*THE HULL TRUTH is the world's largest FREE network for the discussion of Boating & Fishing. Whether you're researching a new boat, or are a seasoned Captain, you'll find The Hull Truth Boating & Fishing Message Forum contains a wealth of information from Boaters and Sportfishermen around the world.
Welcome to the updated THT!
If you are having trouble signing in, please email feedback@thehulltruth.com with your username and we will help you. We thank you for your patience as we help you access the new site!
After all the whining that went on about MS and the need to purchase BlueCharts Garmin listened and gave you Homeport and now there is more whining. If your worried about corrupting your G2 Vision Charts make a couple copies of your G2 charts (on SD cards) and use those to do your planning. I know that's way too simple.
Use common sense .... damn .... what a novel idea.
After all the whining that went on about MS and the need to purchase BlueCharts Garmin listened and gave you Homeport and now there is more whining. If your worried about corrupting your G2 Vision Charts make a couple copies of your G2 charts (on SD cards) and use those to do your planning. I know that's way too simple.
Use common sense .... damn .... what a novel idea.
Tom, this isn't whining. I'm just cautioning people not to risk their very expensive data card.
And btw, are you saying that it is really that easy to copy the G2 Vision data to a new SD card?
If so, something has changed because that is not supposed to be possible (per Garmin).
As it stands, it doesn't seem like there is any legal way to copy the G2 Vision card to another SD card and have it work. You have exactly one card to work with. It also doesn't seem possible to copy just the data itself to your PC and work off of those files. Again, you have to work with your one $350-$400 SD card.
That's fine. It's what we asked for. It does up the risk for damaging or losing that very expensive card though. If any of the above is wrong, please let me know, I'd love to have a backup copy of the SD card (G2 Vision card).
This isn't even unique to Garmin. I had the same risks with my RM gear and the C-Map chips which were required to use PC Planner. I did lose those for a week or so and it was a PITA. Luckily they turned up again.
Not whining, just cautioning.
__________________
Terry Jason 35, Yanmar 370 hp, Lots of fun at a leisurely pace
..............If your worried about corrupting your G2 Vision Charts make a couple copies of your G2 charts (on SD cards) and use those to do your planning. I know that's way too simple.
Use common sense .... damn .... what a novel idea.
I don't have the G2 Vision card so I can't test this.
If you can copy the G2 Vision card to a blank SD card, what stops people from making copies and giving them away or selling them?
MapSource operation is cleaner in that the maps are on the PC and only the user data gets transferred, but I'm sure there's a reason for doing it the way HomePort works. Probably something to do with copying maps and giving them away or selling them.
I will never use my G2 Vision card in conjuction with my computer for planning purposes. Now on the marketing side of this equation .... if Garmin hadn't put the feature in HP there would have been another fire storm phone lines would burned up with unhappy users because they couldn't use their G2 Vision charts to plan with.
As with any computer application use common sense. As with any new application you will see refinement and additions in the future.
As I have said before, I have copied all of mine onto other SD cards and use those on homeport, no issues. I have not tried a copy in my plotter yet as my boat is in storage.
However, I do think that it will work since the copy has whatever incription to my plotter that the original had on it.
If I made a copy for someone else, as soon as they put it in their plotter it would not work. At least this is what I understand it to be.
Therefore BWP's recomendation to experiment with a copy seems quite valid to me.
Lady's Travels: From Minnesota on Lake Superior to Nassau, to Charleston, SC., to Key West, Fl. & Return.
Charleston to Windsor, Ontario Canada
Now exploring the Great Lakes...
As I have said before, I have copied all of mine onto other SD cards and use those on homeport, no issues. I have not tried a copy in my plotter yet as my boat is in storage.
However, I do think that it will work since the copy has whatever incription to my plotter that the original had on it.
If I made a copy for someone else, as soon as they put it in their plotter it would not work. At least this is what I understand it to be.
Therefore BWP's recomendation to experiment with a copy seems quite valid to me.
Seems simple
I'm trying to understand what we're talking about here. There are G2 Vision cards, these are what you buy with extra detail and features for your area. There are no G2 cards except ones you make by downloading the maps from a plotter with built in maps (5208 for example).
I would expect Garmin to use some sort of copy protection on the G2 Vision cards.
The card used to download G2 (map) data from your plotter may indeed only work in your plotter because of the unit ID but copying it is just one way to have a backup. You can download maps from your plotter to another SD card as many times as you wish.
I will never use my G2 Vision card in conjuction with my computer for planning purposes. Now on the marketing side of this equation .... if Garmin hadn't put the feature in HP there would have been another fire storm phone lines would burned up with unhappy users because they couldn't use their G2 Vision charts to plan with.
As with any computer application use common sense. As with any new application you will see refinement and additions in the future.
I'm with you now. Birdie was talking about writing his user data to the G2 Vision card so he wouldn't have to keep swapping his user card in and out.
It's just my opinion, but that sounds very risky. Keep the purchased card (G2 Vision) as a read only device as much as possible. It would be nice if you could copy this data off of garmins network though using a PC.
Eventually those card slots will fail - they are only good for a set number of insertions/removals. Hopefully that number far exceeds any of our expected duty cycles, but I've seen card slots fail too many times for comfort.
__________________
Terry Jason 35, Yanmar 370 hp, Lots of fun at a leisurely pace
My hard copy of HP arrived last night. It's on a fingernail sized micro- sd card, in a bigger postage stamp sized sd adapter by Sandisk. I wasn't aware of a PC or laptop that needed micro sd cards! I wonder if there's a dataphone out there that can run it! (and why I would want to!) I loaded it to my home laptop and my boat EEPC, so I can move user data to all my garmins on board.
Has anyone tried auto-routing on HP?
__________________ If it ain't broke, I haven't played with it.
Ok, let me answer some quesitons, and clarify my QUESTION. Which was posed as a QUESTION, not whinning, or a complaint. I'm just trying to figure out how it is intended to be used, that's all.
1. Sandy, The micro SD chip fits in many devices, including the Garmin 400c handhelds. So if you bought that G2 vision chip for your HH, you would not need the adapter. Most PDA/phones now all use the micro sd chips as well.
2. Copying the different charts: You CAN copy and use the built in charts that were downloaded from you plotter, to another SD chip and it works fine. You can NOT copy the G2 Vision chip's charts/photos/detail info to another chip and use it. It's copy protected. You can copy it, but it won't work without "hacking" it illegally.
3. Tom, why would you NOT do planning using the G2 Vision chip??? That is 90% of the purpose of owning the G2 vision chip for me. 1st, I use it for planning cruising trips, view the photo's of unfamiliar marina's, inlets, channels... before attempting to navigate them. 2nd, finding spots I'd like to explore fishing, holes, deep spots, drops.... by viewing the G2 Visions fishing charts and creeating new WP's to be visited on next trip out. Thats why we "whinned" to get Garmin to add this abilyt to the planning software in the first place. And, THANKS garmin, works AWESOME and LOVE it.
4. You can not write protect the G2 Vision chip by sliding the lock tab over. The chart plotter needs to write to it when you insert it. Tried that already, you get an error message.
5. Again, my post above is a question, not a complaint or whinning. I was trying to figure out how Garmin intended us to do this. I don't think they really know how we do this, and how often we will be inserting/un-inserting these chips. the funny thing is, when you put the chip in, the 1st thng HP tells you is, the device (SD memory chip) is a slow connection, and will degrade the performance of HP. Yes, obviosuly. so me thinks we should go back to the Mapsource method of data and chart storage. That is, do it all on the PC(data, charts, g2 vision data) except when explicitly uploading or downloading to the device (SD chip) for transfering.
6. Obviously, they will have some bugs, and make some changes in the early stages. That's normal software...
......................... the funny thing is, when you put the chip in, the 1st thng HP tells you is, the device (SD memory chip) is a slow connection, and will degrade the performance of HP. ............
That depends on the computer. I get that message on my laptop but not my desktop.
It's just too easy to corrupt a disk through no fault of the user. I've had one client already corrupt a Vision card writing to it from his unit. Be careful.
Actually, the help files are VERY helpful in explaining the difference between the "My collection" area folders, and the "Device" area folders. That is the key, once you understand the difference between them, and how to either "REMOVE From Folder" OR "DELETE From Folder, the rest is a piece of cake.
It's just too easy to corrupt a disk through no fault of the user. I've had one client already corrupt a Vision card writing to it from his unit. Be careful.
It's probably a good idea to back up all the files on your G2 Vision card(s) to a safe place. If the files on the chip get corrupted, the copies "should" work just fine when reloaded onto the original chip (but ONLY on the original chip).
Note, this is different from Bluechart G2 charts which were also distributed on SD cards (or CD's) for use with mapsource or GPS units. The Vision cards have a different license and protection schema..
__________________
Terry Jason 35, Yanmar 370 hp, Lots of fun at a leisurely pace
Yea it was very clever on Garmins part ...... 
So if you bought that G2 vision chip for your HH, you would not need the adapter. Most PDA/phones now all use the micro sd chips as well. 
THT sponsor
