Pinnacle
Well-Known Member
All very interesting. I assume most peeps use this on a laptop/notebook/I-Pad while on board?
Where do the charts themselves come from?
All very interesting. I assume most peeps use this on a laptop/notebook/I-Pad while on board?
Where do the charts themselves come from?
FullCircle
Well-Known Member
You can buy the C-Map CM93 v3 range of charts actually in quite small areas. Just register with Jeppesen.con, and choose the chart area you are interested in.
Alternatively a little googling #may# produce some results showing links to uploaded sources.
Infact, you can also scan your own paper charts and upload those too with freeware readily available. There are several formats it will read.
Interestingly there is a plugin which allows Google Earth to be used. Way to go.
I use mine on my Samsung Netbook, and it runs fine. I also have my Comar AIS unit plugged into it too.
fireball
Well-Known Member
Laptop/Notebook - but not tablet devices (yet?).
I have it on a Macbook pro and an Acer netbook - but unlikely to use it underway as I've got 2 chartplotters on deck!
Still - it makes for interesting planning ...
When we get to replace the Radar/plotter on the binacle then OpenCPN _may_ be an option ...
Robin
Well-Known Member
OpenCPN is a completely FREE chart plotting program developed by boaters who had IT skills and updated regularly to incorporate new ideas from users. You can use it with raster (paper style) charts or vector (C-Map style) charts or you can even scan or make your own charts in I think if you are more savvy than me.
Charts can be obtained at a cost or free in some instances for some areas. For instance ALL USA charts both raster and vector can be downloaded completely free of charge from Uncle Sam (NOAA site) and updating consists of downloading a complete new chart as it is easier than messing with amendments, updates are issued weekly.
C-Map charts are in 2 versions, CM93/2 which is freely available online if you know where to look. This is a worldwide set of charts dated from Jan 2010. The charts are as used by big ships and are as reported by another poster missing some detail of no interest to them, like drying heights for example, otherwise they are excellent and go down to large scale harbour charts. CM93/3 has newer encryption and doesn't run on OpenCPN yet although I would guess some hacker somewhere will find a workaround sometime.
If you find the CM93/2 sources the file size is ginormous. The normal way to download it is using a 'torrent' downloader program like BitTorrent (free to download) and even then look at a couple of hours maybe, overnight is a good idea. The files will be in .rar format which needs unzipping and Winzip doesn't do it, but IZarc (free to download) does. You then point OpenCPN to the directory the files are in and Bob is your Ant's husband.
CM93/2 charts were pirated I believe but as they are now superseded some might consider it OK to use them, others don't and I'm not taking sides at all.
In my case we will be doing all our cruising in USA waters so thanks to Uncle Sam we have all the USA charts completely free and legally. If we want paper copies these are charged for or we can print our own off OpenCPN.
OpenCPN has all the usual features and includes AIS.
Why not download it and see?
Pinnacle
Well-Known Member
I think I already have all the Jeppesen chart info I need - its on a SD-like card and is sitting in a slot in the Raymarine Plotter on board.
Do I need to purchase the same info again to use on a I-Pad/Notebook?
electrosys
Well-Known Member
A great pity OpenCPN chose not to continue supporting Win98 in later versions as this decision excludes those who use old laptops onboard as 'disposable' computers.
I've tried using later versions of OpenCPN under KernelEx, but they proved unstable - so will stay with SeaClear/CMAPECS/Tsunami/MaxSea - so it's not as if there's a problem with choice !
I've tried using later versions of OpenCPN under KernelEx, but they proved unstable - so will stay with SeaClear/CMAPECS/Tsunami/MaxSea - so it's not as if there's a problem with choice !
FullCircle
Well-Known Member
I have the C-Map card reader with Max and NT+ charts(the Orange one)but I cant get OpenCPN to read the files.
There is no need to buy them if you want to download and have a play with it.
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
But those same "disposable" lap-tops are perfectly capable of running a free Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, which will give them a much improved operating system and greatly increased performance and reliability - certainly no "Blue Screen of Death" that is such a feature of that generation of Windows!
OpenCPN is compatible with Linux, so no problem whatsoever. And if you need office applications, then OpenOffice is far better than anything that will run under Windows 98.
ParaHandy
Well-Known Member
electrosys
Well-Known Member
Never yet seen the BSoD, never had a system crash. Remove IE with Win98lite and the system becomes rock-solid. '98 has been perfectly adequate for numerous commercial navigation programs in the past - navigation not being too demanding on processing power.
RichardS
N/A
I like the integration with Google Earth. I have the chart on most of the screen and the satellite view in a window both showing the same view and even panning and zooming in and out together.
Needs an internet connection to work properly I guess because Google Earth can only cache so much information but it's fun to play with!
Richard
Needs an internet connection to work properly I guess because Google Earth can only cache so much information but it's fun to play with!
Richard
truscott
Well-Known Member
I seem to recall that the GE Plugin only works with Windows at the moment though.
Love to hear otherwise.
PT.
Love to hear otherwise.
PT.
Hoolie
Well-Known Member
True - as does the BSB4 plugin.
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
Not the rar files, but many moons back when Stingo pointed me at CMapECS and my laptop was running Win95! The help file had this info:
CMAP/2 regions (They should be the same for CMAP4)
1. Coasts of Western Europe.
2. Mediterranean Sea.
3. Coasts of Western and Southern Africa.
4. Arctic coasts of Europe and Asia, Sea of Okhostsk and Kamchatka.
5. Western Indian Ocean, Suez Channel, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea,
India and Sri Lanka.
6. Coasts of China, Korea and Japan.
7. Indonesia, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and Oceania.
8. Coasts of North and Central America, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.
9. South American coast.
How to figure out what a directory or file represents?
Easy. Notice that the primary folders are numerical like this 03900900.
To understand what content is in the folder we must break it down into two sections.
The first 3 numbers represent Latitude:
Code:
003=80S-60S 009=60S-40S 015=40S-20S 021=20S-Equator 027=Equator-20N
033=20N-40N 039=40N-60N 045=60N-80N
The last four digits represent longitude. Read from left to right.
0000=0E 0060=20E 0120=40E 0180=60E 0240=80E
0300=100E 0360=120E 0420=140E 0480=160E 0540=180E or W
0600=160W 0660=140W 0720=120W 0780=100W 0840=80W
0900=60W 0960=40W 1020=20WHere's what they contain
Code:
A, World scale ranging from 1: 3,500,000 to 1: 1,500,000
B, General nautical scale ranging from 1: 1,500,000 to 1: 500,000
C, Coastal scale ranging from 1: 500,000 to 1: 150,000
D, Intermediate coastal / approach scale ranging from 1: 150,000 to 1: 50,000
E, Approach scale ranging from 1: 50,000 to 1: 15,000
F, Harbour scale ranging from 1: 15,000 to 1: 5,000
G, Plan scale, larger than 1: 5,000ParaHandy
Well-Known Member
If Navionics can port their stuff over to IPAD then so can any other so long as Mr Jobs gets his 30%? .... the OpenCPN is not as good as MaxSea using exactly the same CM93 charts. Its not just how the chart info is displayed but more the way the data is manipulated .. erm .. harrumph ...
Some of the 2002-4 CM93 charts around Norther Ireland, Mulroy to Fanny's Bay, would show your position about 50-100 ft to the West of its true position; could be embarassing ... The current lot are OK with respect to that error.
ParaHandy
Well-Known Member
Surely the first 4 numbers? eg 03901020 represents 40N 20W which is the SW corner of a box 40x40 degrees with therefore the NE corner being 80N 20E.
The latitude mathematics are -90+NNNN/3 where NNNN are the first 4 digits and longitude is -360+BBBB/4 where BBBB are the last 4 digits. eg 03901020 0390 = -90+390/3 = 40N & 1020 = -360+1020/3 = -20 or 20W
johnsail
Well-Known Member
Yes please Stingo.
John Clark
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
You are probably right,
but using the info from the help file found me round the data ok.
Other threads that may be of interest
