Colour or monochrome

[gerryl]

Thinking of purchasing some kind of chartplotter. Is there really much advantage to having a colour display or does it just look pretty?

 

[BAtoo]

I have a raytheon 70CRC & 80CRC- both colour both very good. IMHO get the biggest you can afford/fit, the difference between the two screen sizes makes the 80 very easy to use; the 70 is a bit of a squint to see.

 

[boatmike]

Many features of the charts, especially C.Map are only easily visible in colour. Some features such as lights that actually flash in correct sequence and colour are only available on advanced charts though and you need a good plotter to make the most of them. Also the newer colour plotters are much more visible in bright sunlight. Worth the extra in my opinion.

 

[BrendanS]

In the same way that a coloured paper chart is much easier to read than a greyscale one, colour plotters are easier to read

 

[duncan]

good colour units with well matched chart software are 'just like the real thing' bad ones with poor software (rare to find both on a new unit nowadays) are worse than b&w because you loose the contour lines even in shallow water. ie you get green bits as land and blue (dark) bits as water (sometimes!).

Screen size is relative to your needs and where it's going to be mounted etc - I have 8, 7 and 5" screens at the helm and the latter is now the main plotter used. However at 480x480 pixels 256 colour and a chart using this well it is far better than the high definition 8" B&W or the 7" medium definition but 8 colour (seems like 2) units - i have even moved them around to have this centrally as it's so much clearer.

If I could afford a 10" unit with the same definition (which I don't think they actually make (1200x768 @10" diagonal)) I would jump at it, and in fairness even 800x600 would be good enough.
But then there the space needed.........

Hope this helps and highlights the issues you need to consider. It is well worth looking at models working - ask other similar boats what they are using and ask them to show you.

 

[sailorman]

both the 70 & 80 have the same pixel count so no more detail just bigger.
i have had the RC 70+ radar/plotter for some 4 seasons, a somewhat "Blinkered" view as compared with paper charts but one gets used to it.
colour is much better for the plotter

 

[cookjwm]

I've got an old b and W Navman 900 and a NEW! Navman 5605(after 5 months waiting) ....guess which I prefer! get colour

 

[Frontier]

I have just replaced my mono for a big colour, absolutely no question in my mind. It's so much easier to see. They are even telling the truth, they are sunlight viewable! /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Get the biggest screen you can afford.
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[steverow]

Assuming you've already got a GPS, have you thought about going down the laptop route...advantages are that you get a much bigger screen area much more detail, and loads more functionality.
Good software is getting cheaper all the time with even some free or nearly free offerings that do mostly everything including AIS.
If you've already got a laptop it's cheap, but even if you havent, buying a laptop (about 450 new or a lot less for a S/H unit off ebay) will still leave you loads of change from the cost of a large screen colour plotter from Raymarine or similar.

Steve.

 

[duncan]

Agreing the aditonal srcreen sze what additional functionality do you snticipate Steve?

 

[steverow]

Depends on what he buys Duncan,
Latest Maptech Chart Navigator Pro edition for example has:
AIS
MARPA
Guide Book (gazeteer Almanac with entry sailing directions for nearly every port.
Virtual instruments..everything from an AIS Plotter to RPM Guages and Pitch and Roll, rate of turn, rudder angle, depth graphs, etc etc...
Tides
Currents
Weather Overlays (pressure/wind/temp/wave height)
Route obstacle warnings voice alerts and loads loads more.


Yes I know most of this is already available on Top end Raymarine products
but not at £200 it's not.
Ive just bought it...and a fabulous bit of kit is is too. I'm pretty clued up on plotters normally, but Ive been playing with it for five days now and I'm still finding new things I didnt know it did.
I'm not knocking Fixed plotters in any way...but there is another way to go if one feels confident in doing so.

Steve.

 

[duncan]

agreed

but

AIS MARPA assume radar

TIDES and CURRENTS increasingly a standard on screen plotter

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS increasingly a BUS function of the plotter ie Lowrance with Bennett tabs deliveing over NMEA 200 BUS to screen

ALERTS and ALARMS already a function of plotters if you set them up!

350

understand where you are ocoming from but, and I think we are agreeing, these are not he buying factors currently!

 

[ShipsWoofy]

As much as I like the idea of laptop navigation, it is in my opinion a none starter for most sailing type boats. I see no point in having the plotter at the chart table, you immediately lose 80% of the usefulness of a moving map plotter.

For a yacht I would always advise one of the many stand alone (internal aerial) plotters. This means you can take them to wherever you are, helm, chart table, saloon table, your cabin if you are nervous at anchor.

The main advantage of the stand-alone units it that they are waterproof, very low power drain (about 1/6 of a laptop and gps), smaller by far (advantage and disadvantage all in one).

I have a few trial versions of plotter software on my laptop and can see the advantage of a larger scale chart, but at the same time do not feel cheated by my 6.5" colour screen on my plotter which is what I use on board.

Colour or B&W? It does not matter in truth, unless you want the photographs that some of the charts offer of harbours, but as these double the cost of the chart I don't think I will ever go this way personally, it won't be many years (IMHO) that we will be able to get high speed internet from anywhere on globe at a reasonable cost. When this happens I see us booking in with the HM and receiving directions, photographs and chartlets by return from the HM.

I have had both b&w and colour plotters, the colour does look pretty, like a paper chart, but, it tells me no new information at all and uses more power, my older b&w plotter used about half the milliamperes that the new colour one does.

Before you choose a plotter, you need to choose a chart system, C-map, navionics and so on. Sailing Today did a massive article a few months back giving a really good idea of which systems do what.

I still have it, I could post you the mag for a pack of fags by return /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif


EDIT>> The posting offer is to GerryL, as well as part of the answers I made, just happened to tag the post to Steve's ditties..