Laptop navigation

[Danny]

I would think carefully about scanning in charts and calibrating them. A - you need a big scanner, B - now many points are you putting on the chart?

Surely you want your charts to be as accurate as possible and I'm afraid I have never found this to be an accurate way of creating navigational charts.

If you are looking for a free program, seaPro free is also available. AIS and GPS positions can be viewed and free charts, such as US charts, can be used with the software.

Accurately scanned charts are possible even using an A4 scanner. You just need a lot of patience and a good graphics package. There are a couple of advantages: your chart plotter screen looks exactly similar to your paper charts and you can update the charts using a graphics editor.

I've used scanned charts successfully with Seaclear and OziExplorer. It's an easy matter to check the calibration against the paper charts at various points to confirm accuracy.

 

[dmmbruce]

A further mention of Imray, and perhaps others, and their updating may be in order.

I'm sure scanning in paper charts will work. I'm sure using USA based charts will work. I'm sure using old chart cartridges etc off eBay etc will work. But . . . .

I had a nasty shock, again, this year when I was going somewhere that I did not know, in conditions that were not perfect and the buoys and lights did not match what I had on the 1 year old Admiralty SS version chart.

An urgent re-boot of lap, and check on the Imray version. Remembered to look at the corrections symbols too. The recent chart was more accurate than the official paper one. Also, there were two corrections for moved buoys and changed lights.

It was easy then!

I was very glad of the updates!

Mike

 

[VicMallows]

There is also a program called "seaclear" which is a free program.

I'm a great fan of Seaclear. It's just a pity that there is no easy way of importing the charts from IMRAY (though I understand it can be done) or Memory-Map. The Americans have it made since all their charts are freely available to download, unlike ours which are of course copyright.

You might be interested in checking out the Yahoo group SEACLEAR_MAPPING

Vic

 

[Joker]

I've just been trying out the Imray charts with AIS in a rather foggy Solent, and to my astonishment it did not give CPA or time to CPA. Frankly, I think this is inexcusable - it's one of the main points of AIS. (Not impressed with the Imray offering at all.)

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Hello Daytripper,

I have looked into this whole area - can I suggest you have a look at the Belfield Chart Plotter (http://www.belfieldsoftware.co.uk/)? I have tried a few of these packages and found them either unreliable, expensive or awkward to use (especially on a rolling boat
when you are slightly panicked!). I find the Belfield software is dead easy to use, not too complicated, interfaces with a GPS (i use a cheapo USB GPS from ebay!), and will also accept an AIS input (I have not tried this feature). The real bonus is that for the £70 or so it costs to buy, you get all the UKHO charts for the British Isles and French coasts, and tidal info including arrows to show the tidal flow at a specified time. I am nothing to do with Belfield, but have a look: very easy and great value.

Good luck!
Piers

well pierscovill..... o'ive just ordered me Belfield stuff and if it aint no good o'ill hav e!

 

[Daytripper]

Sorry, having a dumb moment here. CPA?

 

[VicMallows]

I've just been trying out the Imray charts with AIS in a rather foggy Solent, and to my astonishment it did not give CPA or time to CPA. Frankly, I think this is inexcusable - it's one of the main points of AIS. (Not impressed with the Imray offering at all.)

Exactly. Otherwise IMRAY would be excellent. Although interesting ,within the Solent CPA /TCPA are not really my priority (eyeball the name of the game).

On cross-channel though I certainly want CPA/TCPA and therefore use Seaclear, even if it means using a poorly home scanned small scale chart.

CPA= closest point of approach.
TCPA= time to closest point of approach.

Vic

 

[Daytripper]

Thanks. I can see why that's important.

 

[fishermantwo]

The laptop almost got drowned.

We did however have full paper charts with us and plotted our position on them as we progressed.

The laptop still works (using it just now) but it sometimes switches off at random times.

I do not think a standard laptop is waterproof enough for my uses.



Iain

I am amazed that you can keep paper charts dry but not a laptop!

I have been using Seaclear for 10 years or so with digital admiralty charts of the East Coast of Australia. Exactly the same as the paper charts with out all the pitfalls of paper.

 

[Playtime]

I've just been trying out the Imray charts with AIS in a rather foggy Solent, and to my astonishment it did not give CPA or time to CPA. Frankly, I think this is inexcusable - it's one of the main points of AIS. (Not impressed with the Imray offering at all.)

Agreed.

The best (and cheapest - it's free) package for displaying AIS info on a laptop that I have found is OpenCPN. I have tried several different approaches to displaying AIS and now favour keeping the AIS and navigation windows separate (but running on the same laptop).

I run Maptech for navigation, with route displayed (and uploaded to the GPS) etc, and in parallel run OpenCPN for AIS, with most chart detail removed from the 'free' CM93 charts. The AIS targets are then very clearly displayed on the outline chart and not 'hidden' in the chart detail as happens with navigation packages. The latest OpenCPN (2.1.0) also gives a very good graphical representation as well as numeric data on CPA/TCPA.

I still prefer Admiralty raster charts above all others for navigation - hence my loyalty to Maptech for the last 10 years! I dislike vector charts for navigation but they are fine for overlaying AIS data.

 

[boatmike]

laptops as nav tools

I agree with the general drift here but think not enough has been said about the limitations of laptops.
I actually have both. I find the laptop great for planning and calculation of such things as best time of departure, course to steer to allow for tidal flow etc. I then however transfer waypoints to a totally waterproof, robust chartplotter at the helm station which has AIS interface and is used en-route. Constantly going below to answer alarms etc does not work for me and I have both radar and chartplotter at the wheel. If I was on a limited budget I would dispense with the PC and get a chartplotter. I do appreciate that you may well have the PC already but don't take it in the cockpit and screw it down if you are using it underway!

 

[fireball]

Ah - well - there are new and better ways of accessing your PC from the cockpit ...

I can do this via an iPhone (android can probably do it as well) or (if I had one) an iPad ...

I must admit cheapskate route - it's just VNC (a remote desktop viewer program) and WiFi network ... but it means I can leave the laptop on down below in the dry and still access it's screen via my phone - which is in a waterproof case.
I couldn't navigate by it though - it's too small and would drain the battery too quickly ...
Didn't bother with the laptop on the last x-channel - as I already have 2 graphic plotters and a yeoman ... didn't think I'd be getting lost!

 

[Amulet]

I agree with the general drift here but think not enough has been said about the limitations of laptops.
I actually have both. I find the laptop great for planning and calculation of such things as best time of departure, course to steer to allow for tidal flow etc. I then however transfer waypoints to a totally waterproof, robust chartplotter at the helm station which has AIS interface and is used en-route. Constantly going below to answer alarms etc does not work for me and I have both radar and chartplotter at the wheel. If I was on a limited budget I would dispense with the PC and get a chartplotter. I do appreciate that you may well have the PC already but don't take it in the cockpit and screw it down if you are using it underway!

My budget doesn't run to the setup you have, but I just use a Garmin GPS72 in the cockpit, with the lappy warm and cosy below. I have wired a socket in the cockpit to connect the 72 to the lappy and simply tranfer my routes etc from the computer to the handheld, which is mounted where the helm can see it. Provided I can do all the planning on the computer I can get the functionality I need at the helm from the 72. It allows you to display in big writing for poor eyes and gives backlight for at night. Normally I have it on the arrow telling the helm where to point, but if we are in a constrained channel I set it to display the cross-track error, telling the helm how far she is off to left or right. Works great for a hundred quid. It also means that if you do spill your beer on the computer your hand-held still has the day's route in it.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

I have a small Standard Horizon CP175 plotter. A superb piece of kit that does tides & AIS and it's been on the boat for 4 years now. With a 12v supply bought from Maplins I have used it for passage planning at home but it's not ideal for that and the transporting and setting up became a pain..
I've recently bought a Samsung Netbook and the Globalstat BU-353 USB 'aerial' and I hope to use the Belfield programme as a back-up plotter and to assist in passage planning from home.
The Samsung has fairly low battery consumption but the most expected from one battery charge is 6hrs. I do have the 12v cable for it and so it can be used and charged on the boat and if I can make it secure, easily useable and free from the salt, then it will do as a back-up and spare onboard.

 

[Daytripper]

Ed,

It took a fair bit of faffing about (7-ZIP et cetera), but I've got it now. Open CPN seems to work well and the charts are fine. Its certainly extremely useful as a starter kit, next thing is to see how it works with GPS and AIS attached. Many thanks for taking the time to show me.

Daytripper

 

[supra30]

OpenCPN plus what

If you are using Windows as your OS, there are a couple of other components that are worth considering to go along with OpenCPN.

First up, for AIS, OpenCPN has a very poor target list and no 'radar range' style mode with head-up your ship at the centre. The best way to address this is to run NavMonPC, another freeware program (sadly for Windows only, no Linux or Mac version).

Secondly, if you are running using NMEA or GPS input that is fed in via a USB port directly, or through a serial to USB converter then it's probably worth installing XPort as well. This will manage your COM port numbers and ensure devices don't move around when your Lappie goes into sleep mode, or you plug other bits and pieces in. It also allows multiple programs to listen in on one GPS or NMEA data feed, so you can run OpenCPN and NavMonPC at the same time.

To find NavMonPC or XPort, google...

Regards,

Mike

 

[Amulet]

Everything speaks in favour of Belfield].........

Now have invested in the Belfield software.

It is appealingly simple and has, to me, a pretty intuitive user interface. I don't think anyone will have trouble trying to learn their way around it. It's also pretty easy to get data in and out to other programs. It is a much more coherent piece of engineering than Offshore Navigator which is my current tool of choice.

Having said all that, it's functionality is pathetic by comparison. I'd particularly hoped that Belfield, with their background in tidal info' would really show strength in that area. Their chart plotter has no integration with the tide plotter, and the tidal information on the chart plotter is dismal beyond belief. If you live in coastal waters like my East Coast stamping ground, you'll find that some coastal tidal diamonds are simple not deemed important enough for inclusion. As far as I can see, you can't look ahead for tidal info', you can look at what the tide is doing now, but not what it will be doing on Saturday when you will be sailing. One out of ten for tidal info in the chart plotter.

I bought the plotter despite my initial rejection because it doesn't allow data transfer with my Garmin hand held - a capabilty I use routinely in Offshore Navigator.

I honestly wanted to like this.

If you spend most of your time offshore, with little concern for inshore tides, this may be your solution. It's not mine.

At £95 for the UK OSN is serious contender.

The big downside no AIS in OSN, and I have the impression that development has stalled.

Someone rescue me with all the tidal capability of OSN and AIS processing - for under £100 with the UK charts.

 

[LittleShip]

I do not think a standard laptop is waterproof enough for my uses.

I like the plotter software and am now looking at what I can replace the laptop with.
Perhaps it will be a netbook or something else with a more waterproof display.

I may even just have to get a chart plotter.

Just my words of caution on using a laptop on board.

Iain

I agree......

This is the only answer to the Laptop problems on board.

http://www.premiergent.co.uk/pages/notebooks/PanasonicToughbooks.asp
or here...

http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk/scpages/panasonictoughbooklaptopcf27.html

Tom

 

[Playtime]

The big downside no AIS in OSN, and I have the impression that development has stalled.

Someone rescue me with all the tidal capability of OSN and AIS processing - for under £100 with the UK charts.

See my previous post (#30).

For zero additional cost get OpenCPN and the CM93 charts for AIS and continue to use OSN for Nav and tides. This keeps AIS separate from your Nav programme and, for me at least, is the 'optimum' solution (until something better comes along).

You will probably need a GPS 'splitter' programme to share your GPS between OSN and OpenCPN but this is also free (XPORT).

 

[SurferShane]

I agree with the general drift here but think not enough has been said about the limitations of laptops.
I actually have both. I find the laptop great for planning and calculation of such things as best time of departure, course to steer to allow for tidal flow etc. I then however transfer waypoints to a totally waterproof, robust chartplotter at the helm station which has AIS interface and is used en-route.

I do similar, but just upload to a handheld GPS. It has been interesting to read this thread and discover that AIS is compatible with laptops, as this is something I would use bellow decks.

One real limitation I find with digital charts is that you really have to zoom in to get the detail on most maps. This can be a real worry if you have not zoomed far enough in to notice a reef between you and the destination. It actually happened to me once and I was so glad I have a steel boat!

Similarly I find you can often be trying to land the mouse pointer on things that look like potential hazards and instead little messages will pop up telling you about marine park zoning or other irrelevancies. Bigger laptop screens are a lot more helpful than the tiny one on the GPS. Nevertheless, it obviously pays to be careful and cross-reference using paper charts?