Garmin GPSMAP 521 5-Inch Waterproof Marine GPS and Chartplotter
- Display Screen: 5″ QVGA
- Resolution: 234 x 320
- Form Factor: Mountable
GPSMAP 521 ChartplotterFeatures an ultra-bright 5″ QVGA display along with an improved high-speed digital design for faster map drawing and panning speeds. Plus these waterproof units have a high-sensitivity internal GPS receiver so mariners will always know their position at sea. It’s ready to go with a built-in satellite enhanced worldwide basemap and Garmin’s proven easy-to-use interface designed to help mariners navigate the open waters with ease.Features and Specifications: Ultra-bright 5″ diagonal QVGA display 240 x 320 pixels – over 800 nits of brightness NMEA 2000 certified for seamless integration with the Garmin marine lineup Preloaded worldwide marine basemap Compatible with GXM 51 for XM Satellite Radio and XM WX Satellite Weath
Garmin Marine Gps
Enrique Catalano
September 12, 2015Excellent product.,
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|Marina Owner
September 12, 2015521s with latest software Won’t Read SD Cards larger than 2GB,
A neighbor and marina customer of mine bought this Garmin 521s awhile ago at the same time that he bought his new boat motor and trailer. The boat dealer who is also a Garmin authorized dealer flush mounted the 521s into the new boat’s dash when the boat was purchased. Unfortunately, no one told the dealer nor the boat owner that the Garmin 521s with its “base map” is virtually useless as a chartplotter unless all you want to know is what city you are near. The depth sounder worked fine and the boat owner just thought he had a crappy chartplotter. It was the first chartplotter he owned so he used the boat for the last two seasons in mostly familiar waters but was disappointed that his $700 purchase price for this 521s plus installation, hadn’t really given him anything other than a depth sounder. I was talking to him a couple of months ago and realized that he didn’t know that the unit needed charts added. He purchased garmin g2 charts (all US and West coast of Canada) from West Marine for another $185 last month. He was not able to get the charts to work in the 521s however. He asked me to give it a try. The device would not read the SD card nor see the g2 charts. I called Garmin and they agreed to swap out the chart plotter for a new one saying the card reader must be bad. We had the original dealer take out the flush mounted unit, seal the hole in the dash and send the unit back to Garmin. Garmin then sent out a very poorly packaged refurbished replacement unit complete with a dent on the case. The dealer asked that another unit be shipped to replace the dented unit. The dealer installed the dented unit which did seem to work fine so that the boat owner would at least have charts and depth sounder until the replacement for the replacement arrived. BUT, even though the unit powered up no problem and the depth sounder function worked no problem, it couldn’t read the Garmin g2 chart SD card either. The 521s would not read any SD card larger than 2GB even with the latest 4.60 internal 521s software. The all US and Canada West Coast Garmin SD card is a 4GB card. The Garmin tech support people Samantha, Ron, Lucas and Josh all say that the 521s absolutely works with SD cards up to 8GB when it has the latest 4.60 internal software. Lucas had me send the less than one month old 4GB g2 SD card back to Garmin to get a replacement 4GB card thinking that there must be something wrong with the SD card. Interestingly, the original dealer came by today 9/4/14 with a (better packaged) replacement 521s unit for the dented 521s. He quickly swapped out the unit and I tried inserting a blank 4GB SD card into the unit (the SD card with the charts on it is now enroute back to Garmin in Kansas). So back in Boston aren’t we surprised to see that this third 521s won’t recognise my new Sandisk 4GB SD card. To verify that the card is fine we checked it on my PC and then inserted it into a 700 series Garmin Chartplotter on another boat and the card checked out fine in both cases. SOOOOO maybe someone (in addition to me) could let Garmin tech support know that the 521s is not compatible with SD cards larger than 2GB if in fact that is the case as it is here in Boston after trying unsuccessfully to get three 521s’s to work with 4GB SD cards (both Garmin and Sandisk). The only area chart card from Garmin is 4GB. Garmin tech folks say they can’t put just New England on a 2GB card which is why we get stuck with 4GB cards because they put all US and half of Canada on the cards. The Garmin tech support number that I have been trying unsuccessfully to resolve this problem with is 800-800-1020. Please note that I have not charged one cent for my time which is now multiple days, as I just want this customer to be happy and I want to somehow restore my faith in Garmin which is now pretty badly shaken. Garmin Tech Support tells me that I am the only one in the country having this problem. Am I really the only one???
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|TMARX
September 12, 2015Garmin 521 Review,
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