Garmin 172 or navman 5110???

[wayneoro]

garmin is better quality all round in gps for sure the classic is there 126 and 128 navman are not there yet

[vermin]

garmin is better quality all round in gps for sure the classic is there 126 and 128 navman are not there yet

What part of Garmin is better quality?

[Camo]

Ive had the 172 C for a couple of years now, and no problems so far. I'm thinking of buying the sonar module to go with it which gives you a colour sounder. You can actually run the sounder in demo mode and it looks great. I don't know how much the sonar module costs though.

Camo

[davo]

Just got back to the thread. To answer Vermin. My screen keeps fading out during the day. I have to continually adjust it and I've had it fade right out. It's the start of week four since I sent it away and no return unit. It's almost as bad as Lowrance service > > Especially when I gave it two them two week before my one week fishing holiday > > I had to run off the Etrex handheld for the week which was a pain. At least I get Humminbird stuff back in three days

I wished I'd never bought a colour unit, what a pain. A thousand dollars worth of trouble.

If you buy colour only get TFT.

[vermin]

Thanks Davo. The reason I asked is my 172C fades in direct sunlight as well (in about half an hour of 30 degrees). It can't handle the heat. You can read it but it is really pale. I think it is a feature of the 172C I would be interested in finding out what Garmin say about this. Can you let me know when they do?

I'm soon to have a canopy which will almost stop this problem though.

I have it next to a Lowrance X107 sounder and the Lowrance's screen doesn't budge in direct sunlight.

Regards,

Geoff.

[davo]

I spoke to GME today and they said they didn't have any replacement units in the country. It gave it to them on the 12th July and still nothing > > >

TFT is the only way to go in colour. I had heaps of trouble with Lowrance and swore near to buy something I couldn't get repaired locally. GME in Brisbane don't service them, they go to Sydney

I did speak to a Garmin tech. in Sydney and he said that I should only have to adjust the colour and contrast once a day and that was the change from night and day.

If you buy a 172 then go grey scale

[Glenn_Woods]

I use a Garmin 172 and a Garmin FF250. A faultless pair. Very happy and acurate. tight lines. Woodsy .

[ozscott]

I have the 178C - TFT - its brilliant in sunlight and very easy to use. I got a power pack so I can use it inside the house - plan routes etc. Great.

[disorderly]

I also have the 178c and find it a great little unit.Very easy to adjust the screen brightness depending on the sunlights intensity. Hey oscott,what is the powerpack you are you using and how does it work.I enquired about hooking the unit up to the computer to plan routes etc,but was told that Ineeded to buy more software and a different cable.
cheers Scott

[ozscott]

Its called a GME PSA123 5 amp peak regulated DC power supply from GME (who import Garmin). And with a spare tranducer/power cable (its in one). You just attach the neg and pos leads to power pack - they have screw down terminals and for about 120 bucks your in business.

Cheers

[disorderly]

Thanks ozscott,
I'll see if I can get a hold of one .Ive flattened the battery in the boat a couple of times mucking about with the gps,so it would be nice to sit inside in front of the computer instead.
cheers

[ozscott]

I got mine at Whitworths - you have to tell them what you need. They order them in.

[Good_as_Gold]

I have oreder the the pacific blue chart cd rom with the full east coast of aus use that on your computer with a Marine Management Data Kit and you can leave your plotter in your boat and swap everything via card , do all your mucking around on the pc instead of unpluging cables all the time. Too easy.

[ozscott]

High Good as - I am keen to see what you make of it. I rang GME here and in Sydney and Whitworths did on my behalf also. We were all told that for the 178C you cannot do the plotting on the PC on the Chart and then transfer to the unit or card - you can however do it on a blank PC screen simply entering in waypoints, which i dont like. I like having the electronic chart as the background. Apparantly they say that the 172 and others could do the charting on the PC and download but not this machine.

[Good_as_Gold]

Im getting the 172c with trip and waypoint manager.