are things not compatible? IDK.

[Northlander]

Thats the biggest reason I wont buy a Garmin yet. They make you jump too many hoops. Just give me a dang plug and play map chip woith all the bells and whistles!

[caseymcq]

LakeMaster has MicroSD chips for Garmins that are plug and play.

[JBar]

Anyone tried the hot maps software?

[broman]

You can change it so the lake is white and the contours are black. Easier to read than the blue lake with grey lines.

[Luck e 1]

broman...how do you do that???

[Luck e 1]

ALso...I would say that if ou just want plug and play you are able to do that with the chips. I just wanted the option to be able to plan routes/waypoints on a big computer screen as well as the traditional way.

[bigbad401]

You can change it so the lake is white and the contours are black. Easier to read than the blue lake with grey lines.

Change the profile to marine and the lakes will turn to white with the contours will be either blue or black.

[bigbad401]

Thats the biggest reason I wont buy a Garmin yet. They make you jump too many hoops. Just give me a dang plug and play map chip woith all the bells and whistles!

There are not that many hoops to jump through, just excuses. The chip is plug n play. The CDROM is just a couple steps to register it with your GPS and it is good. I prefer the CDROM because I can view the lakes on the computer. It is much easier to view them on a 19 inch screen than a 3 inch screen (GPS).

[Ed Carlson]

Thats the biggest reason I wont buy a Garmin yet. They make you jump too many hoops. Just give me a dang plug and play map chip woith all the bells and whistles!

The data chips are Plug-N-Play, people just need to read the user owners manual first is all.

Garmin is very good at set bye step user prompts, just read it, look at the pics, tap the screen or buttons...no a big deal at all.

If it was hard..I would not be able to figure it out..trust me.

[Northlander]

I guess what I was meaning and didnt explain myself worth a darn is I want a chip that I can use in all my graphs/Gps's. I own Lowrance and Humminbird products. I wish they all would be able to use the same chips. Garmin has some real nice stuff but Im not going to go buy all new chips to be able to use one.

[caseymcq]

I have zero experience with Humminbird products. Will they use the same chips as Lowrance? I am guessing Navionics will work. Do the LakeMaster chips work in Humminbird? Anytime I have thought about buying a new unit I always look at Lowrance because I have LM chips and didn't want to have to "re-tool".

I would be curious to see if the microSD card that go in the Garmins could be put in a SD adapter and used in Lowrance. I am guessing the programming may be a little different preventing it from working but it would be nice if, like you said, you could use the same chip in different brands.

[MN Mike]

You'll have to check and see for sure but MOST Navionics chips will work in both Humminbird and Lowrance ( plus about 13 other Chartplotter / GPS devices but NOT in Garmin ) I have a Navionics SD card that I use to run in a Lowrance but then sold that and moved to Humminbird and it worked in that too.

Lakemaster is a whole different story, when you buy a GPS device, you will need to have the SPECIFIC Lakemaster card for that SPECIFIC device manufacture( ie. Lakemaster Garmin chip for the Garmin GPS device ), you cannot swap that chip between manufactures ( Lakemaster Garmin chip to Humminbird ).

In my book that kind of sux they way they have the cards broke up but I'm sure it means much more $$$ for them. I'm hoping one day Garmin and Navionics see eye to eye and they become compatible, that will make my decision easy!

Mike

[delcecchi]

You'll have to check and see for sure but MOST Navionics chips will work in both Humminbird and Lowrance ( plus about 13 other Chartplotter / GPS devices but NOT in Garmin ) I have a Navionics SD card that I use to run in a Lowrance but then sold that and moved to Humminbird and it worked in that too.

Lakemaster is a whole different story, when you buy a GPS device, you will need to have the SPECIFIC Lakemaster card for that SPECIFIC device manufacture( ie. Lakemaster Garmin chip for the Garmin GPS device ), you cannot swap that chip between manufactures ( Lakemaster Garmin chip to Humminbird ).

In my book that kind of sux they way they have the cards broke up but I'm sure it means much more $$$ for them. I'm hoping one day Garmin and Navionics see eye to eye and they become compatible, that will make my decision easy!

Mike

If I had to guess, Garmin probably uses a totally different data format than Lowrance does, so Lakemaster would have to put the data on twice, and pay for twice as big a card.