Lowrance iFinder Notice

[Take Six...]

I hate it when I get taken. I usually research the b'jesus out of anything I'm about to purchase. I'm never an impulse buyer. This is one time, I didn't read the single sentence, fine print and I'm mad that I made this mistake and was taken. Like I told the guys at Lowrance, they can be sure that I will tell as many fisherman I know about there little profit center so that others in the same market as I, will have a clearer understanding of what their getting into.

The Lowrance iFinder, is capable of accepting any capacity or brand SD or MMC memory chips. (even 1GB) The unit comes with simple topograghic mapping of the U.S. but is limited to highways and major roads. Say you buy MapCreate which comes with six CD's with incredible detail that allows you to create a custom map on your PC and download it to a memory chip that you can install into your iFinder. Here's the catch. You have to spend another $30 bucks and buy a Lowrance or LEI chip reader programmer that plugs into your USB port on your PC. You can't format your own reader or download software to re-format your reader to use the MapCreate. It must be a Lowrance reader. Secondly, once you have this reader, the MapCreate software requires you to register your chip within the MapCreate software. You are limited to registering only five chips. But you can change your own chips as many times as you like.

So, when your compare models, capabilities and costs, the $30 reader programmer, along with the five chip limit may make a difference in your buying decision.

[Mike]

Thanks for the information.

[Yankee Troller]

I have used other card readers/writers to download maps from mapcreate. I have downloaded maps for a bunch of buddies and I dont recall ever having to register anything for my chip.

[Oakley]

I bought a SD card from best buy and was able to download from the map software no problem. When I got my GPS from Lowrance, the package came with the card reader. I have also used the Lowrance card reader (which plugs into the USB port) to download digital photo files from the SD card in my camera. I'll check through my stuff to see if mine has the same conditions regarding the 5 chip thing.