Plotter "Autoroute"

petem

petem

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Prior to our repositioning cruise in the Summer I downloaded the Garmin app for my phone. I was intrigued by the AutoRoute function that would build a route accounting for obstacles from origin to destination. This doesn't seem to be supported on my E7 plotter but I wonder if there's a firmware upgrade that would enable this. Anyone know?

Anyhow, and I think jrudge observes the same with his Garmin, the AutoRoute takes you very (arguably too) close to cliffs / headlands. It also seemed to route me inshore of fish havens which are not obstacles AFAIK.

Anyone else got an experience / observations of using AutoRoute?
 
Used it in Croatia on a charter boat.

It’s shite and not fit for purpose. If you need it you should not be in command of a boat.
Also the lack or XTE reset is deeply annoying, but Garmin seem ambivalent to it.

The lack of XTE reset directly lead me to keep buying Raymarine kit.
 
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I have it on my Raymarine Axiom / Navionics gear. Agree, you do need to make sure it does not take you too close to headlands. TBH I use it to plot the initial course then drag the WPs to where I'm comfortable.
 
Whitelighter said:
Used it in Croatia on a charter boat.

It’s shite and not fit for purpose. If you need it you should be in command of a boat.
Also the lack or XTE reset is deeply annoying, but Garmin seem ambivalent to it.

The lack of XTE reset directly lead me to keep buying Raymarine kit.
Click to expand...

It's not a case of "needing" it.

Not being to reset XTE is a pain I imagine.
 
I like it so sadly by Jez definition I should now be consigned to the bilges of hell!

The lack of XTE does not really matter as you just hit recalculate which does ( almost) the same thing.

I found it 100% reliable over some 3 years and 300 hours of use. Yes it routes you round fish farms and a few other things. The headland thing is annoying and I would imagine could be fixed in moments with the will to do it as it passes far to close and you cant change the routing as it is an infinite curve- there are no waypoints.

When doing big distances it is is very useful as on raymarine putting in waypoint after waypoint is slow and fiddly.

I used to set it all the time so I can answer the "when do we get there" questions. On the Raymarine I do the same with a GOTO the arrival destination which is good a a rough ready reckoner accepting that it takes you over mountains to get there ( which using Jez choice words is really shite!).

Would I put blind faith in it? No. Did I check it? Yes if it was taking me some distance and I didnt know the waters. Round mallorca you dont need anything to be honest ( other than answering the how far do we have to go question) as the water is deep, there is little to hit and if the keep the land on your left or right you must arrive in the end!







petem said:
It's not a case of "needing" it.

Not being to reset XTE is a pain I imagine.
Click to expand...
 
not so sure why XTE is that important in the Med tbh, and I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for that...

however, it's easy enough to configure the Garmin autopilot to keep a minimum distance from shore and a minimum depth.
Indeed the original values are scary close to land, so I simply altered distance from shore.
Depth, not much point in altering tbh as once you try to go to an anchorage it will start beeping it's arse off, plain annoying.

Having said all that, I usually get the A/P to calculate the trip data and route, but DONT engage it. This way I can answer the annoying question, "when do we arrive".
Then I use the remote (best 40euro ever spent- was s/h and slightly broken but easily fixed) to steer to. Various fishing boats, pots, whatever, you just hit the +15deg and then the -15deg and you're back in course...
All that at 8-9kn :D

cheers

V.
 
I've been using Garmin Autoguidance for about 8 years and more recently I also use Navionics dock to dock. I find both of them extremely useful but I don't follow blindly.
 
Autoroute in Navionics ipad is useless, particularly on the East coast. It knows your draft but not the height of the tide other than at low water. If we avoided sandbanks we'd never get anywhere!
 
vas said:
not so sure why XTE is that important in the Med tbh, and I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for that...
Click to expand...
Far from wishing to flame you V, but there are exceptions also in the Med.
Below you can see an example from one leg that I planned while cruising the Kornati Archipelago last summer (Jrudge, does that sound familiar? :)).
Now, let's say that you are following that route with the a/p on track mode, and you must alter the course to avoid other boats, or just because you wish to explore some corners.
It's easy to see why, when you wish to come back on your route, just resetting XTE and put the a/p in track mode again doesn't cut the mustard.
In fact, that could bring you straight towards some islets which the original route was designed to go around.
And it's not like it takes a major alteration, mind: in places, you only have some 30 or 40 meters to play with!
Truth be told, when cruising an area like that in good visibility, actually you steer manually and just keep an eye on the plotter for reference. That's what I do, anyway.
But you see what I mean...
mkIil2cK_o.jpg
 
jrudge said:
I like it so sadly by Jez definition I should now be consigned to the bilges of hell!

The lack of XTE does not really matter as you just hit recalculate which does ( almost) the same thing.

I found it 100% reliable over some 3 years and 300 hours of use. Yes it routes you round fish farms and a few other things. The headland thing is annoying and I would imagine could be fixed in moments with the will to do it as it passes far to close and you cant change the routing as it is an infinite curve- there are no waypoints.

When doing big distances it is is very useful as on raymarine putting in waypoint after waypoint is slow and fiddly.

I used to set it all the time so I can answer the "when do we get there" questions. On the Raymarine I do the same with a GOTO the arrival destination which is good a a rough ready reckoner accepting that it takes you over mountains to get there ( which using Jez choice words is really shite!).

Would I put blind faith in it? No. Did I check it? Yes if it was taking me some distance and I didnt know the waters. Round mallorca you dont need anything to be honest ( other than answering the how far do we have to go question) as the water is deep, there is little to hit and if the keep the land on your left or right you must arrive in the end!
Click to expand...

Please note I did specify 'need' rathar than 'like'

I am 100% certain if I removed all the plotters from your boat you'd be able to navigate perfectly well, if not so quickly

Maybe things have changed since our charter in 2013, but the issue we had was you come off AP/Route to give way, go round another boat, ferry, fisherman and then when you hit track again with no XTE the pilot makes a right turn of 90 degrees, goes back to your original track, then makes a left turn of 90 degrees back onto your original course.

If you hit recalculate, it disengaged the AP, then thought about it for quite some time, then redrew, only then could you re-engage the AP, and then you had to go through the menu which was function>track>waypoint>confirm.

Ok so first world problems but compared to the Raymarine system of similar vintage it really was poo and user unfriendly, and impossible to deviate course and go back to track without disengaging AP and resetting.

Raymarine you simply hit 'reset XTE' and then hit 'track'
 
Whitelighter said:
Raymarine you simply hit 'reset XTE' and then hit 'track'
Click to expand...
And that still isn't the best design 'fiuaskme, because it involves the use of two instruments (plotter and a/p head respectively).

The Furuno a/p which I was used to on my old lady (designed a quarter of a century ago, which means in another geological era, in the world of electronic components) tackled that situation much more efficiently:
Whenever on "Nav mode" (Furuno's equivalent of Raymarine "Track") you wish to dodge anything, you can operate as follows:
1) you press the "port" or "stbd" button to steer the boat as much as desired, and "lock" the a/p into this temporary dodging course;
2) as soon as appropriate, you release that lock, and the a/p gently brings the boat back to the original route.
Job done, with no need to use the plotter - let alone touch the wheel.

Of course, you can still reset the XTE on the plotter if you wish, but you don't need to, because by default the a/p alone takes care of coming back to the traced route very smoothly, with no 90 deg turns whatsoever.
In fact, coming to think of it, in some situation you might prefer to keep the original route on the plotter, while resetting the XTE actually changes it - with potentially catastrophic consequences, in a situation like per my previous post.
 
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Well, every day is a school day, as the old saying goes. Care to explain me how, on a plain vanilla ST6001 unit?

Anyway, I maintain that the Furuno Nav mode logic is smarter, because even with no XTE reset it brings the boat back on track smoothly, as opposed to steering hard over either side in Raymarine, if you forget to do that before going back to Track mode.
 
Whitelighter said:
Used it in Croatia on a charter boat.

It’s shite and not fit for purpose. If you need it you should not be in command of a boat.
Also the lack or XTE reset is deeply annoying, but Garmin seem ambivalent to it.

The lack of XTE reset directly lead me to keep buying Raymarine kit.
Click to expand...
Garmin does have XTE. Hard to guess but easy when you get hang of.
 
MapisM said:
Whenever on "Nav mode" (Furuno's equivalent of Raymarine "Track") you wish to dodge anything, you can operate as follows:
1) you press the "port" or "stbd" button to steer the boat as much as desired, and "lock" the a/p into this temporary dodging course;
2) as soon as appropriate, you release that lock, and the a/p gently brings the boat back to the original route.
Job done, with no need to use the plotter - let alone touch the wheel.
Click to expand...
that's exactly what garmin does, with choice of doing all that from a/p control, plotter or iPad.
 
MapisM said:
Ok, but you dodged my question about how to reset XTE on the ST6001!
Btw, I had a look at the manual in the meantime, but either it isn't there or I was unable to find it… :o
Click to expand...

That’s because I can’t 100% remember.
I know I’ve done it from my ST8002 on the fly bridge and from my ST60 Graphic also does AP controls.
I often have the ST8002 set to show GPS speed or depth as that and the graphic are multifunction instruments.

I have a 6002 AP head at the lower helm but we’ve never used that helm so I confess to not knowing.
Can you display speed/depth and other seatalk data on the 6001?
 
MapisM said:
Ok, but you dodged my question about how to reset XTE on the ST6001!
Btw, I had a look at the manual in the meantime, but either it isn't there or I was unable to find it… :o
Click to expand...

It is so second nature I hope what is below is correct.

You goto the plotter. Hit goto and then restart XTE.

You then put the unit into Track again and it follows.

You have to do this last step as by default the auto helm must have been disengaged as otherwise the boat would not be off course anyway.

To be honest I mostly use AUTO - ie just follow a heading - as opposed to a route as i find on my boat it generally results in a less wavy wake and steers a nicer line. When on a route it is not bad, but does hunt the route a bit which in nearly all cases i dont need something that accurate - i just want it to head towards a point that in most cases I can already see!
 
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