Garmin Confusion

[rocklobster]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone understand the different apps and software used to augment our Garmin chartplotters. It's very confusing.
I have the 7612XSV Garmin with the G3 free upgrade maps. I downloaded the G2 maps onto an SD card first before upgrading to G3.


Not sure which ones do what:

Homeport Software
Garmin Express
Active Captain App


I would like to do autorouting at home (dock to dock routes, not straight lines) and then go to my boat and upload them to the chartplotter.

By the way, Navionics app on my iphone does autorouting dock to dock but it looks like there is no way to get it off my phone and into the Garmin Chartplotter. Strange since they are the same company,

Thanks
Joe

 

[ixlr8]

Depends on your system, including your home computers. I live in the Apple world, so using Garmin Express doesn't work so well for me. I have been using Active Captain and it seems to work well for me, I have not had any issues, yet. I would like to do pt to pt planning at home and I haven't found a way to do it with AC and the G3 software.

 

[BB marine]

Depends on your system, including your home computers. I live in the Apple world, so using Garmin Express doesn't work so well for me. I have been using Active Captain and it seems to work well for me, I have not had any issues, yet. I would like to do pt to pt planning at home and I haven't found a way to do it with AC and the G3 software.

I do all my route planning at home using My iPad , Garmin active Captain application.


Open Active captain iPad or iPhone

bottom of the screen touch charts

Top right corner touch (3 lines)

Down load charts, download the chart area you want to route or a waypoint you want to save.

After downloading the chart area touch chart at the bottom . Your chart will open up move the chart to the area you want to start a route or set a waypoint. Touch the screen then touch the icon with the route symbol +. Your route is now started( flag with begin). Start setting your route.

When you are finished name the route and save it.

To review the route or make changes, Top right corner touch (3 lines) bottom of the open window (User Data) your route will be saved. Touch route, review it or make changes.

When you are on board the boat open Active Captain on chart plotter and iPad your route will begin to be downloaded on your plotter. Any waypoints or routes you have set on your plotter will now be on your iPad for review and changes. At the same time any Active Captain update information will be updated on your plotter if you have you Active Captain set up to update auto when internet is available. Same as any software updates. I have my Active Captain app set up to auto update with internet connection. When the iPad is linked to Garmin plotter it updates all information.

I have plotted over 3000 miles of routes at home and used them in-conjunction with my auto pilot. My own auto-routing but more accurate then the Garmin auto-routing. The complete Tennessee River with all the twist and bends my auto pilot navigated the river system based on my routes I down loaded.

 

[ixlr8]

I do all my route planning at home using My iPad , Garmin active Captain application.

Brian,
Thank you for the how to info.

 

[Anchors Aweigh]

Hello Brian -

Your instructions for utilizing Active Captain to set up a route on the iPad at home for trip planning was most helpful....works well by setting the individual waypoints, however, it appears there is no Auto Guidance capability on the iPad chart when downloaded, although the chart is based on the new Garmin G3 chart card.....is that correct?

I know the independent Navionics app allows for setting an auto guidance route on one's iPad, not sure if I'm overlooking steps to create an auto guidance route using Active Captain...

Really appreciate these discussion on tug nuts! Thank you Joe for bringing up this subject.....I'm trying to accomplish the same dock to dock auto routing for planning purposes on my iPad at home using Active Captain so I can transfer to Garmin 7610xsv chart plotter...

Marc Doyle
Port Ludlow, WA
Toot Sweet / 2017 R-25SC

 

[BB marine]

Your instructions for utilizing Active Captain to set up a route on the iPad at home for trip planning was most helpful....works well by setting the individual waypoints, however, it appears there is no Auto Guidance capability on the iPad chart when downloaded, although the chart is based on the new Garmin G3 chart card.....is that correct?

I believe you are correct No auto guidance on the iPad Garmin Active Captain. I'm not 100% sold on Auto guidance. It is a good reference but I have experienced the routing to navigate into questionable waters. I do all my own route planning and use this as my auto guidance. This allows me to reference any questionable waters as to the best route to take. When this route is downloaded on the Plotter it essentially works the the same as auto-routing except I manually plotted it.
Garmin chart plotter, Navigation Charts, select info, user data , select saved routes or waypoints, Go to, the auto pilot, pilots from point A to point B based on the information you plotted.

 

[Red Raven]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone understand the different apps and software used to augment our Garmin chartplotters. It's very confusing.
I have the 7612XSV Garmin with the G3 free upgrade maps. I downloaded the G2 maps onto an SD card first before upgrading to G3.


Not sure which ones do what:

Homeport Software
Garmin Express
Active Captain App


I would like to do autorouting at home (dock to dock routes, not straight lines) and then go to my boat and upload them to the chartplotter.

By the way, Navionics app on my iphone does autorouting dock to dock but it looks like there is no way to get it off my phone and into the Garmin Chartplotter. Strange since they are the same company,

Thanks
Joe

Hi Joe,

Not sure your original questions were answered. I’ll take a crack at it. It is confusing and I’m sure I’ll get some of it wrong which others can correct.

Homeport Software - Route planning software that runs on PC’s or Macs. Uses your SD Card from the chartplotter for the detailed maps. Card must be plugged in to your computer during use (though card contents can be copied to a USB drive and used that way). Does not do auto routing as far as I know. I don’t use it.

Garmin Express - Account Map/device management application for PC’s and Macs. This application allows you to manage your Garmin account for all your devices and maps and do downloads onto cards for sharing across devices. You need to use this to keep your account/licenses up to date.

Garmin Active Captain - Chartplotting/crowdsourcing/integrating app for Apple iOS and Android smart devices. This is arguably the most confusing because it tries to cover the most ground and has history in several apps. First, as a chartplotter it is pretty good. Can be used conveniently as a backup chartplotter on the boat. It uses the same map data as the chartplotter on the boat. The user interface is different as it hails from the old Garmin BlueChart App. No need to buy more maps/charts because it uses your on-line Garmin account (managed by Garmin Express above). Unfortunately it does not do auto routing.

Active Captain also includes crowdsourcing data (Active Captain Community) about anchorages and marinas etc similar to a marine version of Yelp. This is where it draws its name (Active Captain) which was (and still is) integrated with many other chartplotter programs.

Active Captain also integrates/mirrors/shares data with newer chartplotters. This allows for mirroring chartplotter screens on your smart device as well as bypassing Garmin Express and doing downloads directly to your chartplotter via your smart device.

Regarding your desire to create and transfer autoroutes. I initially thought this would be useful myself and was disappointed to find I could not. Then after further thought I realized it really isn’t necessary. For planning ahead of time I only find and create waypoints for my planned trip. Then when traveling to each waypoint I let the chartplotter create the autoroute when we get underway. It creates them very quickly and can be done underway so it is actually a little more efficient but unfortunately you don’t get the route distance info etc. during planning ahead of time. I find the autoroutes to be as safe (probably safer) than anything I am willing to manually create turn by turn. In any case, I only use it to control the autopilot occasionally and I (or my wife) will be at the helm and on watch for any issues as we go. This would be required with using either a manual or an autoroute.

I hope this helps.

Curt

 

[ActiveCaptain]

There is no auto routing capability “at home” today with the ability to move the route to a Garmin chartplotter when you go to the boat. You can easily create manual routes and move them to the chartplotter with any app that creates GPX files moved to the ActiveCaptain app. Unfortunately, as you know, the Navionics app doesn’t have a way to get routes out to a Gamin chartplotter or GPX file. I’d assume that capability is planned given Garmin’s ownership of Navionics (although I don’t know for sure).

 

[Kaptajnen]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone understand the different apps and software used to augment our Garmin chartplotters. It's very confusing.
I have the 7612XSV Garmin with the G3 free upgrade maps.
Joe

To add to the confusion, my GPSMAP 7616xsv (purchased August 2018) came with BlueChart and LakeVü software dated 2017, and did not offer a free upgrade.

So in order to update the charts - and to get future upgrades - I had to purchase the massive 838Mb G3HXUS604x chart package from GARMIN.

I used GarminExpress to download and install the charts. At a measly 73 kbps download speed, it took 10 hours to download (Note to Garmin - get a faster Server!).