Chartplotter

[PhilR]

My Garmin chartplotter makes these neat little lines that show where I've been, but they don't go away. I hope I'm not the only person to have ever asked this question.....how do I erase them?

 

[rt11002003]

How soon we forget. My tug has been gone a month and I'm forgetting details already.

Go to Menu. There should be an option called "information or data". Select it. There should be an option pertaining to "Tracks". Select it. There should be an option to delete current track. Select it. Return to menu.

That should get you started.

You should have a set of "get stated instructions", just a page or two. It's covered there, I think.

Gene

 

[commander bill]

I have 2 different Garmin units (both older 3210 & 498 models). I think clearing tracks is an option on all models but method may vary between specific models.

 

[rt11002003]

I have same experience "commander bill". At one time I had 4 Garmin units, all had track clearing option.

 

[PhilR]

Thank you all. When I get back to the boat in a few days I'll get it done.

Phil

 

[JerryE]

Phil you're are not the only person wondering about this. I had to reset to original factory specs my Garmin 5212 and suddenly there are dotted lines all over that do not go away. I had to circle around waiting for a bascule rail bridge to open (it was cool to see the Auto Train go almost over me on its way to Sanford, FL), but boy you should have seen the chart with that dotted tracking lines all over it like an etch-a-sketch. Thanks for asking that question.

 

[PhilR]

All fixed. I feel a little silly for asking....it wasn't so difficult.

Phil

 

[abcandjrc]

Even with a lot of GPS and navigation experience, I find every new device has a few things changed or added and I have to do a bit of work to find them and find out how to use them. For me, it is easiest to solve puzzles like this one by downloading the manuals. Garmin has them all out there, and I suppose other manufacturers do as well. Then I can search for various things using the power of my computer. Even the best index is pretty poor compared to a decent search engine.

I also like to lay at anchor and poke around through all the menus to find what is hidden inside. Getting familiar with the unit that way makes it a whole lot easier to use when underway. That is true of all the electronics on board, which can be pretty mysterious with all the features built into them these days.

But for navigation, if all else fails, I can just turn on my trusty, 12-year-old, hand-held Garmin GPS 12 and find out where the heck I am. Largely "featureless", but still a functional positioning tool.

 

[JerryE]

The key point here is 'downloading' the manuals. My Garmin 5212's manual was completely wrong in its instructions on how to enter fuel added so it could calculate fuel usage underway. This is important as a number of us are having some difficulty with our diesel fuel gauges. It was not an intuitive process and Andrew provided instructions in another post on how to do this. I have not checked but I bet the downloaded 5212 manual has the same wrong information, but it is more likely to be current. While reading all the documents relevant to our boats is an important pastime, remembering there are no dumb questions is just as important.

Not long ago I followed the directions exactly on a Starbright bottle of fuel additive, and wound up have to drain and replace 75 gallons of diesel. When I call the 1-800 number on the bottle and talked to the Starbright technical guy, he admitted the bottle's instructions were wrong. He asked why I didn't just call him in the first place. He couldn't understand that I had no reason to call him when I had the instructions on the bottle to go by, and that his availability for tech support is no excuse for incorrect instructions on a product. Besides, he admitted, the chances were not good he would have been at his phone on the Sunday (while I'm at a busy fuel dock needing help fast) to answer my questions, assuming we were both, even, in the same time zone.

I have a real beef with poor instructions, for those of us who do read the manuals which is clearly most Ranger Tug Nuts. Jim did a nice job of pointing out the vagaries in the Yanmar Service manual which presents contradictory information at several points which I have noted in prior posts. Check out his recent post: http://www.tugnuts.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1811 In addition to venting, I again want to point out that there are no dumb questions. Some questions have fairly easy answers, and best place to find them (along with often helpful elaborations) are on Tug Nuts.

 

[abcandjrc]

You're spot-on about the poor quality of many technical manuals. My career was in aerospace software. Many years ago I wrote a system to search vendor records to find out who might supply particular items. This was in the days of those pokey, old, IBM 360s and dozens of reels of mag tape. My manager insisted on describing the system to the customer (NASA) as a "real-time" system, under protest from me, and forced the technical writers to put that in the documentation. The problem was that "real time" was an average of 6 hours of dedicated 360 time...... 😱

It happens all the time. The designers write a design spec, the software types come up with all the functions and maybe a few more on the side, but do them differently than the tech writers envision them. Then out come the products and unmatched or incomplete user manuals. And that doesn't even account for the translation from Hindi or Mandarin Chinese on many products.

Heath Kit (RIP) used to solve the problem by going out into the supermarkes of Grand Rapids and asking about 15 people, primarily housewives in those days, to come put a kit together. They would lay out the proper tools for them, give them the parts and the technical manual, and ask them to put the kit together. The instructions to the folks were "If you have any questions, ask us." Any problems popped up before the product got into the hands of the consumer. Too much to ask these days I suppose, and a certain knowledge of what the product actually does is needed, not just a set of rules about what gets soldered, where.

 

[Levitation]

JerryE, that fiasco with the Starbright was just Murphy's gentle reminder not to be putting overpriced junk in your fuel, eh...

 

[JerryE]

Yo Denny-O I agree. I try hard not to fix stuff, at least BEFORE its broke. But I've been living down under in the heat of Florida on the St. John's River (my friends on Cape Cod in Mass like to say I'm off to the swamps). I've become concerned that the threat of microbes eating up all my diesel and, worse, gumming up the filters and whatnot is actually real. Thus, my attempt to kill the little buggers...

I've been suspicious of the need for fuel stabilizers for years, but the diesel eating vermin are real. For anyone reading, the first line of defense is to keep your fuel cap on tight. But, then the vent is always open. I suspect the many Ranger folks up in Washington State through Canada don't need to worry as much about such infestation.

Florida is unique, on my first day my marina mates gave me a gallon of bug spray suggesting I routinely spray the perimeter of my boat. Well that's easier to do on a houseboat than a little Tug, but after seeing the first Palmetto (i.e., roach) Bug run by when opening the cockpit lazarette I'm getting into the extermination business in a big way. They also warned me to always look before stepping off onto the floating dock, since alligators like to haul themselves up on the docks and take the sun. I got no spray for that!