Standard Horizon chartplotters

Topcat47

Topcat47

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Without actually visiting a swindlery, I'm interested to know exactly how and what you get with this plotter as adverts vary. One stated that it came with world charts and an option I"ll be looking at around £4oo to £450 for the plotter and chart package.

Does anyone actually have one of these and how is it priced. Reviews do say it represents good value.....but I'd like to know how much I need before I go in to try to buy one.....
 
I have the SH 300i model. The built-in world charts are good for orientation and rough passage planning but not for navigation. So you have to buy the C-Map charts on C-cards to go in the slot. When you sail off the edge of the C-Map chart, the world map takes over seamlessly. So watch out for suddenly missing buoyage, time to swap cards.

Then you discover that you also need their C-Map PC Planner software and a card reader and an empty memory card to transfer data from chart plotter to PC.
 
Built-in world charts aren't intended for everyday use, and don't have the detail you'll find on C-Map chart cartridges. At the price you've quoted, you're looking at the CP180 plotter. This is available from some people (eg MarineScene, Marine Superstore) for around £300 including a Local C-Map cartridge. A Local cartridge only covers a small area - you can see the coverage of different UK Local charts here. Other suppliers (eg JG Technologies, MES, Cactus) will sell you a C-Map MegaWide cartridge covering the whole UK and the Atlantic European coast at about half-price when you buy a CP180 - this brings the total package price to around £400. All depends whether you think the coverage of a local chart will suit your sailing.
 
richard

cant you download the content of the card into the internal memory of the plotter? dont fancy swapping cards around at sea, losing them in the chart table etc.
 
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Can you transfer data from PC to Chartplotter as well, Richard?

More importantly, for me, would be the ability to run the PC and chartplotter together in 'real time'. ie plotter in cockpit, PC at chart table. How well does this work, if at all?

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Yes, the card can carry user data in both directions, but it is clunky.

It is not possible to connect the SH 300i to the PC directly, though I guess some NMEA hardware in between could fix this.

For your application, I can use a Garmin eTrex hand held GPS connected through its RS232 or USB cable and the PC running Garmin's MapSource program with Blue charts. The eTrex has the dual role of data logger and grab-bag GPS.
 
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richard, cant you download the content of the card into the internal memory of the plotter? dont fancy swapping cards around at sea, losing them in the chart table etc.

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The C-Map software will only transfer user data via a C-card. The plotter will not copy the chart data into its own memory, the card has to be inserted behind a "waterproof" door.

The MegaWide cards cover a huge area. I got two, one for the Baltic trip to Norway and the other the whole of the French channel coast, the UK and up to Greenland and beyond. The two cards overlap a bit so the change over was around Helgoland. (IIRC). Yes, I do worry about loosing the little beasts, particularly amongst the mess on my desk.

The PC Planner software reads the charts from the same cards and does not offer a chart copy capability.

I thought they were expensive until I started buying Norwegian paper charts (OUCH!) I now think the C-Map MegaWides are extraordinary good value and the plotter's zoom capability makes them much better than paper for cruising through the Blindlea, for example.
 
Thanks for the info. I already have a Garmin HH providing positional data into the laptop.

when I install a plotter in the cockpit, and the SH 300 is favourite for a number of reasons, I am hoping to have it talking to the PC as if they were two networked plotters.
 
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...when I install a plotter in the cockpit, and the SH 300 is favourite for a number of reasons, I am hoping to have it talking to the PC as if they were two networked plotters.

[/ QUOTE ]Not sure what you're expecting, but I don't think the CP300 will give much more info to the PC than the Garmin could. You'll get position, waypoint and route data primarily. The two certainly won't work like networked plotters.
 
I'm not sure what I am expecting either, to be honest! I am trying to work that out.

I am hoping I can create a route on a PC package, CMAP PC Planner for example, download it into the plotter then run the route on the plotter. With the position coming back into the PC, I will also be able to track position, etc on the same route.

I guess it stops there - I wont be able to do, say, a GOTO a waypoint on one, and expect the other to do the same without manual intervention.
 
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I'm not sure what I am expecting either, to be honest! I am trying to work that out.

I am hoping I can create a route on a PC package, CMAP PC Planner for example, download it into the plotter then run the route on the plotter. With the position coming back into the PC, I will also be able to track position, etc on the same route.

I guess it stops there - I wont be able to do, say, a GOTO a waypoint on one, and expect the other to do the same without manual intervention.

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Hi Nick,

when I researched this in 2006, it seemed that you needed to buy Raymarines E series plotters to be able to have the type of network you are talking about. I think one of the Seiwa models did it aswell, but they didnt have screens. Both of the above were well out of my budget.

I ended up with a Lowrance at the wheel with Nauticpath cheap and cheerful chart cartridges, and SOB with C-Map cartridges, (C-Cards) on the PC via their USB reader - also have a USB GPS gizmo on the PC. I have the PC, (laptop), strapped to the saloon table, and can see it from the wheel.

I input routes onto each independently, (so not exactly the same..... but good enough), and the system works quite well.

If I had my time again, I would probably buy a SH plotter, which can use the C Map cards, but I would still need 2 sets of cards to use both plotter and laptop at the same time.

The C Map charts are much better than the Nauticpath.

I still dont think there is a way of linking 2 things, whether both plotters, or one plotter and one PC, at a cost agreeable to us mere mortals /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Cheers

Richard
 
thanks Richard, I already have CMap cards for the crappy old Simrad plotters which are networked. They do an up to date version but its roughly the same price as Raymarine.

I think I will keep the plotter and laptop seperate, as resilience was part of the strategy. I like your idea of strapping it to the saloon table - I might look at running a cable from the chart table under the floor and up through the bottom of the booze locker!

PS Good to see you back on the forum - and hoping you are getting back to normal (whatever that is!)
 
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I think I will keep the plotter and laptop seperate, as resilience was part of the strategy.

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I think we've mentioned it before but I have 5 means of obtaining a GPS position on board.... 2 of which are battery powered, (laptop and Suunto watch), so, even if we lost all means of power, we could get fixes for quite some time by powering up the laptop as needed, and then the watch once the laptop ran out of juice. I can also power the lowrance from a Halfords battery pack which holds 20Ah.

Clearly, if the GPS system failed, it's back to square one .... but worst case scenario is to head for land, review things at something like the 20m depth line, (or the 16.5m depth line /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif ), and head one way or the other along it as judgement suggests.

In these circumstances, it is sensible to deliberately aim to be generously one side or the other of the desired destination, so that you actually know which way to follow the depth line.

Do I need a sextant??

Cheers

Richard
 
I went for the SH plotter because it interfaces so well with the SH radios (GX1500). I had to get a second radio to comply with Belgian requirements. I'm very pleased with the result and just wished I'd got an even larger screen than the 300i, as I would now like to overlay radar (my old JRC 1000 is begging for a new magnetron. So a SI-TEX scanner is on my wish list.) Not to mention upgrading the NASA AIS receiver to a full transponder.
 
I can recommend the CP300. Replaced our old Navman with one in March and have just done 3000 NM New Zealand- Vanuatu - Solomons-PNG, all using a single CMap Megawide cartridge (US$299 mail order). The price of CMaps dropped around 50% in the last year after the takeover by Jepperson and they now seem to be the best value nav cartridges. Most useful features of the CP300 we've found are a) accepts AIS input and overlays on plotter display -we use the cheap NASA AIS box for input, b) has separate 3 NMEA inputs and 5 outputs making it dead easy to hook up to DCS VHF, position output to PC, output to Autopilot without multiplexors etc. The panning and zoom are very fast compared to the Navman. Although we have the PC we don't use it much as it takes way more power than the CP300 and suffers the usual PC crashes and unreliability compared to the dedicated plotter which never once stopped, rebooted or crashed! Have not tried using a separate card to transfer tracks and routes from the PC but I believe this can be done. Cheers, Peter.
 
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