snowleopard
Active member
Last time I asked, about 2 years ago, there seemed to be no legal source of usable UK charts for OpenCPN. Is that still the case?
OpenCPN charts - what's the latest situation?
- Thread starter snowleopard
- Start date
sailorman
Well-known member
GHA
Well-known member
Maybe some light at the end of the tunnel...
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/s-63-plug-in-for-opencpn-112672.html
prv
Well-known member
Looks like this is finally a solved problem: http://www.visitmyharbour.com/charts-for-opencpn.asp
£54 for complete set of Admiralty charts for the UK, current set dated July 2013 plus one free update in a year's time, subsequent updates £25. Licensed for navigation, specifically intended for use with OpenCPN.
Only possible downside is that it may be Windows-specific due to the copy-protection technology; not sure about that and they're generally reputed to be helpful people so if there's demand for Linux and the current approach is unusable it may be possible to work something out.
They don't appear to have charts for outside the UK yet, but their other offerings stretch from the Netherlands to Portugal so I'm sure this will come.
Pete
£54 for complete set of Admiralty charts for the UK, current set dated July 2013 plus one free update in a year's time, subsequent updates £25. Licensed for navigation, specifically intended for use with OpenCPN.
Only possible downside is that it may be Windows-specific due to the copy-protection technology; not sure about that and they're generally reputed to be helpful people so if there's demand for Linux and the current approach is unusable it may be possible to work something out.
They don't appear to have charts for outside the UK yet, but their other offerings stretch from the Netherlands to Portugal so I'm sure this will come.
Pete
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Fantasie 19
Well-known member
Cheers Pete - I knew the VMH guys were attempting to do this last year but they ran into copyright problems I think....
Compared to paper equivalents this is really good value, but is it me (and it may well be I'm a cheapskate.. my missus would probably agree..
) or is £25+ for the USB dongle with security a little over the top....??? My mate was showing me Navionics on his Android yesterday ... £20 download and includes the charts.....
toad_oftoadhall
New member
Cheers Pete - I knew the VMH guys were attempting to do this last year but they ran into copyright problems I think....
Compared to paper equivalents this is really good value, but is it me (and it may well be I'm a cheapskate.. my missus would probably agree..
£20 on a phone, more on a Tablet.
The VMH solution supports big screen sizes, so price looks good to me.
snowleopard
Active member
Interesting. I already have the same set from MemoryMap but they are in a proprietary format which won't work with anything other than their own very basic plotter. Still, at that price it's no great hardship to buy them again. Now what about the other side of the channel?
prv
Well-known member
I do wonder whether their "UK" charts also include the north coast of France - this seems to be normal in other products. I think it might, because in their Seaclear version they say that the Belgian coast charts merge seamlessly with the "UK" ones. Absent some fairly major tectonic activity, that only works if "UK" includes part of France.
You could always ask them (and perhaps suggest they add a coverage diagram to their site).
Pete
laika
Well-known member
Is Windows specific :-(. Linux users are SOL for most of the uk. Not sure if the antares charts might be an option: not being anywhere near the west coast of scotland I haven't investigated. No reasonably priced and legal options that I know of yet.
snowleopard
Active member
The description sounds very like the MemeoryMap charts and they do cover the whole of the channel but only at the largest scale and there is no detail of the French coast so only any use for crossing and once on the other side you need the paper charts.
st599
Well-known member
Only valid on a subset of Windows devices.
The New OpenCPN plugin will be valid for Windows, Mac and Linux. Only touble will be finding folios designed for leisure use at recreational prices.
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AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
And therefore useless on another project on the PBO forum to use a Raspberry Pi as a plotter. Someone has recently got OpenCPN running on a Pi - more power to their elbow!
st599
Well-known member
I never had any problems running OpenCPN on a Raspberry Pi, provided you compiled each library.
laika
Well-known member
agurney did a lot of work with opencpn on pi:
http://www.agurney.com/raspberry-pi/pi-chart
Can't say that I'm totally sold on the pi as a platform for anything graphics based but as Linux is what I run on my laptop I'd certainly be a customer for some affordable, legal and up to date Linux-friendly charts.
Has everyone forgotten about the pi group on this forum?
http://www.ybw.com/forums/group.php?groupid=75
jono_howlett
Member
Heres the RPi with openCPN.
The only drawback is that its a bit slow. Scrolling around the map at high definition is pretty
painful.
jono
BlueSkyNick
Active member
I am not sure i get this. I have OpenCPN working with the BSB4 charts which came with my MemoryMap/Maptech package. Are you talking about something else?
snowleopard
Active member
Probably. My package, bought a couple of years ago is from MemoryMap and has nothing to do with Maptech. The files are in .qct format.
Heckler
Active member
I bought Navionics for swmbo samsung android, which is basically linux! its brill, cheap, does everything including tides. I dont know why everybody is agonising about anything else!
Stu
Fantasie 19
Well-known member
Yup - said that just above... and only £20 on my mates phone.... was almost enough to make me give up my old brick and invest in a new phone...
