Topic: Questions on the 898SI and Maps

[Deltaden]

Some questions on the 898SI:

1.  I notice the specs for the 898 include "Contour XD™ Cartography from Navionics®".  Could someone explain what product this is comparable to?  I notice on the Navionics web site the cards they sell are "Gold" "Platinum", etc.  Are those items a premium upgrade to the Contour XD? 

2.  Is the map data included as a media card or is it internal?

3.  The Humminbird web site has a link to download the 898 Product Manual.  Has anyone been able to do that?  The link does not seem to work for me.

Thanks anyone.

[FuzzyGrub]

Some questions on the 898SI:

1.  I notice the specs for the 898 include "Contour XD™ Cartography from Navionics®".  Could someone explain what product this is comparable to?  I notice on the Navionics web site the cards they sell are "Gold" "Platinum", etc.  Are those items a premium upgrade to the Contour XD? 

From earlier discussions, the ContourXD maps sounded like a pre-sellected set of the standard Hotmaps lakes.  There should be a PDF file on this site which lists the lakes included. 

2.  Is the map data included as a media card or is it internal?

Again, from prior discussions, it is internal and not changeable.  The new S/W release does not overwrite Unimap with ContourXD.

3.  The Humminbird web site has a link to download the 898 Product Manual.  Has anyone been able to do that?  The link does not seem to work for me.

No, it has XXXXX for a file name.  Same for 998.

Thanks anyone.

[Humminbird_Greg]

FuzzyGrub is right except that the manual downloads work.  Well they do now but they did not than.  Some added info to your questions:

#1.) We have been told that the ContourXD maps are comparable to the handheld maps that Navionics sells.  That doesn’t really tell us much but we have been told that they do not have the detail and contours that the Premium/Platinum cards do.  The few lakes that I have looked at have 10 or 20 foot depth contour lines.

#2.) The map data is preprogrammed in the unit’s internal memory.  Before anyone asks: no the UniMap units cannot be upgraded to the ContourXD maps.

#3.) The manual downloads should work now.

[Stymie]

I'm bout to splurge on the maps while waiting ( patiently, I might add) on my new HB units.

Being from Alabama, I can't understand why everyone buys platinum when they can get all Alabama lakes on Hot Maps with same definition. 

Only thing that  I can see different between Hot Maps and Premium is a bunch of lakes in Florida.

Someone tell me what I'm missing before I go and waste $100 for hot maps vs saving $50 extra for premium.

Thanks for your help,

Sty

[Humminbird_Greg]

Sty,
Are you meaning the Navionics Premium versus Platinum HotMaps cards?
The Platinum have some added features such as the 3D mapping and images of marinas and such that the Premium HotMaps cards do not.  The Navioncs web site can do a better job of explaining the differences (may be in their FAQ area).

[Stymie]

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

Greg,

It looks like they offer Hot Maps, Hot Maps Premium and Platinum.

Regular Hot Maps has 14000 lakes with 700 HiDef maps with 1' contours. Premium has 17,000, 1000. 

It appears that in Alabama, there are no differences in offerings between the HM and the Premium lakes offered. 

I don't understand why everyone says to buy Premium for $50 more unless you live in Florida and get the extra lakes.

So my question is "What am I missing?"

Another question Greg, why doesn't ContourXD have Lake Eufaula on it? Man, that's ya'll home waters!

[Humminbird_Greg]

Sty,
I don’t know what you are missing as I don’t own these map cards.  I was not aware that Navionics still sold the Hotmaps cards still until I looked on their web site yesterday.

We purchase the ContourXD map data and don’t have any control over what lake data is on it.  I can remember that the first Premium Hotmaps didn’t have Lake Eufaula (Walter F. George Impoundment) data on them either.  Even the 2009 Premium Hotmap did not have all of the lake in the HD format…

[Stymie]

Per Lake Eufaula,  I noticed that it says partial on both the Alabama and Georgia listings.  I just assumed that it was divided between the two states yet was still a full "survey".

I have another question pertaining to the Maps and the HBs.

If the lake I'm on is NOT on contourXD, and I do not have a map chip in.  What am I going to see on charts? Just waterway and no depth information?

 

[Humminbird_Greg]

If there is no lake map data for a particular lake the unit will show land instead.

[Stymie]

That sucks, even my Garmin nuvi shows me on water when I take it out on the boat and its definitely not a marine unit!

Finally found the issue on Navionics'  website. If you look at Premium, it says all the Alabama lakes are also on Hot Maps.  If you look at Hot Maps, not all the lakes on Premium show up.  Looks like they have some typo's on the Premium pages.  Hope they fix it before someone buys the wrong thing....I almost did!