Furuno Navnet and MaxSea

[Miles]

Does anyone have any experience of using MaxSea on a PC connected to a Furuno Navnet network. Two people have recently told me that this system now represents the best integration so far of PC based navigation with on board Radar/AIS/Speed/Depth/Wind etc.

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has taken this path and if so what the experience has been like.

 

[Guest]

Having looked at many GPS plotting chart packages etc. for PC ... as I run GPS Navigator Yahoo Group ... I can honestly say that if I was in the market to buy a Plotting program ... Maxsea would be at top of my list.

 

[Redmond]

I use maxsea on a pc with input from a noland multiplexir combining B&G output and Garmin GPS - works brilliantly with the odd crash due to problems with the serial to USB converter causing the pc to think its a mouse. Am led to beleive and Hope to solve this by fitting a new Noland Multiplexir with USB output. Main hang up with the package is maxsea poor aftersails service and lack of of interest in their customers. Their English is very good. To get help I had to ring their sales dept as their technical help option just said ring your dealer.
If using Cmap maxsea wont enable the tide vectors as they want to sell you theirs but wouldnt say this
If planning to run Cmap then a specific version of Maxsea must be specified as they arn't interchangable without maxsea intervention
red

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
I use maxsea on a pc with input from a noland multiplexir combining B&G output and Garmin GPS - works brilliantly with the odd crash due to problems with the serial to USB converter causing the pc to think its a mouse. Am led to beleive and Hope to solve this by fitting a new Noland Multiplexir with USB output. Main hang up with the package is maxsea poor aftersails service and lack of of interest in their customers. Their English is very good. To get help I had to ring their sales dept as their technical help option just said ring your dealer.
If using Cmap maxsea wont enable the tide vectors as they want to sell you theirs but wouldnt say this
If planning to run Cmap then a specific version of Maxsea must be specified as they arn't interchangable without maxsea intervention
red

[/ QUOTE ]

The Mouse / cable usb problem is Windoze detecting the connection and auto-install pointing device. Microsoft have a patch update online - but its near useless.

There are various ways to reduce its occurrence ... one is to let it install and then disable it in Device Manager - not always possible cause you have to try and get mouse to work without skitting all over the place !! Second is to not have it connected when you power up PC ... get PC settled - connect GPS then start plotting program - but make sure you always use same socket for the cable otherwise it will a) assign a new virtual com port, b) probably start the pointing device install again ....

There are 3rd party blocking patches available on the web I believe ... but adhering to above - I find that I have very little trouble from this now ....

 

[Oldhand]

Don't get this problem on good old Windoze 98SE with all NMEA data fed from a Raymarine Seatalk/NMEA/RS232 converter box via a USB/Serial Port adaptor into MaxSea.

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't get this problem on good old Windoze 98SE with all NMEA data fed from a Raymarine Seatalk/NMEA/RS232 converter box via a USB/Serial Port adaptor into MaxSea.

[/ QUOTE ]

a) you must be using an older version of Maxsea ? Possibly 10.1 or older ?
b) It is likely true that Windoze before XP is not so prone to this error ....

??

 

[Oldhand]

Yup, latest versions of Maxsea are stated as requiring WindozeXP. My boat PC is spec'd for minimum power consumption while sailing so MaxSea can be run for up to 24 hours without battery charge. Thus I have no intention of upgrading it for XP.