Hi folks,
I'll start with a little bit of background for context:
My boat came with a Garmin 2006c chartplotter. Although it's not "new tech," it's in great shape and I (now, finally) have chart cards for most of the areas I plan to boat in the near future. So, I would like to use this plotter.
The problem: Unit briefly "loses" satellites quite frequently. Not acceptable. (This is while holding still in an area with great reception.) I tried putting the antenna outside but it didn't help. I also updated the chartplotter and antenna software slightly (but not all the way.... the update card I was loaned was still a very early version). The problem persisted.
From reading, it sounded like this was a known problem with the earlier versions of the antenna software (I now know the antenna also has software - it comes along with the plotter updates and is "pushed" to the antenna). I looked on Garmin's website and there are much newer updates than what I have, so updating my software version to the latest and greatest seemed like a logical first step. There were even notes that the updates could solve antenna problems where it loses satellites. Great! The downloads are free and available on Garmin's website. Also great!
But... the "gotcha" is that in order to get the software updates onto the plotter, one has to get them onto a Garmin data card. To do that requires a "data card programmer." Oookay, so I scoured eBay and finally got both a data card programmer (not cheap :cry) and a blank card. The next gotcha is that the programmer only works on Windows machines. Okay, I'm at a friend's house who has such a machine, so I've got that covered.
But... today I read through the online manual for the data card programmer (http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/45_USBDataCardProgrammer.pdf) and I see two things that I'm not sure how to solve:
1) It says I need "Existing installation of Garmin MapSource updated to Version 3.04 or later." I looked for this on the Garmin site but only found a "patch"?
2) It says I need a CD-Rom with USB Device drivers for the programmer (didn't come with my eBay one).
Gaaah, I hope I haven't bought a useless lump of plastic in this programmer and I'm somewhat despairing at this point. Does anyone understand this who can help me?
Thank you!
Sunbeam
PS: I did think about just buying a new/used antenna, but the ones I found on eBay were just as (or more) expensive than the programmer, and with them I still would have no idea what software version they had on them until I was able to plug them in. Also I figured the programmer has other uses (making datacards of charts). I also thought about calling Garmin, but figured (and I can't blame them) that they would first want me to update to the latest software version (which is what I'm trying to accomplish here, since mine is still circa 2002 in terms of updates).
I'll start with a little bit of background for context:
My boat came with a Garmin 2006c chartplotter. Although it's not "new tech," it's in great shape and I (now, finally) have chart cards for most of the areas I plan to boat in the near future. So, I would like to use this plotter.
The problem: Unit briefly "loses" satellites quite frequently. Not acceptable. (This is while holding still in an area with great reception.) I tried putting the antenna outside but it didn't help. I also updated the chartplotter and antenna software slightly (but not all the way.... the update card I was loaned was still a very early version). The problem persisted.
From reading, it sounded like this was a known problem with the earlier versions of the antenna software (I now know the antenna also has software - it comes along with the plotter updates and is "pushed" to the antenna). I looked on Garmin's website and there are much newer updates than what I have, so updating my software version to the latest and greatest seemed like a logical first step. There were even notes that the updates could solve antenna problems where it loses satellites. Great! The downloads are free and available on Garmin's website. Also great!
But... the "gotcha" is that in order to get the software updates onto the plotter, one has to get them onto a Garmin data card. To do that requires a "data card programmer." Oookay, so I scoured eBay and finally got both a data card programmer (not cheap :cry) and a blank card. The next gotcha is that the programmer only works on Windows machines. Okay, I'm at a friend's house who has such a machine, so I've got that covered.
But... today I read through the online manual for the data card programmer (http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/45_USBDataCardProgrammer.pdf) and I see two things that I'm not sure how to solve:
1) It says I need "Existing installation of Garmin MapSource updated to Version 3.04 or later." I looked for this on the Garmin site but only found a "patch"?
2) It says I need a CD-Rom with USB Device drivers for the programmer (didn't come with my eBay one).
Gaaah, I hope I haven't bought a useless lump of plastic in this programmer and I'm somewhat despairing at this point. Does anyone understand this who can help me?
Thank you!
Sunbeam
PS: I did think about just buying a new/used antenna, but the ones I found on eBay were just as (or more) expensive than the programmer, and with them I still would have no idea what software version they had on them until I was able to plug them in. Also I figured the programmer has other uses (making datacards of charts). I also thought about calling Garmin, but figured (and I can't blame them) that they would first want me to update to the latest software version (which is what I'm trying to accomplish here, since mine is still circa 2002 in terms of updates).