Can you download tracks from your Chartplotter?

[Bluesipp]

My Garmin 276c does as well, probably the best chart plotter ever made, use it on the boat in the car and on my motor bike!

Many thanks Scarron

 

[mcetap]

Thanks RAI so far Standard Horizon seem to be in the "does not" box but Garmin are doing nicely

Actually, you *can* download tracks from a Standard Horizon plotter, but you need two additional things: The Jeppesen PC-Planner software (which includes a C-card reader) and a C-card "User Card". You can use the user card to transfer tracks between your plotter and a PC (and vv), but you can also use it to store and transfer c-weather data, routes and waypoints. I believe this is also described in the plotter's manual.

Regards,
MCEtap

(And yes, this is my first post here on this forum)

 

[aluijten]

Thanks RAI so far Standard Horizon seem to be in the "does not" box but Garmin are doing nicely

AFAIK the Standard Horizon models can download the tracks, but you will need a C-Map Usercard for this. The track can then be read with the PC-Planner software from C-MAP. At least this is what I did on my previous boat.

My current E120 (Raymarine) can also download tracks on a Compact Flash Card. However their new planning software is still not capable of reading it The old planning software is a pain in the %## to use.

 

[RAI]

AFAIK the Standard Horizon models can download the tracks, but you will need a C-Map Usercard for this. The track can then be read with the PC-Planner software from C-MAP. At least this is what I did on my previous boat.

The SH handbook suggests one can, but even with those bits, there is no option on the download menu to load tracks onto the user memory card on my SH CP300i.

 

[Bluesipp]

Thanks again RAI - see my reply to aluijten, I will keep trying.
John

 

[SteveSarabande]

The SH handbook suggests one can, but even with those bits, there is no option on the download menu to load tracks onto the user memory card on my SH CP300i.

i changed my mind, you maybe can save tracks. on the user c-card menu there is a save option that doesn't work for me as I have no user card. I think this will save tracks, waypoints and routes to the card.

but the card costs £30 and the special reader and plotter software costs around £120 so it's not cheap

 

[RAI]

i changed my mind, you maybe can save tracks. on the user c-card menu there is a save option that doesn't work for me as I have no user card. I think this will save tracks, waypoints and routes to the card.

but the card costs £30 and the special reader and plotter software costs around £120 so it's not cheap

I can download waypoints and routes, but not tracks.

 

[Bluesipp]

Thanks folks - an anti-track conspiracy!
John

 

[Cardo]

Don't put the Raymarine e7 on the list! You can download the tracks onto the microSD card as a backup, but there's no software around that can read them!

 

[Bluesipp]

Don't put the Raymarine e7 on the list! You can download the tracks onto the microSD card as a backup, but there's no software around that can read them!

Thanks - I have written to Raymarine in the hope that they can be as helpful as Fugawi have been (more on that later)

 

[Bluesipp]

Here is the list supplied by Fugawi:
1) Fugawi Marine 5
2) Fugawi Marine ENC 4.5
3) Fugawi ENC Military 4.5
4) Fugawi Global Navigator 4.5
5) Navplanner 2
6) iNavX

Any comments on any of those would be welcome
John

 

[ithet]

SH180 tracks

I download tracks from my SH180. It is something I expected to be able to do simply with a plotter.

But...
THe SH does not output tracks via it NMEA interface (I think Garmin added proprietry sentences on their chartplotters for this). So you need the card reader and a blank card. The reader is sold with the C-Map plotter software.

Track handling on the SH 180/300 is poor. You have to select seperatly what track number you are going to record with, and which you want displayed - there is no auto track facility, so unless you remember to start a new track the previous one will get updated even if several months have passed. Then, to transfer onto the card you have to enter track numbers into a menu which gives no other information (such as an indication as to when the track was last updated). You have to enter each track number and save seperatly.

When you use the card reader and PC plotter to read the card it stores them with different names/numbers. When displayed on the plotter software there is no plot point information shown on the tracks (times/speed etc) although this data is shown on the tracks when on the SH chartplotter display, and it is passed in the raw files transferred (they can be viewed in xml or csv format).

It is possible to convert your downloaded files to other formats and display the web using some of the track uploading websites.

BTW the C-Map Plotter software is generally quite limited, so added to the C-Map reader and card costs it is probably not the best solution. I got it expecting better.

 

[Bluesipp]

I download tracks from my SH180. It is something I expected to be able to do simply with a plotter.

But...
THe SH does not output tracks via it NMEA interface (I think Garmin added proprietry sentences on their chartplotters for this). So you need the card reader and a blank card. The reader is sold with the C-Map plotter software.

Track handling on the SH 180/300 is poor. You have to select seperatly what track number you are going to record with, and which you want displayed - there is no auto track facility, so unless you remember to start a new track the previous one will get updated even if several months have passed. Then, to transfer onto the card you have to enter track numbers into a menu which gives no other information (such as an indication as to when the track was last updated). You have to enter each track number and save seperatly.

When you use the card reader and PC plotter to read the card it stores them with different names/numbers. When displayed on the plotter software there is no plot point information shown on the tracks (times/speed etc) although this data is shown on the tracks when on the SH chartplotter display, and it is passed in the raw files transferred (they can be viewed in xml or csv format).

It is possible to convert your downloaded files to other formats and display the web using some of the track uploading websites.

BTW the C-Map Plotter software is generally quite limited, so added to the C-Map reader and card costs it is probably not the best solution. I got it expecting better.

Many thanks ithet. Very helpful indeed. I am awaiting a reply from the yaesu folk in Winchester on their entire range. I will post here if I get anything useful.

 

[ginagraham]

NavigationPLANNER can also download tracks I think.

 

[jakeroyd]

I have Plan2Nav on my Galaxy Note 2
Used this for the first time recently.
It can create a gpx file which can be displayed in Google Earth.
(GE converts it to a kmz file which it keeps in it's 'my places' folder

 

[Bosun Higgs]

An old plotter Garmin GPSMAP230 Set to Data Transfer mode and use Easy GPS to upload tracks.

My Garmin GPS allows downloads of tracks which I can then display using Garmin mapsource sofware ( free) or even on Google Earth. I use it to analyse why we lost the race since it cannot possibly be the owners fault.

 

[CreakyDecks]

My Garmin GPS allows downloads of tracks which I can then display using Garmin mapsource sofware ( free) or even on Google Earth. I use it to analyse why we lost the race since it cannot possibly be the owners fault.

How do you download to Google Earth?

 

[RAI]

I download tracks from my SH180. It is something I expected to be able to do simply with a plotter.

But...
THe SH does not output tracks via it NMEA interface (I think Garmin added proprietry sentences on their chartplotters for this). So you need the card reader and a blank card. The reader is sold with the C-Map plotter software.

Track handling on the SH 180/300 is poor. You have to select seperatly what track number you are going to record with, and which you want displayed - there is no auto track facility, so unless you remember to start a new track the previous one will get updated even if several months have passed. Then, to transfer onto the card you have to enter track numbers into a menu which gives no other information (such as an indication as to when the track was last updated). You have to enter each track number and save seperatly.

When you use the card reader and PC plotter to read the card it stores them with different names/numbers. When displayed on the plotter software there is no plot point information shown on the tracks (times/speed etc) although this data is shown on the tracks when on the SH chartplotter display, and it is passed in the raw files transferred (they can be viewed in xml or csv format).

It is possible to convert your downloaded files to other formats and display the web using some of the track uploading websites.

BTW the C-Map Plotter software is generally quite limited, so added to the C-Map reader and card costs it is probably not the best solution. I got it expecting better.

+1
It is the only aspect of the SH 300i that I regret. It is probably a C-MAp effect.

 

[Fantasie 19]

How do you download to Google Earth?

Either save the file as GPX or KMZ. and then use the File/Open in GoogleEarth, or just plug your GPS in and import directly...

 

[rgarside]

Advansea T50 - a C-Map plotter - can download tracks [and waypoints, etc] via a user SD card. I access these using the C-Map plotter, but it may be possible to do it without that. The tracks are just a set of points, they seem to not transfer the time information.

I now use a datalogger to record files of time, position, depth, etc - so I'll be using that for tracks. NMEA log files can be converted to kml and other formats using www.gpsvisualizer.com.