Laptop/Ipad chartplotter. Advice.

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oldgit

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Up until very recently been using a very ancient old Windows laptop with Visit my Harbour CD, as a back up nav system. Charts now well out of date.(2012)
Decided to up date with the very latest Navionics App( much lauded) on 10" IPAD with GPS.
Two week free trial...... not impressed. Quite frankly much preferred my old system.


With the old VMH system as the boat moves across the chart the screen is constantly refreshed
On the Navionics the boat simply vanishes of the display and you manually have to go and find it.

Is that how it functions or do I need to do something to make this app of any use.? Do not want a pile of fancy tidal junk or local user input, just some charts.

Can you purchase a VMY chartplotter app for my shiny new look at me IPAD..

Cheers for any comments.
from "Confused Technophobe" from Medway
 
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To make the boat stay put and the screen to scroll then have to tap the little Location arrow in the bottom left corner. This also enables Course Up or North Up mode. It works just fine once you work out how to use it!
 
MoodySabre said:
To make the boat stay put and the screen to scroll then have to tap the little Location arrow in the bottom left corner. This also enables Course Up or North Up mode. It works just fine once you work out how to use it!
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Aha.... finger trouble ...will give it a try.
 
Do persist, it is very good. Press the “Start” button central bottom of the screen when you set off, and then “Save” once at your destination so that you can then review your track as and when you like.
 
I would recommend moving away from raster chart CDs.
Hydrographic offices of developed countries (AUS, US, Denmark etc) have officially announced end of support for paper/raster charts. I bet UKHO will soon do the same.
 
Not sure if your iPad is a more modern one (ipad Air 2 or better) but if you have an older one that only runs iOS 9.something you should probably avoid Navionics' latest app.
they say they support it, but it really doesn't work for AIS display, and light characteristics on buoys are not available.

I have reverted to their older app, which I like a lot.

I would say, though, that it is more cumbersome than VMH charts if you want to quickly find detailed information about nav marks. With VMH (and presumably other raster chart viewers) you just zoom in. With Navionics you need to pop open all sorts of windows.
 
Totally agree with persisting with Navionics, IMO remarkable value for money for the £30 or so yearly sub given how expensive chartplotters and their associated map cartridges are and how convenient it is to be able to plan your routes wherever you like. Get used to zooming in to see more detail as & when necessary. For using it at night go into accessibility settings & there's one called (I think) reverse colours (or words to that effect), a tip from one of the sailing channels on Youtube...
 
Have used the little arrow thingy at bottom left, a couple of touches and it does track ...................until you want to zoom in or out, it then instantly reverts back to is former "not much use at all" non tracking mode, so you then have to once again push the arrow twice to get it to track again..until you zoom in or out..... :(
The VMH functioned the same as a chartplotter, Navionics app appears to have been devised by somebody who probably designs video arcade games for a living.
 
On my chart plotter, when I zoom in away from where the boat is (for example looking ahead on the route) I then have to tell the machine to “find ship” before the boat icon returns to centre screen. No different really to your having to tell the Navionics app to “put position cursor at centre screen” after moving away from it. Or am I missing something?
 
oldgit said:
Have used the little arrow thingy at bottom left, a couple of touches and it does track ...................until you want to zoom in or out, it then instantly reverts back to is former "not much use at all" non tracking mode, so you then have to once again push the arrow twice to get it to track again..until you zoom in or out..... :(
The VMH functioned the same as a chartplotter, Navionics app appears to have been devised by somebody who probably designs video arcade games for a living.
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Well it’s the job for me for a few thousand miles and half a dozen countries I wasn’t familiar with. It’s always seemed odd to me that those who want most chartplotter whistles and bells sail the same routes and harbours year after year.
 
My chartplotter works the same as Navionics, when you move by touching the screen it goes to curser mode, you then just switch it back to boat position. Not that hard, there must be thousands of Navionics app users, real advantage over VMH charts must be the updates being live
 
If you only want to see the chart and your boat's position on the chart, then use Navionics is great. No need to look at the tides and all the other facilities Navionics provides. Make sure you become very familiar with how to operate it in its basic form; it takes time but it will be rewarding.
Use the tablet or download Navionics on a smartphone and play with it at home.
 
The problem.
The vast majority of my boating is creeping around the labyrinthine bits of the Thames esturary and the muddy drying creeks of the North Kent coast. Going into Faversham or Conyer a good example.The ability to zoom in and out very fast/frequently without several other faffing operations is very useful.
The Seaclear system was very simple, one click you zoom in , another click you zoom out the boat remains exactly in the same place or your chart/display.
No other actions required, very handy when you have a metre of water under you and the next turn is either 30 secs away or 30mins waiting for the tide to float you off the mud.

The Navionics appears fine for folks who rarely need to alter the chart magnification and zoom in/out, certainly pointlessly over complicated when compared to both the Raymarine and Simrad plotters on my boat.
 
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oldgit said:
The problem.
The vast majority of my boating is creeping around the labyrinthine bits of the Thames esturary and the muddy drying creeks of the North Kent coast. Going into Faversham or Conyer a good example.The ability to zoom in and out very fast/frequently without several other faffing operations is very useful.
The Seaclear system was very simple, one click you zoom in , another click you zoom out the boat remains exactly in the same place or your chart/display.
No other actions required, very handy when you have a metre of water under you and the next turn is either 30 secs away or 30mins waiting for the tide to float you off the mud.

The Navionics appears fine for folks who rarely need to alter the chart magnification and zoom in/out, certainly pointlessly over complicated when compared to both the Raymarine and Simrad plotters on my boat.
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With respect, perhaps you have not sufficient familiarity with a touchscreen tablet running Navionics or MM. I find it simplicity itself to zoom in and out (though MM prefers the use of screen buttons to fingers) and once used to the manner of operation, do it almost incessantly while in close proximity to stuff to be avoided! I have no doubt that those who enjoy the ease of use of these programs do likewise. I hope that you will not be put off.
 
Your not alone with mud banks and creek following, were on the Humber with the challenges the mud and tides give us too. We have on some tides only a 30minute window to get out of our creek onto the river. Still suggest that it’s a problem for you as it’s new to you, if you persevere you will most likely find if works for you.

I find the pinching to zoom very intuitive as it’s the way all my IT stuff works.

We have the issue that half of our local area is not charted, only starts after the Humber bridge but we find local user edits slowly add to the base map as more people get out on the river at the start of the season, only using Navionics gives us this
 
Have contacted VMH to see if they do anything for the Ipad, if not will just have to get to grips with Nav app.
Thanks for all the input anyway, much appreciated. the forum is an unparrelled source of info.
OG.
 
Pye_End said:
Is OpenCPN + Visitmyharbour charts + tablet an option?
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That's what I have as a backup plotter. Pros: raster charts, nicely presented, which I like for passage planning and for a good view of the detail we're used to on paper. Cons: unless anyone can help me out, I can't see how to get a scale in view.
 
Nothing practical available from VMH to install on my Ipad.
Going to persevere with the Ipad/Navionics set up.
For those interested, the tablet is a refurbed Ipad 4 with the latest update which will go in this device and the app from Navionics.Total cost around £150.00.
The Ipad must have Cellular and Wi-fi.
Only extra expense was to buy a 2A usb cigar lighter from ebay. Run of the mill 1A cigar lighters will not charge the unit , with chartplotter running the tablet battery will go flat very quickly.
 
oldgit said:
The Ipad must have Cellular and Wi-fi.
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Not strictly true. I've used navionics on my (wifi only) iPad with a garmin glo bluetooth gps. They're about £80 (although I'm sure other bluetooth GNSS units can be had for less) which was less than the difference between the wifi only and the cellular iPads new (plus I can use the garmin with other devices) but obviously the economics are rather different for refurb units and doubtless you've made a sensible choice.
 
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