cmwahl":ws7h8y5h said:
What is the difference between the a Garmin Bluechart G3 Hd - Hxus604x - Us All & Canadian West and the Garmin VCA501L MSDG3 Puget Sound to Dixon entrance. We have a 7212 chart plotter that needs upgrading
The main advertised difference is the VCA501L is a Vision series map focused primarily in Canada (albeit with some US) with Large coverage area (thus V [Vision], CA [Canada], and L [Large] ID codes) and the HXUS604X is non-Vision series map focus primarily on US waters (albeit with some Canada) with eXtra Large coverage area (thus the HX [standard non-Vision BlueChart map], and US [United States], and X [eXtra Large] ID codes).
The Vision maps include satellite images, marina and harbor photos, and 3D views, where the standard non-Vision maps do not. More importantly for your GPSMap7212, they include Auto-routing (Guide to) and the the non-Vision maps do not.
This is where it gets weird. In the G2 version of the maps you needed the Vision series to get auto routing. In the current G3 version auto-routing is available in the non-vision series. However, the 7212 is not listed as compatible with any of the current G3 maps. According to the published data you need to use a G2 map with your 7212. However, I bought G3 Vision maps in 2018 that are compatible with my 7212 (and they include auto-routing). The best that I can figure is that when Garmin added the auto routing to the Chartplotters using non-Vision maps the 7212 and 7215 (and others?) were incompatible with this feature in some way and thus those chartplotters were dropped from the compatibility table for all new charts.
What I don’t know is whether auto-routing is the only incompatibility and really only affects the non-vision charts or all the G3 maps. What I do know is that the G3 BlueChart Vision VCA501L v2018.52 part number 010-C0701-00 Micro SD card works just fine on my 7212 (including auto routing) and the built in map (which I believe is the G2 version of HXUS604X) works but does not included auto routing or any of the other Vision features. Hodges Marine still sells VCA501L part number 010-c01701-00 on-line.
I hope this helps!
Curt
