Navionics Chip

[Remedy2]

C288 here. Is there something the Navionics chip offers that the MFD doesn’t already have? Looking at Garmins site they seem identical.

 

[Nwdiver]

I’m running Navionics vision + on my C288, I downloaded and update via active captain. i suggest you put in a fast 32G SSD chip, the fastest you can find. Mine came with a 8GB real slow chip. changing chip decreased my map update speed from over 4 hours to under 30 minutes

 

[Remedy2]

Thx - you had suggested that to me when I bought the boat and I heeded your advice. Updates fly now. Returning the navionics chip- sounds like it’s no different than what I have embedded

 

[Nwdiver]

I thing the Navionics are a bit more detailed and are updated more often

 

[SJI Sailor]

There is no difference in the chip itself, as far as I know. The key point is to use a fast 32GB card for chart updates and firmware updates as NWdiver mentions.

We always use Garmin's laptop-based update software and a generic (like $15) chip reader to create the cards. Active Captain never worked for us to do updates and after many hours of trying, I gave up (I suspect it has to do with marina lack of WiFi and trying to use 5G tethering). The computer app is easy AND has the advantage of being very easy to make a second chip as backup.

One time we had a chip fail and chartplotter just showed empty details ... while coming into a harbor. That led me to get the best chips available and also always have a backup one with the charts installed