GPSMap 60CSx Tides and base maps

Hi,

I am considering purchasing a GPSMap 60 CSx and see from the Garmin web site
that the specks include tide tables. I cannot find any information about
this in the downloaded manual and am trying to find out more details:

Please excuse the million questions, essentially I would like to know all
about how it works or doesn't as the case may be.

- Is there information for standard ports only, for standard and secondary
ports or for everything in-between?
- How do you know where the nearest standard/secondary port is. Does the
unit tell you this?
- Is the tide information connected to Blue charts or is this information
available even if you have not purchased blue charts.
- Is the tidal information for the current time only or can you specify a
date and time to see future tides?
- Where does the tide information come from? Is it based on the phase of the
moon and your location? Is it downloaded from the satellites? Do you/can you
obtain and upload tide information.
- Is the tide information available for everywhere in the world or just in
areas where your base map is. If the latter is it possible to upload tide
information for other areas and if so where can this information be
obtained? I found one www link to a US Tide.exe but have not found any
Australian tides.

Any comments will be appreciated.

Regards.

Sean

The 60 and 76 don't display a tide table as you would expect, they
take their location and cross refer it to the calculated phase of the
sun and moon etc and give you a pictorial impression or what it's
going to be...

They call it Hunt and Fish and I've never managed to work out how it's
supposed to work...

I'll be keeping a good eye on this thread to see if anyone can help us
Sean.

HC&HNY :)

There is a set of tide tables that can be loaded to the 60 for the US, much
like any other map. The stations show up as little "wave" symbols, and
clicking on them reveals a chart of the tides, which you can adjust for
time other than the present.

http://www8.garmin.com/software/RecommendedMapSourceUSTidesSoftware.exe

I loaded this using MapSource, and I can also view it on my PC using
MapSource. I presume you would buy some other maps anyway.


Only the US, as far as I know. There are hundreds of stations, not just in
ports, up rivers and creeks ffected by the tides.


They look just like waypoints to me. I can see them on the PC, and I can
search for them on the GPS. I suppose I could do a "nearest containing"
search on the 60, but I haven't tried that.


Sliding bar of date/time and an open specifier box.


I think it is stale information, based on predictive charts.


I should have read to the bottom first ;-(

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Beans wrote:

Here's some info from the colonies that may give you some insight to how
Garmin handles it here and how it might be handled on one you buy in the UK.

The U.S. (North American) models come a database called "Americas Marine
Points" that includes symbols for navaids and tide points. The tide
symbols (called Tide Prediction Stations) are light blue circles with a
sine wave in them. When the database is displayed (it can be turned on
and off) the symbols display over whatever mapping is in use at the time
so it can be used with street and highway, topo, marine, or other mapping.


The locations of the tide symbols includes the NOAA (the U.S. national
hydrographic agency) official tide measurement stations but there are
also many more symbols at other locations. For example, in the state of
Maine, USA, there are five official data collection stations along the
approximately 200 NM miles (straight line) distance of the coastline.
But the NOAA system appears to get data and/or observations from many
more sources within that area. The Marine Points database shows many,
many more symbols than five. There are probably a few thousand or so
symbols in the region that is covered by the five official measuring
stations.


Those terms and/or that type of information are not used in the Garmin
Marine Points database. Mine makes no mention or distinction about the
symbols located at or near the NOAA stations or any others so I guess
the answer would be "no" to that question.

I use the tide symbols regularly in the course of boat deliveries and
find the data to be very accurate as far as times of the tides and water
depths. I think the database is making systematic predictions based on
historical data using the date and time and location chosen from the GPS
but don't know that for sure.


In the case of the models that have the Marine Points database (the
60/76 Cx/CSx models for example), the tide info is included in the sale
and described as being a component of the base map.

If I turn the Mainepoint Database off I do not see the tide symbols when
I am using BlueChart marine charts. So I'm assuming that the tide data
is not included with BlueChart.


The tides are displayed initially as a graph for the current date and
time with a height/time curve. You can set any date and you can move
the cursor across the time scale for that date. You can also display a
table with the times and footages of the highs and lows for the set date.


Garmin does not explain that in any detail to my knowledge. I'd guess
it to be based on historical data supplied by government agencies, lunar
tables, and the date, time, and location too of course.


I don't have tide symbols for my entire base map, just the U.S.,
possessions, and some adjacent areas like in the Caribbean. It seems it
varies with government and political boundaries.

Here is a link to sorting out the data from the NOAA, as you can see it
is not a simple matter:

http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)

Jack Erbes wrote:
[snip]

Are you sure the 60 series has the Marine Points database?

Receiver models advertised as being marine models (ie. the 76 series)
generally have the marine information. Other models may or may not
have it but you can usually download the information into similar
models if they don't already have it (as Jack has mentioned).

Some screen captures of tide tables in a 76Cx:
http://www.gpsmap.net/TideTables.html

--
Dan
(Email: dan at domain below )
(www.gpsmap.net)