Laptop uses?

If anyone gives details the mods will immediately delete it and the perp sin-binned, because they are illegal pirated copies.

I bought a replacement stern light for my boat a few years ago & it seemed like a direct copy of the old one made by a Chinese Company, the only difference being that they had made the holes too bloody small to get the wires to go into. :disgust:
It is a great pity that the mods can't do anything about that!
 
What I would like is some free ones of the Solent say as I'm fairly familiar with it so that I can evaluate the whole concept.

I've not done it and don't know anyone who has, but if you have access to an appropriate scanner *I believe* you can scan your paper charts for use with OpenCPN:
http://opencpn.org/ocpn/book/export/html/44

Whether that technically violates copyright if you're doing it with your own charts you've paid good money for for your own personal use I don't know but I don't think many would be morally outraged.
 
I've not done it and don't know anyone who has, but if you have access to an appropriate scanner *I believe* you can scan your paper charts for use with OpenCPN:
http://opencpn.org/ocpn/book/export/html/44

Whether that technically violates copyright if you're doing it with your own charts you've paid good money for for your own personal use I don't know but I don't think many would be morally outraged.

I have a scanner that can scan A3 I think A4 documents but there is no way I could scan anything like the size of my rag tag collection of charts. I checked out your link & it looks very complicated. An interesting concept if you had say a small treasure map you wanted to scan.
 
No, it won't. You have paid for the information.

OK I have got what I think is called a small chart portfolio of the Solent & surrounding waters so if you can actually scan them (because you have already paid for them) How about (& this dos'nt sound unreasonable to me) if you were able to access their website & get charts for a chart plotter in that way?
I shall look up the details of my portfolio & see if they have got a website when I am down my boat later today but I think it's a very well known portfolio so I should think it's very unlikely that they would'nt have :encouragement:

Of course even then you'd have to prove that you bought a legitimate copy I suppose which would mean a receipt going back about ten years in my case :(
 
Update: Did'nt go down my boat yesterday because it was raining & the work I had to do was outside but remembered my small chart portfolio was by Standford. Do thy do chart plotting software./charts? Anyway that avenue might be covered by a kind benefactor :encouragement:

Next stop see if my etrex picks up a signal from inside the cabin this afternoon & if not buy one of those on a long lead mentioned here for outside work. Have seen some for fifteen quid :)

Am toying with the idea of buying one of those internet radio things for the Radio + AIS but the setup procedure looks very complicated & it would probably drive me nuts.......looking forward to GHA's report.......mind blowing stuff :D
 
Stanfords was bought by imray a long, long time ago, so I expect your charts show distances in leagues and depths only measurable by lead lines! The Imray software and chart portfolios I mentioned earlier are the 21st century equivalents.
 
Stanfords was bought by imray a long, long time ago, so I expect your charts show distances in leagues and depths only measurable by lead lines! The Imray software and chart portfolios I mentioned earlier are the 21st century equivalents.

You have touched on a sore point there. I only really go sailing to get away from the 21st Century & probably live most of my life in the past.Certainly I find our nautical ancestors the most inspiring so In that regard I suppose I am a romantic.Time machine anyone?
 
You have touched on a sore point there. I only really go sailing to get away from the 21st Century & probably live most of my life in the past.Certainly I find our nautical ancestors the most inspiring so In that regard I suppose I am a romantic.Time machine anyone?

Ditch the lap top, pack the ships biscuits and lemons to guard against scurvy and off you go.
 
You have touched on a sore point there. I only really go sailing to get away from the 21st Century & probably live most of my life in the past.Certainly I find our nautical ancestors the most inspiring so In that regard I suppose I am a romantic.Time machine anyone?

You're allowed to do both :)

Something like opencpn on a laptop is a great way to play around with passage plans at home without having to haul piles of charts around even if you don't turn it on onboard.
 
No, it won't. You have paid for the information.

Are you sure about that? Whilst it would seem logical, it is still technically illegal to rip your own CDs for personal use on your iPod. I *thought* they'd done away with that years ago but nope, apparently still the case:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/21/govt_messed_up_home_taping_exception_so_badly_it_needs_to_start_again/

That's not to say that charts are covered by the same rules as music but the principle is surely the same.
 
Are you sure about that? Whilst it would seem logical, it is still technically illegal to rip your own CDs for personal use on your iPod. I *thought* they'd done away with that years ago but nope, apparently still the case:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/21/govt_messed_up_home_taping_exception_so_badly_it_needs_to_start_again/

That's not to say that charts are covered by the same rules as music but the principle is surely the same.

Just spoken to UKHO. Leisure users are allowed to make an electronic copy of a paper chart for your own personal use, including in navigation software. However, being a typical civil service beuracracy, you have to obtain a license from them to do it legally, which is free if you have paid for the paper chart. And then you have to renew it every year!

http://www.ukho.gov.uk/copyright/onlineapplication.aspx
 
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Is Open CPN a free chart plotting package with charts attached,at least for the Solent/South coast so that I can evaluate it?
I have discovered an input type place at the top back of the etrex so a data cable would be convenient if I can find one on ebay but what's that RS232/USB converter thing? It sounds a bit complicated.

OpenCPN is a very good, free chart plotter, BUT the UK government (unlike the US and many other countries) don't give the chart data away for free. Visit My Harbour will sell you a stick for low cost with all the UK on it.
 
Thanks st599. I have get GE plugin successfully installed in OpenCPN, Everytime I click 'GE' icon, OpenCPN crashed. Anybody have this problem before? OpenCPN is V4.0, which is the latest one.
 
Update: I managed to load Lubuntu onto the laptop & it seems to run faster than my home pc so now the worlds my oyster, maybe..........

Anybody know if this thing can be run on Linux https://www.amazon.co.uk/Foxnovo®-R...refRID=0BPQPWE7GXNE9SQWZPF7&ref_=pd_sim_23_24
GHA you said you were going to try it out? It sounds like it might be fun to play around with + the CPN software & associated free charts if I ever manage to get my hands on them.
 
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