Lowrance/Eagle GPS: MMC cards required?

I went on a friends boat today. He has a Lowrance LMS 335C. This unit seems very similar to the Eagle Fishelite/Seacharter 500c (at least the same screen size). The unit performed great and I am definitely going with Lowrance/Eagle. The base map was very accurate (for basic navigation) and included every bouy in Narragansett Bay RI. With Garmin, you need to buy the BlueChart map and zoom in to about a .5nm range before you see the bouys. On the Lowrance, some were visible at 16nm zoom level and all were visible at the 8nm level. I was impressed.

Here is a question…When do you need a memory card? Do you need a blank memory card in the unit to store waypoints and other stuff? Can you have a memory card and a map card in the unit at the same time.

Thanks,
Dan

memory cards have taken the place of data tranfer cables used to transfer data to or from your pc. Mapping cards are an accesory used to place contours or road maps in the background. Some of the newer units will take two cards.

Dan, You don’t need a memory card to store waypoints. You can store them right to the unit. With the units you’ve been looking at there will be only one card slot so you can not have a map card and a blank memory card in the unit at the same time. The higher-end units like the LCX-17 or LCX-25C have a two-card drawer. Don’t worry about it. You’ll be able to save all the waypoints you need on the unit.

Thank you. If I could only get my boat out of my back yard and into the garage, I could move forward on preparing for the upcoming season. Another 15″ of wet/heavy snow tonight….

Dan You might want to save your waypoints to a chip after you get quite a few of them. That way if anything happens to your unit you will still have the waypoints stored on the chip.Heaven forbid something should happen to it but you never know. My unit went bad and had to send it in for a new one. I did have them saved to a chip. Better safe than sorry. That is a lot of time down the drain if they are lost. Jim