plotter-gps versus gps and laptop PC

[rico]

My new boat has no GPS, and it is time for some budget-minded shopping.

Maps on a nice display and navigation software are appealing extras, but I cannot decide between a dedicated chart-plotter-GPS or a simpler GPS to be connected to a laptop PC running a navigation-chart-plotter program.

What is your experience ?

One of the benefits of using a laptop should be the possibility to use my own scanned paper charts.

Is there any chart-plotter-gps able to import scanned charts ?

By the way, I cannot understand the ability to store 500+ waypoints, but limited by 6 character names ! Any exception ?

Thank you to anyone willing to share his thoughts

Rico

 

[davel]

I use a PC and a simple GPS together with a cheap (but effective) program called OziExplorer and self scanned charts. Its a cheap (sorry, lower cost) alternative, particularly when it comes to buying the charts themselves. If you want a paper copy of charts (and the averall view of this forum in the past is that this is mandatory) then it's saves lots of money.

The downside is that you have to have a PC, and be comfortable with sorting out the bits of string and software to pull it all together, and be prepared to spend a few evenings scanning and stitching your charts.

Dave L.
Location: 50 51.0 N 1 18.6 W

 

[castaway]

I have just been thro the same process as my new boat had only a old Decca Navigator.

After looking at all the lower priced Chart plotters at the Show I decided that the screen size was just too small for me. Eventually after doing the rounds of all the various systems PC based etc. I ended up buying a Garmin 128 and a Yeoman Plotter.

Its not yet instaled but I feel confident that for me it offers a good staging point between paper charts and pure plotters

Only thing is that you need a big chart table to take the mat.

Nick

 

[seahorse]

Hi, I agree with "DAVEL". I use a Garmin 45 linked to an ACER 512DX laptop & can interface with a Tillerpilot. U can down load a trial version of OZIEXPLORER from their site & there are lots of user groups. Scanning your own charts can be time consuming but can be very satisfying. Stitch them with "Panavue Image Assembler". Finding the best settings
can be time consuming & finding the best compromise of speed of loading & file size is amatter of personal choice.
This is a very cost effective system & takes up little space &
the laptop is also used for logging & tide prediction progs!

 

[Trilogy]

I bought Navmaster and plug in a Garmin handheld GPS. I'm delighted with the software. Easy to use. Easy to get new charts. I maintain a traditional paper chart for each electronic one I have.

I would think hard about where you would locate your PC. In many ways, a dedicated device is easier to position. It took me some time and lots of shock cord to find the best location which protected the laptop, provided easy viewing, maintained access to the chart table, enabled me to easily remove the laptop and didn't involve cutting big chunks of boat apart.


Nick

 

[Miker]

Are the handhelds any good for navigation software?

I haven't the spare cash for a lap top for use on the boat but was wondering whether any of the handhelds would fit the purpose. Has anybody looked at this possibility?

 

[kingfisher]

Handhelds are OK

Yep,


Basically, a GPS is a radio receiver and a calulator.
I use a Magellan 320 as the GPS engine to drive the PC chartplotter. You have to realise that the handhelds have the same GPS software and engines as their bigger fixed counterparts. Same processors.

Fixed
-better screen clarity (n/a: you'l be using the screen of the laptop)
-exterior antenna (better reception)
-more features (n/a will be replaced by the portable)

HH
- cheaper (buy a spare for the price of one fixed)
- identical software and calculating power
- portabel (PC+hh works just as well in my car)

Basically, the only advantage a fixed unit has, is the external antenna.
If you have a steel or kevlar boat, you have no choise but a fixed antenna. Wood and GPR : go for HH

Obi-Wan
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[marcost]

A laptop on board give you much more possibilities than a plotter-gps. Once you have a mobile phone with GPRS function, you can surf on internet and you can find all update information you need on your cruising area; only the communication costs are high.

But the disadvantage of a laptop is the power consumption. I have a 12 V charger for my pc and also a small invertor to use the 220V charger; both are consuming 4 amps when charging. Both chargers become quite hot when running, so a lot of those 4 amps are wasted as heat.

Has anybody a less power consuming solution?


Marc Broucke

 

[bedouin]

Unless you have a 'ruggedised' PC - any laptop on board should be considered as a toy and not used for any serious navigation purposes. They are complex machines, built very cheaply and are not designed to take the sort of abuse they will get on a boat even if carefully handled - so expect them to fail often. A cheap second hand 486 machine might be appropriate, and have the advantage of lower power consumption, but I wouldn't take a laptop I cared about on board.

Handhelds are a much better bet in terms of reliability - they do not have moving parts but the screens tend to be little better than cheap GPS/Plotters.

 

[vyv_cox]

For me the biggest problem by miles is using a laptop at sea. Firstly holding it down, as referred to in posts further up. I adapted an existing flap shelf by putting timber supports all around the laptop, lots of bungee and foam, but it still moved around. Secondly, operating the keyboard when bouncing around and soaking wet. Scrolling charts around quite delicately is not easy in a seaway. The times when you really want to know where you are and where the hazards are will be in the dark, wind against tide, pouring with rain and heeled to 30 degrees. What you want then is a nice fixed screen, simple waterproof controls, and a chart table to brace against. What you don't want is a plotter that fails when it gets a drop of water in it, cables all over the place, a mouse, one of those dreadful touch pad things, or even worse that joke button device that they put on Toshibas. A bulkhead mounted plotter then comes into its own.

 

[claymore]

I'm fortunate in being able to put the laptop in the wheelhouse so it isn't too exposed to the elements. Holding it down is done quite crudely - I have one of those non-slip mats that it sits on and then a big piece of bungee, looped and whipped at both ends and attached to a couple of well screwed down lacing eyes. The bungee sits along the hinges of the laptop when the screen is up. The point about the toshiba mouse is a good one and I bought a trackball which has a scrolling wheel in the middle and it really is excellent.
Went for this system because the boat already had a gps unit and I already had the laptop. I've mentioned my software before but without wishing to advertise(!) I use dolphin maritime software which I think is really good - they probably all are and its what you get used to I think. I have an inverter and the laptop plugs into its own circuit which has a breaker on it. When I was trialling it I had a slightly botched job and each time I started the engine, the computer would crash as would the GPS - this was a sod in that you lost all the day's data in the electronic log within the software - anyway, I got that sorted out and it works perfectly now.

 

[nlawley]

I stick my laptop down with velcrose stuck to the bottom of the laptop and the side of the chart table

 

[claymore]

That's not going to hold it in the case of a big beam wave (such as a ferry wash) hitting you. Get some bungee around it!

 

[Miker]

I will rephrase the question

Thanks for your reply but I think that I asked the wrong question. What I meant to ask was whether a cheaper option was a GPS attached to a palm held device, rather than attached to a lap top.

 

[rico]

Re: I will rephrase the question

Hi Miker !

No experience on the subject but OziExplorer, the navigation software others in this thread use and suggested, has a version for PocketPC. So it should be feasible. It happens I own an HP Jornada 548, but frankly I would get the same, little usable, tiny screen of some handheld gps. I'll give a try though.

Ciao

Rico

 

[Miker]

Re: I will rephrase the question

Good point, screen size. I've never played with a palm held PC. How does the screen size compare with a GPS chart plotter?

 

[Guest]

Re: I will rephrase the question

A compromise I have been thinking of is Psion Revo or 5MX - screen is small, but not ridiculously so, more rugged than laptops, and run for ages on AA batteries. there is good nav and tide software available to download (but I have lost the URL) and nearly new ones can be picked up for less than £100.