Creating SONAR charts
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 9:26 am
GARMIN recently announced a new feature for their SONAR-chart-plotter combination devices: the ability to create their own bathymetric charts immediately, just using the electronics and processing of the Garmin device. Garmin calls this feature Quickdraw Contours. With the appropriate Garmin SONAR-chart plotter device, you can add to existing charts new depth data with 1-foot contour lines. While other manufacturers offer similar capability, their devices cannot create the charts; you have to record new data, send the data to a central processing hub via the internet, and get back a new chart segment some time later. With Garmin Quickdraw Contours you can immediately update a chart and see the new depth data.
I suspect this feature was aimed at anglers. I am not an angler, but this feature is very appealing to me. I can envision its use in a completely different situation--exploring back water and uncharted sections of the the North Channel of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) has done a great job surveying that area, but there are still some sections far from main routes that are not surveyed at all. Using a Garmin SONAR-chart plotter with Quickdraw Contours, one could first explore some of these waterways in a small dinghy, collecting the data and creating a new chart as you go. After exploration, one could return to the main vessel, move the Garmin device onboard, and them proceed up the newly charted waters with the just-created chart as a guide.
Garmin also says that a self-created chart can be shared with others, so I presume one could have two Garmin devices, one in the dinghy and one in the main vessel, and just transfer the data between them. Garmin says you can transfer the data on a SD memory card.
Garmin Quickdraw Contours is included on their echoMAP™ CHIRP combo series devices. The software can also be downloaded for free and installed on their other devices:
--echoMAP series
--GPSMAP® 7400/7600 chart plotter series, and
--GPSMAP 8000/5x7/7x1/8x0/10x0 series.
I believe the Garmin Quickdraw Contours feature truly differentiates the Garmin units from other manufacturers by the ability to immediate create new chart data using processing on the device itself; the other manufacturers can only do this by having data sent to them for processing at a centralized point. The Quickdraw Contours feature is a real advantage for Garmin in this aspect.
For more from Garmin about Quickdraw Contours, see
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-the- ... 43340.html
I suspect this feature was aimed at anglers. I am not an angler, but this feature is very appealing to me. I can envision its use in a completely different situation--exploring back water and uncharted sections of the the North Channel of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) has done a great job surveying that area, but there are still some sections far from main routes that are not surveyed at all. Using a Garmin SONAR-chart plotter with Quickdraw Contours, one could first explore some of these waterways in a small dinghy, collecting the data and creating a new chart as you go. After exploration, one could return to the main vessel, move the Garmin device onboard, and them proceed up the newly charted waters with the just-created chart as a guide.
Garmin also says that a self-created chart can be shared with others, so I presume one could have two Garmin devices, one in the dinghy and one in the main vessel, and just transfer the data between them. Garmin says you can transfer the data on a SD memory card.
Garmin Quickdraw Contours is included on their echoMAP™ CHIRP combo series devices. The software can also be downloaded for free and installed on their other devices:
--echoMAP series
--GPSMAP® 7400/7600 chart plotter series, and
--GPSMAP 8000/5x7/7x1/8x0/10x0 series.
I believe the Garmin Quickdraw Contours feature truly differentiates the Garmin units from other manufacturers by the ability to immediate create new chart data using processing on the device itself; the other manufacturers can only do this by having data sent to them for processing at a centralized point. The Quickdraw Contours feature is a real advantage for Garmin in this aspect.
For more from Garmin about Quickdraw Contours, see
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-the- ... 43340.html