Albin Owners Group

Santa is bringing me one for Christmas. You may recall in some of my posts I was leaning towards an auto-pilot. I decided it was time to upgrade the GPS to something these old, I mean mature, eyes can see. I had a older Garmin, then upgraded to the same model but in color. I bought that one from one of our members here. So, it'll be back in the for sale forum.
The 111c is out of production, replaced by the 112c. The only difference I noticed was the 111c has a smaller hard drive than the 112c. The 111 comes with 1,000,000 points of interest. WOW! I've been to 5. That means I can go to another 999,995 places, right?

Santa thinks I'm goofy.
I'll keep my current model auto-pilot. The Sharon #1. Not quite as accurate as the ones you guys have but it does go around crab pots.

John,

We picked up a Garmin 3210c system, including radar, early this year when Garmin introduced their new system and the prices came down on the old stuff. My mature eyes appreciated the much larger color screen compared to my old hand held GPS.

I see you have a similar model auto pilot. Not having hydraulic steering and mechanical steering auto pilots not being in abundant supply I keep using the Peggy I system. Works great for avoiding the river "tows", the barges with their tugs.

Gene

I bought the LCX-111 last year. The only thing is it does not automatically switch from one area on the chip to another, however I don't find this to be a problem. I was told the the new model eliminates this. The main reason I went ahead and bought the 111 was it was about $1000 [about $2300 vs 1300]cheaper. I got it from online Boaters World this last January. I also got a certificate to get a free bottom profile chip when you purchase your area chip--you might check this to see if it is still available. I find the bottom contour chip very good for fishing.
I should have also noted that the 112 or 113 has a lot more info on rivers, but I don't use that info.

Hi TD,
Doesn't automatically switch from one area on the chip? What does that mean? You got a better deal than I. I paid 1500.00.

The chip I bought covered a large area--puget sound and out to the ocean. When I am traveling between Seattle and Neah Bay [about 130nm] I have to enter manually the next area on the LCX-111. I don't remember for sure but, I think the chip has about 3-4 partitions. You might call the place where you are going to buy the chip for your area.
Also the bottom contour chip is called a bathametric[sp?] chart chip.

TD,
I haven't bought chips yet. Where did you get yours? Price reasonable?

I bought mine at outdoor emporium a local store near downtown Seattle 206-624-6550 or WWW/outdooremporium.net

I bought for boat show price -- I think it was $179
Terry

TD wrote:The chip I bought covered a large area--puget sound and out to the ocean. When I am traveling between Seattle and Neah Bay [about 130nm] I have to enter manually the next area on the LCX-111. I don't remember for sure but, I think the chip has about 3-4 partitions. You might call the place where you are going to buy the chip for your area.
Also the bottom contour chip is called a bathametric[sp?] chart chip.

Did you get the HD (hard drive) model? I finally got around to looking at the manual and it says everything comes on the hard drive. I won't be installing it until January. Santa's tough.

Yes I got the one with I believe 20G harddrive. The harddrive does not contain detailed information but you can navigate with it. The chip is for a specific area and has lot more info. Go to the attached Navionics web site and look at charts 904 & 905 which I believe might be the areas you would be interested in. I bought the platimum chart for NW coast area.

http://www.navionics.com/Charts_Platinum.asp

Thanks TD!

TD,
I like the idea of that Platinum chip but Navionics site says it doesn't support Lowrance. Did it work anyway with yours or did you have to do some type of update to make it work?

I did not have to do anything extra. I just put the chip in the slot and turned it on. The bathometric chip was sent directly from Navionics Inc at Warham, MA phone: 508-291-6000. This was the free chip for buying the other one. For some reason I can't find my original sales sheet for the basic Navionics chip I bought, but I have that one in my LCX-111-hd also and both work fine.