Electronics Recommendations for GW 235 Freedom

[Hookup1]

I have a 8612xsv at the helm and a 8610xsv up top in the electronics box. All the 86xx units are excellent and have 1920x1080 screen resolution. Larger screens are just larger display area with the same screen resolution.

The 9xxx units all have 3840x2160 screen resolution. That's 4-times more than the 86xx's. This allows you to create 4 combo screens on your 9xxx that operate with the same resolution of your 86xx display. This quad resolution improvement really makes a single screen practical.

Most of the Garmin screens (radar, sonar, engines, radio, etc.) don't really take advantage of the added pixels. The big exception is chart plotting. Put several chart plotters side-by-side, pick a location and zoom them all to 1nm scale. What you will see is the higher the resolution the further out you can see without touching the chartplotter. It's like looking thru a keyhole where the size changes. This is really helpful when you want to zoom in to a level of detail but need to see further out. Like running in shallow water area but need to see where you need to go up the beach for your next turn.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

Not sure how I screwed this Reply up, but I did…… McBobKC

I'm just going off the Garmin website... when you click on black boxes, click the GCV 20 and then click on compatible devices. Of which it doesn't list the 9000 series of MFD's as being compatible with them.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

I have a 8612xsv at the helm and a 8610xsv up top in the electronics box. All the 86xx units are excellent and have 1920x1080 screen resolution. Larger screens are just larger display area with the same screen resolution.

That is actually incorrect... the 8610xsv/8617 are 1920x1200 pixels for their screen resolution.

 

[Hookup1]

I would add a few things to your shopping list.

Garmin Navionics Vision+ subscription for the region you fish. The shaded relief charts for US East and South are excellent.

Garmin External SD card reader. Built-in SD card reader is on the back of the unit. Install a 32gb micro-SD card there to use for Active Captain. Use the external SD reader for saving screen shots, loading/saving/transfering waypoints. It can be dash mounted. Mine is not mounted. It's in the overhead electronics box were I can easily get to it.

Buy an inexpensive iPad that you use for Active Captain. The Vision+ charts don't ship on a SD anymore. It's all downloaded from Garmin, uploaded to your Garmin unit and then installed on your Garmin unit. You have to identify the areas you want Vision+ charts installed for. They install on the Active Captain SD card in the unit. Can be done on a phone but it's easier to work with a tablet. It's also helpful for managing waypoints and routes.

Garmin is moving to a new network. BlueNet.

Technical Reference for Garmin BlueNet Network Technology Installation Instructions - Garmin BlueNet Technology Overview

www8.garmin.com