C-Map USBCC reader - Emulate on PC Laptop running XP?

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I am running XP and have a C-Map USBCC card reader which allows me to use my C-Map cartridges with C-Map's own PC Planner NT, MaxSea and SOB and, maybe, other third party software, via a USB connection.

My plotter (Navman) and my radar/plotter (Raymarine) both take C-Map and my principal configuration is to have the C-Map cartridge in the Navman which is either by the steering position below, or on deck (I just move the plotter to the appropriate position) and I can fall back to the Raymarine monochrome plotter in the radar, should the Navman fail.

However, I like to do my passage planning on my laptop which has a much larger, clearer screen. Sometimes at sea I want to make a significant change to the passage plan and it would be convenient for me to emulate the C-Map USBCC including the cartridges I own so that they can be used by the laptop while the cartridges are in use in the Navman plotter.

Unlike other USB mass storage devices, the USBCC does not appear at all in Windows Explorer and one has to find it in Device Manager - even then, it is impossible to interrogate it or see which cartridges are in place. Ideally, I am looking for an emulator package along the lines of Alcohol which will emulate the C-Map USBCC. Can anyone help me with that?

As an aside, does anyone know of an alternative to Alcohol as a CD/DVD drive emulator that does not include any kind of spyware? Is the spyware in Alcohol sinister? I use Alcohol to run software that requires a disc to be present to run - a practice that I regard as an unacceptable restriction by software vendors since it ties up my only drive.

Many thanks for your help.
 
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However, I like to do my passage planning on my laptop which has a much larger, clearer screen. Sometimes at sea I want to make a significant change to the passage plan and it would be convenient for me to emulate the C-Map USBCC including the cartridges I own so that they can be used by the laptop while the cartridges are in use in the Navman plotter.

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David,

Prior to buying a C-Map Max cartridge, I looked through their forum and found some similar questions, to which the answer was that if you had a C-Map card, you could have a copy for the cost of a blank card.

However, when I asked C-Map this very same question prior to buying a C-Map Max cartridge, their response was that I had to buy a second card. It seems that their policy has changed over the years.

I thought I had researched the pants off this before reaching my decisions, but I may have missed something... and I still bought C-Map for my laptop, but bought the Lowrance 3600i as my plotter.

Agree re the much clearer and larger screen on the laptop, but during the trip from UK to Portugal, I changed the passage plan "on the fly" a few times, whilst at the helm, (no autopilot, and fairly hefty following seas), and found it quite straightforward.

I must admit that it was a bit "needs must" at times as there were only 2 of us for a large chunk of the trip, and some of the changes were made/trialled at night when James was asleep.

Depending on how critical the plotter is at the time of your changes, I guess you could remove the card, set up some waypoints on the Laptop, then enter them into the plotter via the card.

I suppose what I am saying is that my experience suggests that it cant be done without at least buying a second card.

Cheers

Richard
 
Richard, thanks for that. Yes, that's how I do it at present but it is a pain.

It seems to me that if third parties such as SOB and MaxSea can get to the actual USB reader then we ought to be able to and it ought to be possible to emulate the entire USBCC unit complete with card(s).

I have found a program called USB@anywhere which would help people who, unlike us, would like to share the USBCC reader on other Windows machines.
 
I too have a USBCC reader (and a Navman plotter) and have found it a strange and unhelpul animal, which had to be reinstalled from scratch if I unplugged it from the laptop.

I also have a Bytestor Multicard reader which reads dozens of different formats but not, of course, C-Map cards.

On a similar trip to Richard's I found that I actually did all my planning and routes on the Navman because setting up the USBCC card reader was too much of a pain. I wouldn't have expected this before leaving, but in fact I found the 6in plotter screen, with some backup from paper, adequate for all our planning needs.
 
You'll need to get hold of a USB bus monitoring tool (or software) and monitor what it does. I have noticed that the USBCC does a double handshake (as it changes its USB id for some reason). Once you've worked out how to read the data, you could read it from the cartridge and write your own device driver to use that when spoofing a real USBCC.

ie. quite a bit of effort, and I can see C-Map being unhappy that people are deliberately trying to copy their intellectual property.

I believe that the likes of SOB are using a C-Map provided library - they certainly don't have enough details to write something for a non-PC architecture (having chatted with them about mac support).

Rick
 
Thanks, that is helpful.

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ie. quite a bit of effort, and I can see C-Map being unhappy that people are deliberately trying to copy their intellectual property.

[/ QUOTE ] I only want to use the material I have already paid for.

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I believe that the likes of SOB are using a C-Map provided library - they certainly don't have enough details to write something for a non-PC architecture (having chatted with them about mac support).

[/ QUOTE ] I'm not sure that I understand what you mean by that. MaxSea reads my UBCC card reader and shows - in full detail - all of the charts on my cards (up to two at a time). I have tried it and it works. I believe that SOB does the same, but haven't personally tried it. MaxSea is resident on the PC, of course. I want to put the original cartridges in my purpose-built plotter (Navman) and run an emulation on my PC so that I can run PC Planner NT or MaxSea at the same time as running my Navman.
 
I use my USBCC with PC Planner NT extensively. PC Planner NT (or the UBCC drivers) are flakey but I have learnt how to work around it. What I'd like to do is to use it with MaxSea. If I can't, then there is no point in my buying MaxSea and arranging a GPS input into the laptop.
 
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I only want to use the material I have already paid for.

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You're wanting to use it on two things simultaneously (otherwise, why wouldn't you just move the cartridge?). However, my point was more that once you can use the charts without the chip being present, there's nothing to stop piracy on a large scale. Thats what C-Map will be very unhappy about.

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I'm not sure that I understand what you mean by that. MaxSea reads my UBCC card reader and shows - in full detail - all of the charts on my cards (up to two at a time). I have tried it and it works. I believe that SOB does the same, but haven't personally tried it. MaxSea is resident on the PC, of course. I want to put the original cartridges in my purpose-built plotter (Navman) and run an emulation on my PC so that I can run PC Planner NT or MaxSea at the same time as running my Navman.

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SOB uses software provided by C-MAP to read the chip. I assume MaxSea do the same. This means C-Map keep the details of how the chips work and handshake private, unsuprisingly.

Rick
 
David,

presumably you have a demo of Maxsea, if you are talking about being not worth buying it?

Have you tried SOB... it's free to try for 6 months, (certainly 3 months), then it's only about £25 to buy the license.

Not particularly intuitive, but does the job.

I use a USB mouse and stick it on the deck above the hatch in the saloon.

Still think you will be stuck with card swapping though... until someone cracks the various codes.

In a sense, you cant blame these chart suppliers for protecting their investment... Whilst you and I may be honourable, and only use them on 2 "plotters" on 1 boat, it wouldnt take long for pirate copies to end up all over the place. Frustrating though!
 
IIRC , providing you have the cartridge of an area, it is possible to buy a CD of the same area for the cost of a normal upgrade (i.e. considerable reduction)
 
Richard, yes I have tried and still have a version of SOB. Right now I do my planning on the PC. download the waypoints and routes onto a user card which I upload to the plotter(s). For usual changes of plan, 'at sea' I just use the Navman buttons but the problem is that one cannot scrutinise the track as carefully as I would like. At the planning stage, with a PC display, I can see things as clearly as on a paper chart and make notes, and allowances. You can't realistically do that on a small screen. If I am going to go to the next stage, I will want GPS information on the laptop (I already have that available on an RS232 cable) or I might use a Bluetooth GPS puck for convenience. Or a Bluetooth handheld GPS if I want an extra toy /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif But, I would need to have the cartography to make it worthwhile.

I fully understand the piracy issue. That is C-Map's problem; I don't ever use pirate software other than occasionally to evaluate something. If I am going to use it I buy it. But I don't expect to have to buy my charts twice.
 
Richard said that he wasn't able to do that...earlier in this thread.
 
Having exhausted various routes to interrogate various cards - the one factor that limits it is the way the card and reader works.

A normal card reader only reads / writes to the card .... but a proprietary Card Reader from C-Map / Navionics / Lowrance etc. has a little trick up it's sleeve ... it has a small bit of ID code that is embedded into the card - this is read by the reader and then acess to card data is allowed. If the reader cannot read that small bit of code ........ then nought happens !

Onto format .... if you install such program as Recovery Manager .... which is designed to work only with cards ... it shows that many of these chart cards are strange sizes ... a 128mb card formatted to 108mb etc. and recovery / back-up fails even though RM is working deep down in the data .... trying to re-state back-up to another card is total failure ... even if you can get data backed-up. Normal back-up is possible of data and can only be put back to the original card. Or you go back to chart supplier and get another card - you pay !!

Emulators .... another route that has exhausted my searching ... I have a Lowrance Nauticpath card that I wish to use in PC Plotter Simulator .... but of course needs that LEI Reader - that is not available over here ...

Basically without serious breaking into copyright areas - it is extremely difficult to get around the safeguards that Chart Card producers have built in ... I suppose when you think of the time / investment put in ?? The argument that you have already paid for the card is not really valid - as making it possible to do what you want then opens the door for unscrupulous copiers ....... and anyway - your licence on that card is single card only.

Life's a b********************
 
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Richard said that he wasn't able to do that...earlier in this thread.

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No-- he said that he wasnt able to get another ctg, and AFAIK that has never been possible, but what was, and still is, is the ability to purchase a CD of the same area covered by that ctg for a 50% reduction

However, that wont help as there will then be no possibility of linking it to the the user card (info from C-Map today).

STOP PRESS - <span style="color:red"> From Lena at C-Map today. if you can prove that you have purchased a specific area, and need to use the same Ctg via the PC-Planner, if you go direct to C-Map UK, you will be able to purchase the second ctg of the same area at half price, </span>
 
Many thanks for researching that and posting the results. Usually I buy my UK charts and C-Map via Marine Instruments at Falmouth (cos the fellow has the most extraordinary memory I have every come across - remembers everyone he has ever met and remembers your voice, too - spooky - but I am rambling /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif).

There are not contact details for Lena or any sales office. If you have the details to hand, could you post them, please? Are they prepared, now, to cut their dealers out?

Thanks again, Talbot. Most grateful to you. David
 
C-Map (UK) Ltd
Systems House
Delta Business Park
Salterns Lane
Fareham
PO16 0QS
United Kingdom



Tel: +44 (0) 1329 517777
Fax: +44 (0) 1329 517778
 
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