Garmin 540s graphical tidal data

[Richard Lane]

The 540s plotter/sounder can display graphical tidal data but only seems
to display this data for stations within ~30nm of plotter gps location
but "animated" present tidal data is available anywhere the chart is panned.
Is there any way around this limitation since it makes trip planning
impossible for trips > 30nm radially from the planning site?
Clearly the data must exist in the 540 blue chart memory. I was hoping
to avoid having a laptop on board for trip planning.
Dick

 

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The 540s plotter/sounder can display graphical tidal data but only seems
to display this data for stations within ~30nm of plotter gps location
but "animated" present tidal data is available anywhere the chart is panned.
Is there any way around this limitation since it makes trip planning
impossible for trips > 30nm radially from the planning site?
Clearly the data must exist in the 540 blue chart memory. I was hoping
to avoid having a laptop on board for trip planning.
Dick

Page 26 of the owners manual, which you can download for free from Garmin's
website if you lost yours. You can get both tide ad current predictions for
anywhere that you have charts for.

Basically from the home screen, select "information", then "tides" and select a
location from the scrollable list.

 

[Richard Lane]

Page 26 of the owners manual, which you can download for free from Garmin's
website if you lost yours. You can get both tide ad current predictions for
anywhere that you have charts for.

Basically from the home screen, select "information", then "tides" and select a
location from the scrollable list.

I have the owner's manual so have the 540 running now. I am presently in
Mountain View (SF Bay area) and the the furthest tidal point on the list
is Ocean Beach San Francisco some 30.3 nm from me. If I pan to Port
Townsend Washington (my home port) then there the "information" screen
is not available until I select "stop panning" which of course brings me
back to Mountain View California and the local tides.
Eureka! I have just found how to get the tidal data in Port Townsend
whilst in California. If I am panned to Port Townsend then zoomed in to
1.2 nm, little diamond boxes appear with tide and current stations,
"hovering" the 540 cursor over one of these shows the present tidal
state (which I already knew of) if however I press "select" with the
cursor on the diamond box then a new set of tidal stations appear local
to the position of the selected station. I am allowed to change the date
to my planned trip date thus allowing for tidal set at the time I
predict to make the passage.
Thanks to you all for making go back and experiment again with the 540.

Answer to Jack: I have not tried uploading planned trip data to the 540
because I haven't yet wired the three data lines to a serial connector
but since one of the interface modes is Garmin/Garmin I believe it to be
possible. Incidently when will Garmin abandon the old and rarely
available on pc's serial port for usb? I presently use a 45xl on the
binnacle wired via a $50! Garmin serial to usb adapter to a Sony laptop
in the cabin and find that the system hangs if the adapter is connected
before the 45xl and Sony are powered up. I am planning to mount the 540s
on the binnacle guard and leave the laptop ashore having usually planned
the trip ahead of time. I use a spreadsheet to predict my SOG for each
trip leg assuming some 4 kt VMG and have found it to be close enough for
my usually < 35 nm trips (dog needs to pee after 7-8 hrs).
Thanks again, Dick

 

[Richard Lane]

(1)> Are those white with a magenta upper half? If so that is the symbol

used for marking tide stations in the newer NOAA S-57 ENC charts. It
looks like maybe Garmin is updating some of the symbols on their charting.

(2)> The Garmin/Garmin mode, as opposed to NMEA/NMEA mode, means that it
will

send the Garmin proprietary NMEA sentences instead of standard NMEA
sentences.

It would be interesting to see if MapSource or another GPS utility will
see and be able to upload and download to that.

When we looked at the manual on that it said that the SD card could be
used to transfer your data but did not go info any detail about the
formats of the files or anything else.

If you back up your data to a SD card and then look at the card on a PC,
you should be able to see the data file(s). If the data is in a *.gpx
file then you should be able to use MapSource of any of a number of
other softwares to read the data. Jack,
(1) The tide (Height) "diamonds" are black with a white fill on which is

a black 'T', the current diamonds are magenta with a pinkish fill and a
magenta 'C'. Hovering the cursor over the 'T' displays a larger
rectangle with the present height in ft and a vertical bar graph showing
the possible tidal range. Hovering the cursor over the 'C' displays a
broad current direction arrow with the present current written on it's
stem and additionally a long label which extends beyond the display both
ways, above it with for example "2.25 miles SE of San Francisco".

(2) I have a fairly complete set of .bsb chart files of the PNW from
"Captain", both Canadian metric and NOAA English measure. I use these
with the old 16 bit NavMaster III program and can upload the routes and
way-points to the 45xl using Garmin/Garmin interface mode. I hoped to do
the same with the 540s. I use nmea/nmea mode only to send the 1 sec
position samples to the laptop.

On another topic, my boat Swoose is a Nonsuch 26c with 3/4" solid f/g
ahead of the keel, I wonder if "thru the hull" will work or must I
install another thru-hull transducer ($129 plastic, $299 bronze?
Regards, Dick