Garmin 545s - not getting accurate readings!!!?

[comsnark]

BTW: if anyone is into being a geek, as well as being a boat nut. . .I highly recommend getting a SD card and a card reader for these units. If you have a digital camera. . .you might already have everything you need. I have other Garmin GPS units and I routinely transfer routes and waypoints between my PC and the GPS.

Now that I have this figured out on the 545s (see other thread), I plan on blowing away many useless tracks in the unit, preserving key tracks (for tricky areas) and retagging waypoints (mostly my waypoints are local markers).

I also have my entire 2007 season in one handy file for future enjoyment!

 

[rondds]

that's pretty cool! nice to use a standard sd card. their card reader and their card was expensive compared to standard available stuff. the card came in several different sizes, the largest of which was 64MB. i bought the 32MB card b/c the guy on the phone said anything less wouldnt be enough to hold the available software updates. that card + reader was over $70. costly, considering an sd card reader and 2GB sd card, even at that time (fall of 07) was probably $35. i will say that it performed admirably, just like you described above. i was also told that updating the software would wipe out all my waypoints, tracks and routes. so i backed them up first. as it turned out, it did NOT wipe them out.

what i dont get is if they had several software updates, all of which apparently cleared up some glitches for my older unit (there is an explanation as to what each update does) on the website for free, why dont they have free updates for your newer 545s?

would this have solved the problem?
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloadsDetails.jsp?id=3521&product=010-00601-00&cID=148&pID=8109

 

[comsnark]

That's the software. That is what I loaded into my unit on Saturday.

The download was free.

 

[tphinney]

Still waiting to see what shows up from Garmin and compare agianst the base software upgrade.

Also I was strange I was going to put in a GA 29 antenna this weekend but everyone was out. None at West Marine and none a Boaters World. very odd...

 

[Morpheus]

Still waiting to see what shows up from Garmin and compare agianst the base software upgrade.

Also I was strange I was going to put in a GA 29 antenna this weekend but everyone was out. None at West Marine and none a Boaters World. very odd...

I don't find that to odd, they never have the memory cards in stock either nore the maps or upgrades.

 

[Nehalennia]

Still waiting to see what shows up from Garmin and compare agianst the base software upgrade.

Also I was strange I was going to put in a GA 29 antenna this weekend but everyone was out. None at West Marine and none a Boaters World. very odd...

Why do you think you need it?
I have the 545s, and you and I have the same boat. The internal antenna seems to work great since we don't have any arch or superstructure.

 

[tphinney]

The GA 29 has a 25 DB gain. I would imagine that this would give me better receptions than the internal antenna. I don't know what the internal antenna gain is; but I also noticed that their is also a 37 DB gain antenna.

more power is always better....

But you are right I should not need it considering that my blackberry can pin point me down to a street intersection while surrounded by 6500lbs of steel. so whats a little fiberglass and aluminum.

 

[rondds]

comsnark
i was wondering if tphinney had downloaded this update (for free). i know he eventually got satisfaction from garmin but i guess this wouldnt have solved his problem, or garmin would have referred him to the website.

 

[comsnark]

Well. . . .I was wondering that as well.

Last year (see other thread), I was having trouble getting data from the 545s to the mapsource software. Turns out I was trying to open the file directly off the card, as opposed to "importing from device". Called Garmin. They were totally clueless on how to resolve the problem. The manual was less than helpful.