Standard Horizon CP300

[LittleSister]

We've had a CP300i (integral antenna model) for several years and very happy with it. To date we've only used it stand-alone.

Only regular irritation is forgetting to return it to daylight display before turning it off after using night display. When turned on again it's difficult to see the menus, etc. in daylight to change the display back.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I bought the CP300i six years ago; they are simple to use and reliable. The internal antenna version works equally as well down below. Perhaps the best toy onboard.

 

[RIBW]

I bought the CP300i six years ago; they are simple to use and reliable. The internal antenna version works equally as well down below. Perhaps the best toy onboard.

+1
CP300i works well with my AIS receiver. Free firmware upgrades have eliminated most of the bugs and a 3 year deal on the C-Map card upgrades at €199 was good value given that I use it in many locations.
Get the PCplanner as well !
An added benefit is that the CP300 was a very low power consumer when I bought it (Haven't checked if that is still true).
Regards
Bob

 

[Leighb]

Get the PCplanner as well !

A very useful program for planning summer cruising at home in the winter.

However, IT DOES NOT WORK ON A MAC .

My one big disappointment with my recent switch to an iMac has been that, although you can run Windows on a Mac, the Mac simply does not recognise the PC-Planner USB Card Reader and therefore the program is unusable..

AFAIK I therefore have a card reader and the program available if anyone would like to make an offer.

 

[SteveSarabande]

What is the pc planner. Can i connect the pc to the cp300?

 

[Leighb]

What is the pc planner. Can i connect the pc to the cp300?

PC Planner is a program that you can run on your PC, it reads the C-Map chart via a Multimedia reader that is part of the package.

I don't know if you can connect a CP300 directly. You can transfer routes, waypoints etc. from one to the other using a "User Card"

 

[Baggywrinkle]

I use the Open Source program OpenCPN on a PC connected as described in a photo a few posts back - the charts are a bit hard to come by but it is possible to find them.

I can transfer routes and way points from the PC to the CP300 and vice-versa but can't transfer recorded tracks from the CP300 to OpenCPN ...

OpenCPN uses the GPS position broadcast by the CP300 plotter and the AIS info broadcast by the GX2100E so only needs the USB/Serial dongle in additon to a standard laptop. It's a nice setup - for a PC based solution.

In practice I ended up perusing our paper charts together with SWMBO and a couple of glasses of good wine, then entered the waypoints directly on the plotter. Most of the time aboard, the PC stayed in the chart table, even though it functions perfectly well.

Planning at home is done on a mixture of Google Earth and OpenCPN. But we never actually plan anything concrete 'till we're aboard and have the weather data available and confirmed by the MKI eyeball so despite going to the effort of getting everything up and running, we don't actually use it as much as I thought we would.

That's just me though and mileage will vary dependent on your own preferences and habits. It's difficult to adjust to a PC screen and zooming/scrolling everywhere when you're used to a big paper chart, but for pilotage you can't beat a plotter at the helm.

The PC software with the card reader described earlier integrates much better, but costs - so be sure you really need it first.

A PC emulator of the CP180 can be downloaded here so you can try before you buy. The CP300 is here.

 

[KAM]

Had a CP300 for several years it's been an excellent piece of kit until the firmware update came out. I have found this very buggy if not dangerous. Detail such as rocks and buoys now disappear far too early when zooming out. I have also found it impossible to zoom in to certain chart areas and have had to resort to scrolling sideways from 20 miles away to zoom into certain areas of the chart. Not sure if this is due to the new plotter firmware or some mismatch with my Cmap which has not been updated for a few years. It's also a pity that SH did not improve the NMEA display and logging feature which is a bit limited.

 

[Leighb]

Had a CP300 for several years it's been an excellent piece of kit until the firmware update came out. I have found this very buggy if not dangerous. Detail such as rocks and buoys now disappear far too early when zooming out. I have also found it impossible to zoom in to certain chart areas and have had to resort to scrolling sideways from 20 miles away to zoom into certain areas of the chart. Not sure if this is due to the new plotter firmware or some mismatch with my Cmap which has not been updated for a few years. It's also a pity that SH did not improve the NMEA display and logging feature which is a bit limited.

Which firmware update was that? If it is later than the current one on my plotter i will make sure I don't update!

 

[wooslehunter]

Depending on what the traffic conditions are in your area, you may be dissapointed with the AIS alarm functions. I've turned mine off since it's permanently alarming in the Solent.

Here's the problem which I've spoke to SH about. There are two alarm conditions: closest point of approach (CPA) & Time to CPA. You can also set a distance such that nothing outside a certain range will cause the alarm to sound. So I set the limit to 5miles, CPA to 0.5mile & TCPA to 15mins. Great. What I really want is to ignore everyting outside 5 miles, & then have an alarm if CPA < 0.5 miles AND TCPA < 15 mins. The problem is what I get is CPA < 0.5 miles OR TCPS < 15 mins.

So, if a target is on a collision course but won't hit for an hour I still get an alarm. Also, if a target passes 4.9 miles but within 15 mins, I still get an alarm.

I guess I can close down the exclusion distance. But we get fast cross channel cats that do 35knts.

Whatever you do though never rely on alarms. Mk1 eyeball is best.

 

[Simondjuk]

Depending on what the traffic conditions are in your area, you may be dissapointed with the AIS alarm functions. I've turned mine off since it's permanently alarming in the Solent.

I would have been more surprised by it not permanently alarming in the Solent where you can't get far enough from anything to avoid a narrow CPA.

 

[DJE]

All the alarms on all my existing electronics are switched off (except DSC of course). If and when I get round to installing a plotter and AIS I expect that those alarms will also be switched off. Much better to monitor a developing situation than wait for an alarm and then try to figure out which one it is and what it means IMHO.