Lowrance electronic Mapping GPS & MP3 Player guide

iFINDER listens to signals from as many satellites as it can "see" above the horizon, eliminates the weakest signals, then computes its location in relation to those satellites. Once iFINDER figures its latitude and longi- tude, it plots that position on the moving map shown on the screen. While the screen is updated once a second, your iFINDER is making these in- ternal calculations and determining its position several times a second!

The performance doesn't stop there. Stored in the permanent memory of each iFINDER is a basic background map of the entire world. We lock it in here at the factory — you can't change or erase this map.

Another portion of iFINDER's onboard memory is devoted to recording GPS navigation information, which includes waypoints, event marker icons, trails and routes. This lets you look back the way you came. Think of this data storage like the hard drive memory in a computer or a tape in a cassette tape recorder. You can save several different GPS data files, erase 'em and record new ones, over and over and over again. Like any computer file, these GPS Data Files (file format *.usr) can be shared between iFINDERs, other Lowrance GPS or sonar/GPS units, even personal computers.

iFINDER has one more thing in common with a personal computer. Just as computers have a floppy disk drive for storing and exchanging files, iFINDER has a slot for an MMC (MultiMedia Card) or SD (Secure Digital) Card flash memory card. These solid-state memory devices are about the size of a postage stamp, but can hold data ranging from 8 MB to 512 MB in size. (Compare that to a floppy disk's 1.44 MB capacity!) iFINDER uses all that MMC space for two key purposes.

First, you can backup your onboard GPS Data Files by copying them to the MMC. Since the MMC is removable (like a floppy disk or a cassette tape), you can store these GPS Data Files on a personal computer equipped with an MMC card reader. (Or store them on a pocketful of MMCs, if you don't have a computer.) Our MapCreate mapping software can save, edit or create its own GPS Data Files, which can be copied to the MMC and then loaded from the MMC into iFINDER's memory. (NOTE: No matter where they come from, GPS Data Files must be loaded from the MMC into memory before iFINDER can use them.)

The other key GPS use for MMCs is storage of special high-detail, cus- tom maps, which you can produce on your computer with our MapCre- ate software. These MapCreate custom maps contain much greater de- tail than the basic background map. These Custom Map Files (file format *.lcm) can also be shared between iFINDERs, other Lowrance GPS or sonar/GPS units and personal computers.