Plotter question

[nigelm]

I was reading Tillergirls NtM posts and then the one about the bouys of margate
And had a thought is it possible to update the electronic charts that are used with plotters ? , I haven't got one yet but just curious .

 

[johnalison]

I think that in effect you have to buy a new chip, but this comes at a reduced price as the agent usually downloads it into the old one. I'm sure Owner-updatable chips will come, if they aren't here already (my plotter is 12yrs old).

One feature I would like to have is the option to custom-modify a chart; effectively pencilling-in changes and additions.

 

[leomagill]

I have a chart plotter and as we get in and out through the wash I always check the kings lynn port website for bouyage positions and save them on an overlay that can be loaded on the plotter, they move too often to be on a chart so it's the only way to keep off the ever encroaching sandbanks, on the route up the gt.ouse I use a plot taken from google earth as the last photos were done at low water, it's saved as a trackline and misses the shoals that have built up.
As long as you use them with other info sources and appropriate overlays chart plotters are excellent.

 

[MoodySabre]

User Generated Content (UGC) is here! PBO December 2011 has an article about it. On Navionics charts with Raymarine plotters, iPhones and iPads there is a community layer for adding amendments and notes that can be seen by other users. Given the age of some surveys on which charts are based this must be a good thing. Of course we have Tillergirl to do it all for us

 

[tillergirl]

If you use a PC or Laptop (which I know is not quite you are talking about) you can run the Imray software to which you can add corrections. The symbols are a little limiting which is something they plan to look at but they run a free correction service while the programme is in date.

Be careful of Google Earth. Whilst it is an excellent source you cannot mix Google Earth co-ordinates with WGS84. They are not compatible - not far out; in fact in some places they are not 'out' at all but in others they are.

I have not thought about whether it is feasible to create a generic UGC. I guess for Imray I pretty well have one as I plot most corrections in a user file. I also have a collection of paper charts amended up to date! There's anorak for you.

 

[nigelm]

User Generated Content (UGC) is here! PBO December 2011 has an article about it. On Navionics charts with Raymarine plotters, iPhones and iPads there is a community layer for adding amendments and notes that can be seen by other users. Given the age of some surveys on which charts are based this must be a good thing. Of course we have Tillergirl to do it all for us

The Navionics app was one thing I was thinking about for next year for my fone , that plus the yeoman will have to suffice for time being , maybe in the near future it will be as simple as a download every couple of months to update our eletronic charts

 

[leomagill]

For further inland ventures the OS mapping for memory-map is very accurate, I used a track generated from OS1:25k on the plotter to navigate up to snape bridge through the withies, it looked like a big wide lake but the track took us bang on through the withies, which was good as quite a few were missing, only touched the bottom slightly once on the way up.
Obviously can't garantee it everywhere as channels can and do move but that was a good one.
Of course it's easier for us as we only need a metre of water to float in.

 

[Champagne Murphy]

I was reading Tillergirls NtM posts and then the one about the bouys of margate
And had a thought is it possible to update the electronic charts that are used with plotters ? , I haven't got one yet but just curious .

Updated my Standard Horizon plotter software this year by going to dealer (Seamark Nunn) with chip from said device and paying appropriate (large) fee. 10-20 mins, job done. It's the first time I've done it in 4 years and all seems well. The nice man, he say updates available 4 times a year for those who want them. Not do-able except through dealer (he say)

 

[Cantata]

Updated my Standard Horizon plotter software ...................The nice man, he say updates available 4 times a year for those who want them. Not do-able except through dealer (he say)

Or you can send the chip off the Jeppeson in Italy, although I find the idea a bit scary.

 

[wingdiver]

When I asked earlier this year about the one covering the East Coast, I was told the electronic charts were not very up to date as they only send an update once or twice a year to dealers on DVD to copy across. At around £90 for an update, I decided to get a paper one for about £20, which turned out to just have one windfarm printed on that wasn't on my previous one - and I'd marked that myself already.
I think it's a bit rich to charge as much as they do for electronic charts - especially for us with the older style plotters which only cover batches of the UK/near continent on each. If I wanted to cover the area from Ipswich to Plymouth, I would need four. Nowadays, the machines take bigger cards which have the whole of Western Europe on them. They are certainly better value.
One tip I found a couple of years ago - when sorting out the chart table, I found over a dozen cards covering the Med, Biscay and Adriatic that the previous owner had bought in 2001, which were of no further use to us. When I took them to PRS Comminications in Harwich, they gave me £10 for each one in p/ex against a new card with the latest info on.

 

[tillergirl]

Do all plotters have the ability to add a number of user defined marks - something like an exclamation mark?

What I was thinking was that if it was possible for a user to add say an exclamation mark at given coordinates - to indicate that a chart correction exists - it would be simple for me to provide a quarterly pdf that could be printed and on board to check what correction existed for that mark. Would that work and would people pay say £5 a time? Probably each pdf would be about 10 pages a quarter. There would be some copyright issues I would have to resolve for the images.

 

[leomagill]

Most plotters can have a range of user defined marks overlaid but it would need to be in a different format for different makes, theres an online program that can convert most formats called gpsbabel but the marks come out looking different.
I used to plot all the mobile bouyage for the kings lynn channel on memory-map as it's a nice prog to use, then open the file in the lowrance software to change the points to the right symbol before saving to sd card, nowdays I'm lazy so just live with blue/white diamonds on the screen and rely on text labels for the colour/type.
They realy do make navigation easy but I always have a paper chart as backup, wether I can remember how to use it is another matter

 

[moonshine]

When you purchase a Navionics update, you get 1 year of updates which I believe are done quarterly. The updates can be downloaded to the compact flash card.

If you have purchased from Navionics you can download an app or a PC chart planner which you can add updates to and as someone mentioned these can be shared.

Navionics do not respond well to emails telling them where their charts are in error !!!

A

 

[tillergirl]

Thanks chaps.

 

[xyachtdave]

Things look to me as though they are moving closer to iPad style navigation, with instantly downloadable charts, charting apps like iNavX, digital yachts iais giving wireless info from the boats instuments and corrections available by a simple update not requiring anything other than a 3G or wifi connection.

Mucking around with £200 chips is surely on the way out?

 

[LittleSister]

Our plotter is several years old now, and I haven't yet updated the chart. But then, I rarely do corrections to my paper charts which are mostly even older (though I keep an eye on Tillergirl's updates, etc. for any major issues or anything that's relevant to trip I might have in mind). I treat both paper and digital maps as guides, rather than a faithful representation of reality. I like to look where I'm going more than at a screen!
That said, it's remarkable how little changes over the years.