PC on board

[anabel]

Anyone out there with information/advice on using electronic charts with a PC? Am completely new to this but have been given a laptop which I'd like to use on the boat. Wish to use the Admitralty ARCS Skipper folio of charts. How does the system operate? Do you need some seperate software as well as the CD with the folio of charts? At present I have Furuno GPS wich is connected to a repeater in the cockpit. Is it the same pair of wires that goes to the PC? Will it be possible to have repeater and PC connected at the same time? Can one get ready made-up connecting cables with appropriate plugs? As I said, I really don't know very much about the subject but would like to learn. Would appreciate any bits of advice/info.
Tks.
E.

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[Talbot]

Admiralty ARCS is very much an entry level system. The chart CD should have the plotting software with it, but be warned. ARCS is only valid for a year, and will then need to be replaced.
There should be no problem in running GPS simultaneously to the repeater and to the laptop
Ready made cables are available (at a price), however you need to check first that laptop has a series socket. If not, it is possible to get a usb/series converter cable, but they dont all work. Personnally I have bought a stand alone GPS USB mouse from Ebay (abt £30 +p&p) which does the job very well (both in car and in boat)
Power for the beast is best supplied via a dc/dc converter, rather than use an inverter (much less power used this way) and these are available on ebay and via maplins.

Once you are used to this, you should then consider buying an HF receiver and connecting this to the laptop to download weather charts.

I have this as a backup, but prefer to run a proper plotter adjacent to the helm position

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[roger]

The UKHO SW England pack does what it says on the tin. It is a collection of separate charts just like the paper ones - very clear and familiar. The nav system with your GPS if you can make it work will show your position on th echart you are using. There is no seamless transfer from one chart to another as with standalone plotters. We have had another discussion here about connecting USB/serial. It doesnt seem to be very straightforward

<hr width=100% size=1>Roger

 

[geoffatstanpit]

I got the RYA/Admiralty set for hereabouts and use them in my laptop. It took all this summer to figure out how to hook it up to the Garmin but we're there now.

Laptops these days don't have the old serial ports so you need a USB-serial adapter with its associated driver. You need to set the GPS to NMEA not Garmin's own protocol. With those two in place it works! Until the battery on the laptop runs out.

Now you need a 12v - 18v converter (from Maplin - designed to run laptops in cars not surprisingly) and that seems to work OK too.

My next problem is to get enough 12v leccie out of my outboard into the battery in the 5 min run down to the briny. I think the next expense is a solar panel and/or a windmill.

Now I have to buy another CD to keep it going for next year.

It really is amazing to see your track over the chart in real time and play it all back afterwards.

Geoff

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by geoffatstanpit on 14/11/2004 17:05 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Talbot]

I have heard of making your point, but 4 duplicate posts might be construed as a tad OTT /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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[geoffatstanpit]

Oops - sorry - the whole thing seized up and said it wasn't responding when it clearly was.

I think I've managed to delete the excess posts!

Geoff


<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by geoffatstanpit on 14/11/2004 17:04 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Oldhand]

Anabel mentioned using ARCS Skipper which used to require a proper chart plotting programme and not the RYA ARCS cheepie. So Anabel, I belive you will have to buy chart-plotting software such as SeaPro or MaxSea to be able to use your ARCS Skipper chart portfolio.

These more expensive chart plotting packages usually supply a PC serial port lead for NMEA connection as part of the package. The bare wire end of this lead can be parallelled to the NMEA wires which feed you GPS repeater as your GPS should be able to support up to 3 or 4 "listeners".

When you buy your ARCS Skipper chart portfolio, you should be supplied with access codes for the areas you are paying for. These access codes have to be entered into an ARCS permit routine which comes as part of the above mentioned chart plotter packages. So, once you have connected the NMEA out from your GPS to the PC with the supplied cable and entered the ARCS permit codes into the plotter software, you should be up and running.

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[trouville]

why is it only my laptop gives up on the boat underway?am i the only one using paper charts (and sextant for practice) and compass?? ok i do have a gps but in the last 15 years one has stopped working! That was a sony i bought second hand ! but my laptop? it cost £1000! my old compq well and to buy one from ebay still means £500 most arnt humidity proof so on passage to Irland or France with a laptop + Radar(yes saw one today````) radar gps and charts what do you do when two or three drops of northsea land on the laptop shutting it permently down as it cools your RAM??? Wipe off the marine garmin and hope?

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[Talbot]

Thats why my laptop is my secondary system at sea. Primary system is a waterproof plotter. Tertiaty system is paper chart, back up is a sextant.

If all else fails there is always the AA map and the echo sounder./forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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[trouville]

yes ok!!Being on a buget i just wonder at those taking a laptop as amain system and to day i found radars that are sold as a unit to be used with a laptop(or any pc) also offerd was the icom ssb (id forgoten about those things that apeared years ago) and gps with charts--imagin a motor boat (not British of course??) leaving with all atached to one lap top!!
I bought a second basic Garmin new full price for 60Euros. is that less than the UK??? its the basic yellow one hand held---the numbers different in every contry(european standardisation) I thought i was the only one to use road maps at sea!!! there quite useful when lost!! and i have been !!!pre gps on a calm suney day in the med the road maps scale showed id gone several bays to far--and that with the ficle wind in the med!!

<hr width=100% size=1>liveaboard<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by trouville on 14/11/2004 20:53 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[anabel]

Thanks for all the info.
You say chart folio only valid for 1 year. Does this mean they have to be purchased again or is there a way of updating them (for a fee presumably!)?
Rgds.
E.

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[Talbot]

using a laptop as the only means , and putting everything through that laptopis a high risk strategy, and not one I would want to follow, even if you had an extra (spare) laptop.

My strategy looks at tthe high risk, low probability problems as well as the low risk high probability issues. The worst probability for me is not the gush of water onto the laptop, which is a risk you can minimise, but the risk of a lightning strike. This could fry all your electronics (ask Richard Woods), and even send your compass out by 30 degrees. An ability to find where you are, and how accurate is your compass would then be essential to survival.

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[roger]

Yes if its the Admiralty entry system. £45 for one year for all the charts for the South west for example. You have to buy another next year. They are supposed to finally stop working in the middle of January

<hr width=100% size=1>Roger

 

[ChrisE]

I have the ARCS system and use Skipper portfolios. The advantage of portfolios is that you get 10 charts for £100 rather than about £17 each. You buy either ready portfolios (these cover most of the UK, Channel Islands and SW Ireland, plus some parts of the Baltic, from memory) or make up your own, pcmaritime is but one company that offers this service. You pay once only, although you can get chart updates for an annual fee, cost depending on the number of charts you have. The charts arrive on a CD together with the latest chart updates on another CD.

As another poster said you will also need a plotting package to drive the charts, these come in all flavours and start at about £200 up to £1000+. I happen to use Navmaster but there are lots of others, all much of muchness as far as I can see.

I've used ARCS charts for about 5 years and now rely on them, although I carry paper charts as electronic charts - other the expensive ENC version of ARCS - are not sufficient to cover maritime law. I also carry a spare PC as backup on longer voyages.

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[Oldhand]

So many people seem to assume that a PC on board means a laptop. Laptops IMHO are the least desirable of PC's to use at sea as they are mostly too fragile and too expensive to have not properly fixed down. Furthermor eif you are integrating the PC with other onboard electronics you have to have cables floating around. I suggest you look at alterntive PC types (I have great success with an installed "Cappuccino" type mini PC) with an installed TFT dispaly and iR keyboard/mouse.

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[Oldhand]

It is only the RYA/ARCS cheepie plotter system that only last for a year. If you are going down the ARCS Skipper portfolio route as you suggest, they do not expire but updates are quite expensive.

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[ChrisE]

Updates range from £23.50 for up to 19 charts upto £70.50 for 40 or more. I have 120 or so charts and reckon that the £70.50 is money well spent. How many other people have charts that are completely up to date?

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[Guest]

Cheers Nigel ..... <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.geocities.com/solentlifeuk/>http://www.geocities.com/solentlifeuk/

 

[Guest]

Moving map ...... that is going from one chart to another automatically - is de-rigour for most software ... It is NOT only Plotters that do this ....


<hr width=100% size=1>Cheers Nigel ..... <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.geocities.com/solentlifeuk/>http://www.geocities.com/solentlifeuk/</A>

 

[Guest]

Arcs / Maptech / CMap ....

There are a myriad of charts and systems out there and for example .... Maptech Lite Charting Software is supplied free of charge with a cd of Maptech bsb charts ..... useasble as long as you have power to laptop !! Update when you decide ....

Seaclear .... free software ......

<hr width=100% size=1>Cheers Nigel ..... <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.geocities.com/solentlifeuk/>http://www.geocities.com/solentlifeuk/</A>