What is Garmin ActiveCaptain? ActiveCaptain is a free all-in-one app that offers the ultimate connected boating experience. This award-winning app allows you to manage your marine experience from nearly anywhere, connecting your Android or iOs smartphone or mobile device directly to your compatible Garmin chartplotter and devices.
How Does Garmin ActiveCaptain Work?
You can use ActiveCaptain in-tandem with your Garmin chartplotter for fast, convenient access to your charts, maps, and the Garmin boating community. You can also use ActiveCaptain as a standalone navigational app, without your chartplotter, purchasing charts, planning excursions, and accessing ActiveCaptain boating community information directly from your smartphone or mobile device.
What Can I Do with ActiveCaptain?
- Monitor your boat from your mobile device.
Track, monitor, and control your boat with Garmin’s OnDeck system. Receive automatic text alerts when your vessel leaves your specified geofenced area. View your boat, controlling up to five selected systems like battery chargers and ice makers. Monitor and set alarm notifications for battery status, shore power, temperature changes, and more remotely with your active subscription plan.
- Access and update maps and charts from your smartphone.
Purchase, download, use, and update charts and maps from your smartphone or mobile device, syncing data across all registered Garmin devices with OneChart.
- Stay connected and in touch on the water.
Receive calls, texts, and other notifications on your chartplotter while your mobile device stays tucked away, safe and dry.
- Connect with fellow boaters in the ActiveCaptain community.
Share your boating adventures or tap into the community knowledge collective, staying aware of uncharted hazards or getting the latest feedback on local points of interest, attractions, and marinas.
- Share mapping content with the Garmin Quickdraw community.
Easily upload or download the latest Quickdraw Contours HD fishing map content via your mobile device, automatically sharing it with your compatible Garmin chartplotter.
- Plan a trip without data syncing worries.
Plan a trip or pre-fish a lake from home or anywhere, marking waypoints and routes in the ActiveCaptain app. Garmin ActiveCaptain will automatically sync data to your chartplotter.
- Over-the-Air Software Updates
No more toting an SD card from your home to your chartplotter. Receive software update information for your Garmin electronics wirelessly to your mobile device, enjoying the convenience of updates that sync directly from the ActiveCaption app.
How Do I Connect to ActiveCaptain?
- Install the ActiveCaptain app.
To get started with ActiveCaptain, download and install the app onto your tablet or smartphone from the Google Play or Apple App store. - Register and connect with ActiveCaptain.
After installing the app, register your smart device with ActiveCaptain, and connect your compatible chartplotter/fishfinder. - Pair ActiveCaptain to your compatible devices.
- Go to your Garmin device and select ActiveCaptain from the home screen. On GPSMAP series chartplotters, you’ll find ActiveCaptain under A/V > Gauges > Controls.
- Turn on and set up your Wi-Fi if you haven’t done so already.
- Insert a micro/SD card into your GPSMAP device card slot. The card should be 4-32GB and formatted to FAT 32. You may be prompted to format the card on insertion. Note: This will delete ALL information stored on the card. This card is inserted whenever you want to use the ActiveCaptain feature.
- Return to your smartphone or mobile device. Open your Wi-Fi connections and connect to your Garmin device, using the wireless network name and password you just set up.
- Open ActiveCaptain on your smartphone or mobile device, ensuring it is within 105 feet of the GPSMAP device. When the message “A new ActiveCaptain user was detected. Is this the owner of the vessel?” appears, select YES and DONE to confirm. (Select NO if you are a guest user.)
4.Start using the app.
You are now ready to enjoy all the features and benefits of the ActiveCaptain app.
Simplify your life with Garmin ActiveCaptain. Contact J-TEK Marine to learn more about ActiveCaptain compatible technology for your vessel today.