First day on the new boat and have questions about Furuno GPS/ chart plotter

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Island Dreamer

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Ran my boat for the first time today and tried to figure out an older Furuno gps. When I zoom in on my home harbor I cant see any details. Is there are way to update the unit or do I need to buy a card? There is no card in the card slot. The unit is likely the same year as the boat .....1997. Attached is the harbor fully zoomed in.
 

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Ran my boat for the first time today and tried to figure out an older Furuno gps. When I zoom in on my home harbor I cant see any details. Is there are way to update the unit or do I need to buy a card? There is no card in the card slot. The unit is likely the same year as the boat .....1997. Attached is the harbor fully zoomed in.

Get the model # of your unit, take a picture of the card reader slot, if you have the owners manual bring that and head over to your local West Marine. Or if the unit is removable, you can bring the plotter with you.


If West Marine can’t support a unit that old, probably available on line someplace but in person at West Marine would be my starting place.....
 
If I were to get a new unit, would the same plugs work on the back or has everything changed?
 
Time to join the 21'st century. Update that old MFD with something that has new base maps or CMAPS or navionics or CMOR or G3 vision. All the manufacturers are good now. Some are more user friendly. But, I think what you see on your Furuno is what you get.

You could get a very nice unit to fit that space for under $1000
 
Have you tried contacting Furuno? I had an older model and sent it back to Furuno for an upgrade in software. They were great and I got it back and used it with no additional problems. West marine can be helpful but they will want to sell you a new unit if they can't figure out a way to fix your unit. Furuno may or may not be able to help you but it's worth a shot.
 
Ran my boat for the first time today and tried to figure out an older Furuno gps. When I zoom in on my home harbor I cant see any details. Is there are way to update the unit or do I need to buy a card? There is no card in the card slot. The unit is likely the same year as the boat .....1997. Attached is the harbor fully zoomed in.
You need a chart card. CMAP 4D is what it uses. Not a bad unit I ran two boats that had them. Of course newer units are nicer/faster processors, but the 1870 was a good unit. Enjoy!

here's a link to original brochure.
https://www.furunousa.com/en/products/gp1870f
Heres a link to the full support page on Furuno site
https://www.furunousa.com/en/support/GP1870F
 
Had one of those a while back. Not a bad unit but the newer ones are well worth the upgrade. If you're going to have to buy a chart card anyway you can get a much better display without spending much more.
 
Ran my boat for the first time today and tried to figure out an older Furuno gps. When I zoom in on my home harbor I cant see any details. Is there are way to update the unit or do I need to buy a card? There is no card in the card slot. The unit is likely the same year as the boat .....1997. Attached is the harbor fully zoomed in.
Just a "Heads Up", that might apply to this and other units; (I know; most of you likely already do this)?
I had 'issues' with our 2014 Garmin 1040 XS this year. Working with the Garmin techs (they were very helpful by the way, as they were working from home in their pajamas!), it was determined that part of the 'issues' was the fact that neither I or the previous owner had done the recommended yearly up-dates to to the unit.... So, I used a 16GB SD card, and did the updates. (I believe they recommended a 5GB or larger)... It was easy to do, with the directions on the Garmin website, and it corrected a number of 'issues'. In short, if you don't already, do the updates to your units; it will help head off future issues.
 
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All great advice and thank you. Today was the first real trip on the boat and now Ive got many things to upgrade besides this unit!. Going to post some new questions now!
 
All great advice and thank you. Today was the first real trip on the boat and now Ive got many things to upgrade besides this unit!. Going to post some new questions now!
As a charter boat captain for 25 years, owning/operating boats to 48', I was always a Furuno guy. I retired last year and bought a 2300 SE - absolutely love the boat. IMO Furuno has got out of hand with prices and is no longer a leader. I installed two Raymarine Axiom 9" displays with a Quantum 2 radar and RV-100 real vision 3D transducer all networked with the HS5 switch unit, literally all plug and play. This package is amazing. I was tossing between this and Garmin units and what made ups my mind was a very healthy rebate from Raymarine and none from Garmin.

IMG_0031.jpegIMG_3488.JPGIMG_0093.jpegIMG_0555.jpeg
 
I was tossing between this and Garmin units and what made ups my mind was a very healthy rebate from Raymarine and none from Garmin.

Thats the only way they can sell them.

Flir dumped Raymarine after buying the company.....

If i looked at 2 boats equal to one another except for the electronics's package....
Garmin wins every time.

Soooooooo much more user friendly... I can walk people thru problems on the phone with Garmin.
 
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