Plomong
Well-Known Member
Hence the evaluation, and much thought and experimentation . . . !!!
Two show stoppers for me.
Dodgy charts a problem for me.
PC Plotter Software -- one man's view
- Thread starter Plomong
- Start date
Plomong
Well-Known Member
It being an elephant, I haven't missed it at all -- in fact saw it miles away !!!
You raise several points:
- Navigating by laptop: Not my intention -- it is an aid to planning and later visual presentation of real-time situation in addition to paper-based navigation in the correct manner, not a replacement for it.
- PC will be down below, just under the transparent hatch. When hatch open, very accessible. When hatch closed, visible, and accessible with care when the sprayhood is in position. The screen shown above by CET1 could be a future improvement. AIS engine, GPS puck, Navtex engine, etc at chart table.
- "Leccy" being looked at. Probably a 12V charger. Definitely not an inverter.[/QUOTE]
Plomong
Well-Known Member
Good tip -- thanks.
Plomong
Well-Known Member
Yes -- you're right -- it does drill down to larger scale charts. Sorry about that mistake.
Which legal chart sets can be used with OpenCPN ? You mention C-Map, but the latest C-Map charts are specifically stated by OpenCPN to be NOT usable because of encryption. The same applies to any BSB V4 chart sets.
Correct.
ccscott49
Well-Known Member
I use tiki gold, I find it very simple to use, AIS is good with all the data, navionics gold charts excellent, whole of the meddy on one wee chip card thingy. Has all the instruments, autopilot control also. This is my second try at computer charts, fisrt time with CMp3 and tsunamis99. This system I bought, I'm happy so far.
Robin
Well-Known Member
I have both raster and vector charts for OpenCPN for the USA, all charts, which are updated weekly too and even coastal pilots are downloadable free of charge from their official source. Unfortunately USA charts for outside of the USA are not FOC!
We won't be using charts again this side of the pond so not a cost problem for us and I didn't research commercial stuff, but I had assumed that if you had the money C-Map charts would be available and useable. I do have a world set of CM93/2 charts from Jan 2010 loaded on OpenCPN, purely for interest and practice with the program whilst we are still UK based but with no boat now here not to be used for navigation. Once in the USA we will of course only use USA charts. Even now however when looking 'over there' OpenCPN chooses the USA charts first rather than the CM93/2 ones as soon as your 'pan' crosses into a chart area marked with either a rastor or a vector USA one.
electrosys
Well-Known Member
Win98 ? Sure is - I consider that to be a positive feature. All the wrinkles were ironed out many years back. And without IE, it's as stable as a rock.
Is newer always better ? I don't think so, especially for non-demanding tasks. My laptops are old and my boat is old - all built like the proverbial brick outhouse. And they do the job.
The operating systems controlling GPS satellites and nuclear submarines are likewise of an elderly vintage, but do the jobs that they were designed for quite adequately, and without any on-going fixes from Monsieur Gates ...
wotayottie
Well-Known Member
[/QUOTE]Plomong;2809520 said:
I have used a 12v charger from maplin for the last 3 years and found it very good. But the lappy still uses lots of watts
Have a look at this. Prices have doubled since I bought!!!
whiteheat
New Member
PC Chartplotters
SeaPro certainly looks good, but I completely failed to get it to work with Navionics charts. My newest laptop, using SeaPro, couldn't access the Navionics charts, though they were clearly being read by the computer. My old laptop read the charts OK, but got totally stuck converting them to run on SeaPro.
In addition, you have to have the SeaPro dongle plugged into a USB socket at all times and periodically have to reinstall the Navionics Charts - again using a USB socket, but also with the special Navionics Card Reader (which is no longer manufactured) - not a great idea when you're crossing shipping lanes in a Force 6 with driving rain, as it takes hours. In my case I needed a further USB socket for my GPS and another for the AIS transponder. Fortunately my Panasonic Toughbook has 6 USB ports, but the chart table started looking like a 1950s telephone exchange and it would only be a matter of time before plugs started falling out of sockets.
As I never succeeded in getting the two to work, these minor inconveniences were irrelevant.
According to my research, PC Plotter does not require a dongle and the Navionics charts can be downloaded onto the computer for once and for all, with no inconvenient updating requests.
What will I do with all those USB leads?
SeaPro certainly looks good, but I completely failed to get it to work with Navionics charts. My newest laptop, using SeaPro, couldn't access the Navionics charts, though they were clearly being read by the computer. My old laptop read the charts OK, but got totally stuck converting them to run on SeaPro.
In addition, you have to have the SeaPro dongle plugged into a USB socket at all times and periodically have to reinstall the Navionics Charts - again using a USB socket, but also with the special Navionics Card Reader (which is no longer manufactured) - not a great idea when you're crossing shipping lanes in a Force 6 with driving rain, as it takes hours. In my case I needed a further USB socket for my GPS and another for the AIS transponder. Fortunately my Panasonic Toughbook has 6 USB ports, but the chart table started looking like a 1950s telephone exchange and it would only be a matter of time before plugs started falling out of sockets.
As I never succeeded in getting the two to work, these minor inconveniences were irrelevant.
According to my research, PC Plotter does not require a dongle and the Navionics charts can be downloaded onto the computer for once and for all, with no inconvenient updating requests.
What will I do with all those USB leads?
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
I think that calling Windows 98 stable has to be the joke of the week; it crashed at least once a day when I was using it regularly. The idea of running 16 bit and 32 bit components concurrently was a REALLY bad idea. The first "Stable" version of Windows was Windows NT, and then 2000. Unix is older than any of them; Linux is just Unix recompiled for X86 architecture, though of course the availability of cheap hardware has meant an vast expansion of the developer community.
The OS you mention in satellites and nuclear submarines would not resemble Windows 98 in the slightest. That kind of OS has been reliable and stable for many years (at least 30) and bears little resemblance to Windows!
prv
Well-Known Member
For what it's worth, I tried OpenCPN the other day and didn't get on with the interface at all. Looked ugly and amateurish, felt awkward to use. Possibly down to me using the Mac version, which I don't think is one of their core platforms for development or testing.
Pete
Pete
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
For me, the main drawback of OpenCPN is that although the main program runs happily on Linux (flavour doesn't matter - I happen to use Ubuntu), most of the plugins (including the BSB one) are Windows only. I am impressed by its integration of things like WXTide.
I use Linux because it makes fewer demands on hardware than Windows, and I can run a respectable workload on an Intel Atom based netbook with not very much memory. In my case, that includes things like a database server, Java development environment, mail client and a browser!
I use Linux because it makes fewer demands on hardware than Windows, and I can run a respectable workload on an Intel Atom based netbook with not very much memory. In my case, that includes things like a database server, Java development environment, mail client and a browser!
nigelmercier
RIP
- Joined
- 20 Jun 2007
- Messages
- 16,234
- Location
- Live in Kent, boat in Canary Islands
+1
Like the OP, I tried demo versions of several packages; SeaPro was by far the best. Furthermore, if you need support, they are extremely helpful and never seem to sleep!
Being able to run the same software at home on the same licence dongle is great, not only can you plan a trip, but you can review the log afterwards.
I'm not sure about the lights and shapes, but the size of the font used for spot depths can be increased.
Last edited:
westhinder
Well-Known Member
+1 for the level of support of Seapro, absolutely brilliant.
Have used Seapro for four years now, on a purpose-built mini-pc, fed directly from the 12v on board and very pleased with it. Since changing boats last year I can compare the Seapro with a Raymarine C-series plotter using the same Navionics charts and Seapro is far superior: much easier and user-friendly to input waypoints and routes. What's more, Seapro has a route-planning tool that calculates the passage times with the currents and the best time of departure, which Raymarine does not have.
Joker
Well-Known Member
PC Plotter does need a dongle, I'm afraid, and it won't allow me to put the charts onto the hard disk unless they have been 'updated'. Doesn't tell you how to update them, tho.
DipperToo
Well-Known Member
PCPLotter does have a dongle which is needed for startup. However, if you 'hibernate' or let the PC 'sleep' then usually it will restart without needing the dongle (so long as you did not close PCPlotter). It does require a bit of horsepower if doing passage planning calculations for optimal times.
I use PCPLotter more as a home planning solution and keep a laptop on board as a backup should my main plotter fail (which also uses navionics charts)
pteron
Well-Known Member
I find the interface on seapro not intuitive, but even so could get used to it in a pinch.
For me, the show stopper is the dongle. There's no way I'm trusting my ability to use a chart plotter to that. Say you're in the middle of nowhere, your laptop takes a wave. The dongle stops working. You pull out your backup laptop (or you bought a toughbook and it's fine) but no nav.
No way.
For me, the show stopper is the dongle. There's no way I'm trusting my ability to use a chart plotter to that. Say you're in the middle of nowhere, your laptop takes a wave. The dongle stops working. You pull out your backup laptop (or you bought a toughbook and it's fine) but no nav.
No way.
maby
Well-Known Member
OpenCPN is a very lean interface - light on the flash, but really quite ergonomic once you understand it. I have both the Navionics PC application and Garmin Homeport on my PC - both commercial packages, but I still tend towards OpenCPN for route planning.
westhinder
Well-Known Member
If you use a mini-pc instead of a laptop, you can install it somewhere safe and dry, so that need not be an issue
pteron
Well-Known Member
I just gave one example of how the dongle could fail. I'm simply not trusting my navigation to it.
Two is one and one is none.