Heres my problem, I bought a Garmin 536 for use on Lake Norman in NC because it had the built in "Inland Lakes" module. Ok, worked OK but the depth values seemed limited and there was no Bluechart data like satellite overlays. So I purchased the Bluechart vision download for the southeast and yes the satellite images are there along with better depth data. Issues:
1) Satelite resolution is much lower than say the Google Earth overlay, is there a way to upload the GE overlay in place of a patch of internal satellite "images files"? What format does Garmin use for this?
2) I can not depth contour the Bluechart lake data for shading, this feature is available for marine folks, why not use? Could I down load the internal data to an offboard image editing package and along with the depth data edit the image to reflect "safey shading" and upload back to the unit?
3) Is there a developer network that works with the Garmin users on an Alpha/Beta trail basis to test and develope new features?
4) The trail side has Basecamp and Birdeye to support there custom needs, why is Homeport and Mapsource and ... 3rd party software so disjointed at this point? No to be a pain, Im new, but I think there are a lot of marine GPS "geeks" out there wanting to advance the software capability of the 4XX & 5XX products. Im happy to pitch some deer at Garmin, just give the community some help with the internal formats and let them help too.
My 2, Harris :-)