I recently bought a used Navionics Hotmaps south card off of eBay because it was about half the price of a new one. I’m going to try to hook it up to my Lowrance HDS Gen 3 this weekend at Table Rock Lake, and I was wondering if I need to do anything for it before then for it to work. It has been activated and updated in 2017. Will it automatically adjust to work with my fish finder or do I have to put it in my computer and adjust some settings? Would you suggest paying for the most recent update or am I good as is? Appreciate the input in advance!! Thanks

You should not have to activate a used card.

Buying a used card is risky. The card has to be in the fish finder at all times to work.

if the card has issues, you will  not have any support, because it was registered to someone else.

you will also not have any updates.

I agree with Russ. It’s a risk.

 

The mapping cards themselves aren’t updated every year but you can’t update them electronically. There is simply the next version released for each year that you must purchase. There are software updates regularly for electronics though. I just updated my Lowrance units 2 weeks ago with the newest versions.

 

 

23 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I agree with Russ. It’s a risk.

 

The mapping cards themselves aren’t updated every year but you can’t update them electronically. There is simply the next version released for each year that you must purchase. There are software updates regularly for electronics though. I just updated my Lowrance units 2 weeks ago with the newest versions.

 

 

you can usually get an update for navionics at 1/2 the price of a new card. I bought it once, but did not see much difference.

Thanks guys. I didn’t realize that it would be registered to the previous owner when I bought it, so I’m not sure if I could even update it if I tried. So I don’t need to put the chip in the computer and set it to “Lowrance HDS 9” or whatever? It will automatically work? I’m not sure which finder it’s been hooked up to in the past. 

FYI - Navionics has a $50 rebate on their cards purchased from their site.

9 hours ago, Bullmax said:

So I don’t need to put the chip in the computer and set it to “Lowrance HDS 9” or whatever? It will automatically work?

 

It will load up immediately when you have the chip in there and start the unit.  You may need to do a software update on the unit itself if you haven't done that yet as there is a new version this year.  It won't show up until the unit finds a satellite so if you're trying inside somewhere, go outside and do it.