A buddy of mine just got a new boat, it came with Garmin GPSMAP440SX plotter/fishfinder. He is trying to enter his GPS numbers into the machine manually and I know there is a faster way. He needs is a waypoint manager that will allow him to backup/enter/view his numbers on his computer. Does he need to buy somthing or is there free programs that will work? Should his boat/gps have come with Mapsource or somthing if he bought it new? Is Mapsource what he needs? Is there any other alternatives? Thanks in advance for any help/advice you can give me to help him out......

Mapsource is free for Garmin unit owners and should have come with his unit as trip and waypoint manager. There are lots of that software around and it doesn't need a password . If he doesn't have his original CD just borrow someones and get an update from the Garman websight. Or call garmin with his serial number for machine and they probably will send a cd.

Mapsource is pretty good but entering a long list of numbers is a bit of a pain.

t_bare

you can download it free from garmin. May need to get a USB cable to connect to the unit or the card.

Garmin Mapsource is an amazing waypoint management software. It is chart based software that has awesome bathametric charting capabilities and can overlay your vessels location if you bring your laptop on the boat. While software like offshore hunter is awesome, and offers much better loran conversions, I prefer the visual perspective of mapsource than the list based one of offshore hunter. IMO. Here are a couple screenshots:

The first one is a bath image of a ridge on the East side of the grounds. The second one shows how a specific waypoint can be edited. Uploading and downloading to a Garmin GPS is a breeze.
-Chris

We could not get it to download from Garmin so after a little more digging, I found this article and this "trick" seems to make it work....


http://freegeographytools.com/2007/garmin-mapsource-for-free

I would recommend paying the $100 or so for the bluechart version of mapsource. That software includes all bathametric info and the ability to transfer the bath information to a garmin gps. Having the bath info on your gps is an awesome way to work new ridgelines/ledge systems.

Thanks chris I'll let him know....