Chart plotter with AIS

CliveG

CliveG

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I have an old Lowrance 3300c plotter with the Nauticpath Western Europe Chart.
I want to add AIS to my armory.

I do not want / have room for a large screen plotter.
The Lowrance 5105 would be good but I can't find out if it will shoe AIS Data.
I want to use an AIS engine as I also want to be able to feed the data to SeaPro on my Laptop.
I don't want the laptop to be the only display showing AIS due to the power consumption issues.

Any suggestions would be welcome.
 
Neil

Yes I meant 5150.
Finger trouble /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

PCUK I was aware that the NASA unit will plug into the laptop.
What I am looking for is a reasonably priced plotter that will show AIS data.
 
[ QUOTE ]
What I am looking for is a reasonably priced plotter that will show AIS data.

[/ QUOTE ]If you're happy with a 5" screen, the Standard Horizon CP180i will show AIS and at £295 it's reasonably priced, although only has 320x240 pixel resolution. For £395, the NorthStar 557 is AIS compatible and has far superior 640x480 resolution.
 
The Navman 5607 0r 5507 (Northstar 567 or 557) are exceptionally good units and identical spec only difference been the latter is smaller than the 5607/567.
They are both ais ready, and coupled up with a C-map mega wide chart card are superb units, which can also be connected to engine monitering and fuel etc.

The Northstar 557 can be got for around £260/70 from some dealer in america through Ebay, as my mate got his from them, can get their details if you require.
 
Though just a word of caution - the NASA engine works well into a PC - but apparently is a bit loose on the RS232 protocol - which as Tome explained to me means that its a bit pot luck as to how well it would work with a plotter.

He had a Raymarine plotter where it regulalry dropped out. I had one where it worked most of the time - but did drop out occasionally. In the end I've swapped it for another.

As Tome described it it was all to do with line voltages (I think) - and was down to whether certain components in your plotter were at the top or botom end of their accpetable range.

Not described that anything like as well as Tome did !

In summary - safe with a PC - and it may work to a better / worse extent with other plotters. (Cue list of peopel saying how they are using it successfully!)
 
The Navman / northstar are tempting but I would have to factor in the cost of a c-map cartridge on top and then the AIS engine.
That looks like about £700 all up.
The Standard Horizon set-up would come in at about £620
Both a bit more than I really want to pay
The alternative would be to get the Nasa "Radar" for about £220 and upgrade the plotter to the 5150 for about £300.
So about £520 all up.
Of course alle the above will need a new VHF Aerial, another £35.00.
I wonder what the 3300 would fetch on e-bay.
 
[ QUOTE ]
The Standard Horizon set-up would come in at about £620

[/ QUOTE ]You can get the SH CP180i plus a MegaWide chart cartridge for £414 inc UK delivery. You can get a Nasa AIS engine for about £100. Total around £520.

You suggested getting the Nasa AIS Radar as an alternative, but earlier you wrote "I want to use an AIS engine as I also want to be able to feed the data to SeaPro on my Laptop." The Nasa AIS Radar doesn't have any data output facility.
 
The only issue with the Standard Horizon set is that it is a low resolution system.
The 3300 I already have is the same resolution.

I know that I would lose the link to the Laptop.
By accepting that I could just get the NASA Radar and stay with the old 3300.
 
As yet, as far as I can make out, none of the Lowrance chartplotters offer AIS facilities.

IMHO the AIS scene is in such early stages that it is probably unwise to invest any considerable sums of money - especially when, like me, you have a fairly big investment in Navionics Gold charts.

Quite a few of the major chartplotter manufacturers have yet to introduce AIS to their yottie range, notably Standard Horizon as well as Simrad/Lowrance, though Garmin and Navman have some of their models offering the facility.

Notably absent are the Navionics chart cartridge user (excepting Raymarine who have other built-in obsolescence).
 
[ QUOTE ]
Quite a few of the major chartplotter manufacturers have yet to introduce AIS to their yottie range, notably Standard Horizon...

[/ QUOTE ]The current generation of Standard Horizon plotters are AIS compatible - models such as the CP180, CP300, CP500, etc.
 
I'm not sure you'd be happy with the Nasa AIS Radar, it's very basic and has a poor display and quite unfriendly menu system. As examples, it will only show 24 AIS targets, it can't compute CPA/TCPA, it's not possible to select a target directly (you have to click through the whole list to get details on the one you want). In contrast, inputting AIS data to the CP180 plotter gives much more functionality. The CP180 will display 100 AIS targets, it computes CPA/TCPA, it shows the targets superimposed on the chart, and just placing the cursor on any target instantly gives you the data on that target. If you want better definition (and I'd agree that this is very important), the NorthStar 557 would be the cheapest option, and it will track 250 AIS targets.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I have managed to find a Navman 5507 in E-bay at a very good price /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I have also got the latest NASA AIS engine and a W22 C-Map chip from a dealer on e-bay.
Total spend so far is about £470.
I still need to get a new aerial and rail mount and may need an additional lead to link up the plotter and the engine.

I will be putting the Lowrance 3300 and the west Europe chart chip on e-bay soon.
That is unless I get a good offer before hand /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
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