Swamp_Bear
Contributing Member
- City
- Wilson
Well, we had no depth readings on my Garmin 498 for almost half a year before we discovered that a friend had inadvertently turned off autoranging. Once we set that back correctly, all was well for a few months. ...mostly. There were a few times we simply couldn't get a single satelite lock after re-starting the boat in the afternoon. Good thing we always bring paper charts. Then there were a few times where the depth reading got flakey.
Well, now it can't get a single satelite at any time, so it's nothing more than a flakey depth gauge at its best. Stopped by West Marine - have you seen the new Garmins? They took off almost ALL the buttons, leaving a series of menus buried in menus. They also killed backwards compatibility with the old chart chips.
Apparently there's a software update ('08) that helps aging units obtain a satelite lock - apparently a known issue. So we still might get some life out of this one. So I decided to try that, and buy an $88 Humminbird fishfinder until one day down the road when we buy a Laurance HDS-7.
Well, now it can't get a single satelite at any time, so it's nothing more than a flakey depth gauge at its best. Stopped by West Marine - have you seen the new Garmins? They took off almost ALL the buttons, leaving a series of menus buried in menus. They also killed backwards compatibility with the old chart chips.
Apparently there's a software update ('08) that helps aging units obtain a satelite lock - apparently a known issue. So we still might get some life out of this one. So I decided to try that, and buy an $88 Humminbird fishfinder until one day down the road when we buy a Laurance HDS-7.
