Laptop navigation

[Daytripper]

I want to set up a navigation system I can use on a laptop, including a basic chartplotter and, crucially, AIS. I imagine I will need charts, chartreader, GPS, and GPS and AIS aereals. Does any one have experience of this type of system and where these products can be obtained? Is there a combined GPS and AIS system on the market that would be suitable?

 

[noss41]

laptop navigation

I have used C-Map Max charts on my laptop with absolute confidence over the past 8 years ; my AIS was fitted separately. The GPS is linked to the DSC radio, radar, and to the laptop so that my position is updated consistently. Yes you will need an ariel for both the GPS and the AIS. Both these instruments are linked by USB cables to the laptop. I have found the AIS absolutely invaluable whilst crossing the Channel especially in poor visibility. Giving the bearing from the boat can give one a good idea as to whether the large merchant vessel will pass in front or behind, or whether one needs to refer to plan B.

Laptops can be difficult to use in wet weather because of the difficulty in keeping the keboard dry. I have a hand plotter on deck to save going below when needing pilotage or being shorthanded.

 

[Lady Campanula]

There's a huge choice of laptops, most of which will do the job with capacity to spare. You might consider the convenience of a netbook, with a h/h GPS feeding position/course/speed/time data into your choice of mapping package. You might consider a 'hockey puck' GPS antenna ( seen at SBS ) but these seem as expensive as a full-on h/h device.

While I have Raymarine fixed stuff available, I also now carry - and take home - a Samsung NC140 with a Garmin GPSMAP76C, running the £30 Memory-Map charting package. I also have an inverter on board to give me the right flavour of 'wiggly amps' and recharge. Weather comes via a '3' dingle-dangle-dongle, from time to time. All USB.

AIS is connected to the Raymarine stuff, but could readily be connected to the Samsung netbook. There are enough ports.

That works, it's cheap and cheerful, and all carried in a freebie 'Motor Boats Monthly' navbag, courtesy of IPC Media at SBS.

Enjoi!

 

[Tranona]

I did this earlier this year. GPS comes from a £20 dongle from Maplin, a NASA AIS engine with Vitronix antenna, and Imray digital charts that include reasonable charting software and tides. £299 laptop from Tescos and a USB hub (I also have a NASA Navtex). Power from a 350w inverter. Very effective, but a bit of hassle to set it up when you are non-techy. Once up and running very easy to use.

 

[edsailing]

I use a netbook running OpenCPN (freeware and excellent) CM93 charts, a USB GPS dongle (or a garmin HH with interface cable) and a NASA AIS engine with a stubby aerial. Total cost approx £400.

 

[Amulet]

...I also have an inverter on board to give me the right flavour of 'wiggly amps' and recharge....

As Lady Campanula says, this is all easy and there are lots of solutions. I have Offshore Navigator and a Garmin GPS72 wired to it from the cockpit. Thinking of changing because OSN doesn't do AIS.

I'd caution against a cheap inverter solution for charging. Mostly they don't deliver a pure sine wave. For me that worked fine for two laptops, but knackered a third! However, I may have been unlucky.

I'd recommend something like this which, for me, also turned out to draw only about half the current that the inverter did.

 

[seapro]

The CSB200 Class B AIS Transponders has built in GPS but this requires the unit and antenna which in total comes to about £600.

Are you looking into an AIS transponder or just receiver?

 

[dmmbruce]

I did this earlier this year. GPS comes from a £20 dongle from Maplin, a NASA AIS engine with Vitronix antenna, and Imray digital charts that include reasonable charting software and tides. £299 laptop from Tescos and a USB hub (I also have a NASA Navtex). Power from a 350w inverter. Very effective, but a bit of hassle to set it up when you are non-techy. Once up and running very easy to use.

I have this set up too. Works well. Not got AIS bit yet but I will.

FWIW I suggest a decent laptop is worth it, with a good battery life, eg some Acer and some HP models. You also want better graphics, without going mad about it, than you get on the cheapest laptops/netbooks.

Also FWIW, I tried OpenCPN and found it problematic. Nice that it was free, but . . . The Imray stuff is cheap and good and updated frequently.

Mike

 

[LadyInBed]

I use a netbook running OpenCPN (freeware and excellent) CM93 charts.

I've also had CM93 for some time which I use at home.
I recently loaded http://opencpn.org/download and pointed it at CM93, it has totally rejuvenated CM93. OpenCPN looks to be a superb interface.

 

[asteven221]

I made up a system with Seapro Lite, which I think supports AIS. I got an ancient laptop and buried away (in a cool place) so it was protected from vibration etc....... then connected a nice big monitor and used a wireless keyboard and trackball. Worked a treat and never let me down. It was all powered from the boat batteries as invertors are not ideal. Having said that, if you must have 240v then that's the only option, but you can often dispense with the laptop power adapter and wire it straight into the 12v, assuming obviously it's a 12v laptop and monitor.

 

[Daytripper]

Many thanks to all of you for the helpful and informative replies - I think I'm starting to get my head round it now.

I've been bimblimg about using a hand-held GPS and paper charts for a long time and really I'm quite happy with this, but it has occured to me at times (particularly just North of Ushant in the fog) that some way of checking out what the tankers were doing might be nice. I can't afford radar so I thought AIS might be the next best thing, even though I know it is designed to do a different job. I don't think I need to transmit, just receive so that I can get out of the way or call them up.

I'll probably start with OpenCPN, since its free and then decide if I need to move on. What is the source for CM93 charts, and can you download them?

 

[Puggy]

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

 

[VicMallows]

and Imray digital charts that include reasonable charting software and tides.

Agree. Excellent value (especially when reduced to half price in the second year after publication!). Just a pity that the AIS software does not include CPA and TCPA.

Vic

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Globalstat BU-353 USB waterproof gps navigation receiver (one type of aerial) about £35

 

[VicMallows]

I have looked into this whole area - can I suggest you have a look at the Belfield Chart Plotter (http://www.belfieldsoftware.co.uk/)?

Yes, this offering also looks very interesting. Think this link might work better....

www.belfieldsoftware.co.uk/

Vic

 

[Amulet]

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/)? ....

Good luck!
Piers

Everything speaks in favour of Belfield - I thought it was my salvation.
Unfortunately it misses one thing which was a showstopper for me. You can't transfer routes to your handheld GPS. The method in my hands is to do all the work in the software and then send the route to a Garmin 72 in the cockpit. This gives the helm enough nav info without going below, and answers the criticism that computers are fragile aboard a boat. All you need to keep on route is in the handheld while you start up computer number two. I love the laptop as a chart plotter, but like the robustness of the GPS72 - I have three of them (there is a logical reason why, but I won't bore you).

 

[Trundlebug]

You can also have all the 800 charts of UK waters (incl all the detailed close ups) from MemoryMap - for only £40

I bought it primarily for passage planning but it can also be used with a GPS dongle from Maplins (as mentioned above) to plot real time position.

It doesn't have tidal streams etc but does have the ability to download all the waypoints. Fantastic value.

 

[Strathglass]

I want to set up a navigation system I can use on a laptop, including a basic chartplotter and, crucially, AIS. I imagine I will need charts, chartreader, GPS, and GPS and AIS aereals. Does any one have experience of this type of system and where these products can be obtained? Is there a combined GPS and AIS system on the market that would be suitable?

I have just put together a low cost plotter/laptop/gps.

The plotter software was the £40 memory map UK (800 + charts). The laptop was a £200 (ebay)Gateway 3108b. The gps was a £20 usb dongle from the Far East. I also had a Maplin 12volt universal power supply.

The setup worked instantly and we found it very easy to use.

The best thing since sliced bread - we thought.

The laptop was set up on the chart table where it could be seen when standing on the companionway. It was on the stbd side in line with the hatch.

We (self and SWMBO) then set off on a planned two week sail from the River Forth to Inverness and back which ended up taking a month.

The system worked very well until we were motor sailing (reefed main only) from Peterhead to Macduff around Ratrey Head (on Saturday 28th Aug). We were going into fairly heavy seas and had 30 knots directly on the nose but it was wind with tide so no white water. We did however take some water through the hatch before we moved the laptop to a more sheltered but not secured position.
Of course the laptop fell down and knocked the USB dongle out. But we soon had it up and running again. We got into Macduff without trouble.
That night in Macduff harbour I was up at 0300 pulling out the ancher line to use as additional bow mooring line. The spray was blowing over the harbout wall and it was blowing at 50 knots plus.
This was the first of four enforced stops to wait for weather windows. Next long stop (8 nights) was in Inverness then on the way back a couple of nights in Whitehills and finally another week at Peterhead.

Up till now the laptop/plotter was still working well.

That was until we left Arbroth (20th Sept) bound for Dalgety Bay

I won't go into the details of that part here (heavy weather, engine failure off Fife Ness, bang on head, tow to Anstruther in crossing seas, oxygen, medics, ambulance etc). I now know why I upped the cockpit drains from 38mm to 50mm.

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.

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

 

[ron dekker]

There is also a program called "seaclear" which is a free program. You scan you existing seamaps, cailbrate then and with a external GPS module, youre position is plotted on the map. Works perfectly! only cost is a external GPS module.

 

[seapro]

There is also a program called "seaclear" which is a free program. You scan you existing seamaps, cailbrate then and with a external GPS module, youre position is plotted on the map. Works perfectly! only cost is a external GPS module.

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.