Matsutec / Onwa Chart plotters with AIS questions ...

[Refueler]

I see these coming up often and reading the specs - they read as quite a good machine ... (lets leave out the China-knocking bias shall we ....).

I know an odd person has mentioned here they use them.

So my questions are :

Is it as good as the write up they advertise ?

The in-built Onwa chart - is that any good or just like Lawrence etc .. too general and lack detail ... no good for anything ?

Would any owner recc'd it ?

I initially was going to ask about the HP-528A ... but have finally got answer that it does not show map ... need to go for the 628 or higher series.

I must say - I like the look of the ONWA KP-708A as well ......

Not so keen on the C-Map format .... but seems many are moving to that ...

 

[tillergirl]

Got the Onwa Kcombo 7a. Nice. Needs C-Map. The built-in chart was ok but not up to the spec of C-Map. Nicely made and intuitive buttons and menus. AIS and fish finder good.

 

[Refueler]

Got the Onwa Kcombo 7a. Nice. Needs C-Map. The built-in chart was ok but not up to the spec of C-Map. Nicely made and intuitive buttons and menus. AIS and fish finder good.

I would not expect the built in map to be up to Navionics or C-Map level ... but how detailed is it ? How far can you zoom in and display sufficient detail ?

I already have a Lowrance with their SD Card mapping ... plus I have full suite of vector, raster for PC plotting ...

I'm thinking to replace my ageing Lowrance to use on my boats for the river - I created vector charts of the river that display on it.
That would then mean putting another plotter on the yacht. I thought about getting another older Lowrance so it took the SD card .... but maybe I should upgrade ...

 

[superheat6k]

I started with the HP-628A and upgraded to the HP-1228A.

Apart from very bright sunshine, it is brilliant in all its expected tasks, with the massive and simple advantage overlooked by the mainstream manufacturers of combining the AIS transceiver into the chart plotter.

The base map is awful, and yes the C-Map card is a bit expensive, but the detail is as good IMHO as the Navionics charts I can load onto an iPad or iPhone. Overall for a 12" plotter with AIS just excellent for the money.

I bought both of mine direct from China - Huayang Electronics. The only issue I had was the standard manual omitted own ship set up details, but I have these written up if required.

The HP-628A is a 6 inch but is closer to 5" and was too small for me, but I have plenty of space on my fly bridge. If space is tight then I would suggest the HP-828A would likely be a better compromise. Make sure whatever you buy it has the A for AIS.

The Onwa is the same range of devices, but with a different label, and also with different software. I tried to upload the Onwa chart files but they wouldn't work. I believe Onwa is better supported in the UK, that said I have had no real issues with the Matsutec apart from the lack of initial set up instructions, which Huayang sent me by email.

If you want to take a look at my HP-1228A my boat is on the Hamble.

 

[Refueler]

Tks .... Hamble would be a bit of a trek for me from Latvia !! Maybe next time I'm over visiting my boys in Portsmouth.

Just a question ... you say A = AIS version ... I thought from the adverts - A was for internal GPS antenna ?

As regards C-Map vs Navionics .... they both derive from the same base data ... so should be similar ... except for coded format and presentation.

I use a Lowrance 3500 at present and is only a 5" ... I'm happy enough with that ... but the 5" Matsutec is not a plotter as I see ... but the 628 is.

Thks for info ... much appreciated.

 

[tillergirl]

Before I bought C-Map I compared C-Map and Navionics. In the immediate vicinity I know the area very well (i.e. amateur surveys and all that). I found in an square nautiocal mile Navionics had some serious errors - three buoys wrong - one missing, two in the wrong place - and the soundings way out. Eventually Navionics correctly the buoyage but that was ten years late! I decided I would never trust Navionics just in case I used it in an area I didn't know!

I can't remember how good the basic chart was. I thought it zoomed in one stage further. Can I retro access it I wonder. Might be going down shortly and I'll play if I can.

 

[Refueler]

It was just a thought as general chart is good enough to cross baltic ... once I get close to shore - I have my Seaclear etc. with all the charts I could want ...

 

[tillergirl]

Onwa basic

P1050150 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

C-Map

P1050148 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

The start-up message say chart only for reference. But you would find the Baltic.

 

[Refueler]

For planning - that looks fine .... thanks for that ...

BTW - we are now suffering 30m/s storm winds here ....... came out of workshop and wind took door and me with it !! nearly had me in the mud !!

Is there any ONWA PC viewer for the charts ?

 

[zoidberg]

BTW - we are now suffering 30m/s storm winds here ....... came out of workshop and wind took door and me with it !! nearly had me in the mud !!

Mud? Feb in Latvia? I'd have thought you'd have 2 metres of permafrost...

But hang in there, friend. No practising for the BogSnorkelling Championships this early in the season...

 

[Refueler]

Mud? Feb in Latvia? I'd have thought you'd have 2 metres of permafrost...

But hang in there, friend. No practising for the BogSnorkelling Championships this early in the season...

Its totally out of norm ... we should be -10C and 3ft of snow ..... but we only had couple days of light snow before Xmas and then temps rose and its been just like UK ...

 

[Rappey]

I have the onwa kp 708a. The cheaper one is the kp39a. Onwa and matsutec are two different brands. Onwa make a lot of modern marine electronics such as dsc radio, radar, autopilots etc.
The kp39a has a lot less memory than the 708a and it really struggles and has glitches with the latest onwa K charts v3 so it generally runs version v2.
The 708a being more powerfull has no problem with the huge V3 uk chart and is basically exactly what you would see on an admiralty chart so yes, there is a lot of detail.
the versions with A at the end shows they have ais built in, the other are usually fish finders/chart plotters combo. the cold start time for gps location of my unit so far has always been under 30 secs.
If you look here you can see what the K charts look like Onwa K-charts
Aves marine is a real authorised onwa retailer in the uk, as listed by owna/hongkongs official web site. the guy at Aves is extremely helpful.
Many of these units are available on ebay and I did read avis marine would help with warranty even if bought on ebay.
A great unit for what it costs and would thoroughly recommend .. It does not have all the bells and whistles of a new B&G but it does what its meant to !

 

[Frankklose]

I also use a ONWA KP-39A and have no trouble with NAVIONICS Charts and K-Chart3. I ´m using both. Last season I sailed ca. 1000 miles last season in the Baltic.
I use for navigation a 10 Inch Android Tablet from ALDI with LTE. There was no difference between the K-charts and the Navionics charts.
I changed the firmware 3 times. Loading of the Navionics Charts is fairly slow., at start up.
I use with the KP-39 NAVIONICS 44XG and 45XG. Noticed that the formate is different for the two Navionics packages.
(got the charts for a very good price....)
The K-chart 3 are up to date in Poland. Navionics had 3 major changes in Poland in the last two years. All changes were done also on K-chart3. I was very surprised (for free charts?..).
It´s a good set (imported it direct from China...)
I thougt about becoming a importer for Germany. Since the KP-39A has so many menue´s I would spend a lot of time on the phone with customer´s and I rather go saling. It´s a very good unit, well build but something for an expert.
I worked all my life in electronics RF and IT (started a a design engineer). Before I retired got a few new Microsoft certificates....
and I know what customer support is. SVB gave up selling Matsutec....

One thing worse mentioning, the AIS is a SOTDMA (far better then CSTDMA)).