Magellan Explorist XL Charts On PC

[weaver_fish]

OKay, so I have a shiny new Explorist XL which came with an XL3 BlueNav chart, which I believe is based on Navionics but in a different format for the Magellan.

They want > £100 for software to plan routes and waypoints and a card reader for the SD Card.

I already have an SD card reader but anyway, the Magellan has a USB cable, so i can 'see' the files... is there any free/cheap software I can use on Windoze XP to access the charts on the SD card, view them on my PC and plan routes on my pc screen?

 

[BrickSailor]

I don't know about the Magellan, but I suspect the simple answer is "no". I have a Raymarine plotter that uses the Navionics charts, and after a year of looking I gave up and splashed out the 100 quid for the planner software.
Interestingly, even with the kosher software I have to use their reader to access the charts on the card. If I put the (CF for Raymarine) card in the built in reader on my PC the software refuses to load them, giving a message about being unable to find the security code. I also get the same message if I try to use the chart files copied to another card (so I can leave the original on board and sit at work planning my sailing /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)