Garmin 740 Questions

[a64pilot]

I've got a 740S. I like it as it's my Radar and bottom machine as well as a plotter

[Opie91]

West Marine has the 740s on sale for $699 today.

GARMIN GPSMAP® 740s Chartplotter / Sounder with No Transducer at West Marine

[Chris in Hawaii]

I have a 740s on my 40' trimaran at the helm. Love it. Easy to use. I also have navionics on my iPad and I like the detail on my 740 charts better. I leave mine on all night as an anchor alarm and to conserve power I dim the screen. I have been woken by the drag alarm several times and it is fantastic to view the track that has been recorded to see how you have moved.

[AirBoyzT]

Girlfriend ended up getting me the 540 for Christmas. I'm happy as it's definitely an upgrade from my GPSMAP 182. The built in radar would have been nice, but I am years away from that I think (also I think I can get a seperate screen just for radar correct)

Anyone know if the 540 will also do the tracking like the picture above?

Thanks everyone for the help and advice.

[Chris in Hawaii]

The 540 will do everything the 740 does just with a smaller screen. Then menu is straight forward. I don't recall how to turn on the TRACK feature but should be fairly simple.

[Chris in Hawaii]

The way points yo use there are one I set when I anchored so I knew how far I was moving around on the scope I had out. My trimaran has a mind of its own on anchor and this was a fright to wake up seeing I had sailed around the anchor six times finally pulling it loose and heading off in the middle of the night.

[AirBoyzT]

Wow thank goodness for anchor alarms. Yea and minus the radar capabilities, but IF/WHEN I get radar, I'll just get a separate screen I think. It'll be nice to see in color for a change.

[Opie91]

Originally Posted by Chris in Hawaii

The 540 will do everything the 740 does just with a smaller screen. Then menu is straight forward. I don't recall how to turn on the TRACK feature but should be fairly simple.

The 540 does not support NMEA2000 or radar.

Is the unit a 540 or 540s?

[AirBoyzT]

Originally Posted by Opie91

The 540 does not support NMEA2000 or radar.

Is the unit a 540 or 540s?

I just got the 540...it was like $350 on eBay (refurbished) "new in the box"

I know it doesn't support radar, like I said I may add that later down the road and will be going with a different brand than garmin and probably just get additional screens. As far as the S model the only difference is sonar right? Already have a depth gauge so didn't think I really needed that. Not sure the benefits of NMEA2000 does it support anything like that. Sorry new to newfound electronics

[Opie91]

Originally Posted by AirBoyzT

I just got the 540...it was like $350 on eBay (refurbished) "new in the box"

I know it doesn't support radar, like I said I may add that later down the road and will be going with a different brand than garmin and probably just get additional screens. As far as the S model the only difference is sonar right? Already have a depth gauge so didn't think I really needed that. Not sure the benefits of NMEA2000 does it support anything like that. Sorry new to newfound electronics

Just wanted to let you know about the NMEA2000 it is important to some. Yes the s is for sonar, kind of nice to have a backup especially since the transom mount transducer can be bought for less than $60 USD. It works just fine glued to the inside of the hull with epoxy(non core hulls).

[AirBoyzT]

Originally Posted by Opie91

Just wanted to let you know about the NMEA2000 it is important to some. Yes the s is for sonar, kind of nice to have a backup especially since the transom mount transducer can be bought for less than $60 USD. It works just fine glued to the inside of the hull with epoxy(non core hulls).

Yea what exactly is the nmea2000 used for? The guide said I could always add sonar onto the gps it's just not built in.

[Opie91]

NMEA 2000 is the newer standard that marine electronics use to talk with one another. The 540 has NMEA 0183 instead. It works, but 2000 is much easier.

If you are not going to link multiple instruments together it is of no use to you.

[AirBoyzT]

Originally Posted by Opie91

NMEA 2000 is the newer standard that marine electronics use to talk with one another. The 540 has NMEA 0183 instead. It works, but 2000 is much easier.

If you are not going to link multiple instruments together it is of no use to you.

Thanks! Yea hopefully won't be doing that. I'm sure this GPS 540 will do me good, I'm just hoping they don't change map formats anytime soon like they did with my GPSMAP 182

[AirBoyzT]

I was going to ask, is there something I can buy so I can plug the gps in at home to play around with?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by AirBoyzT

I was going to ask, is there something I can buy so I can plug the gps in at home to play around with?

A car battery or you could pick up an inexpensive 12V convertor at radio shack. One of the best things about Garmin is they are so intuitive, you don't really even need to read the manual