Using Antares Charts on an Android tablet?

[Quandary]

I could ask Bob Bradfield but I think he does enough for the meagre subscription without having to deal with muppets like me, so I am hoping someone here will be able to give me the sort of simple advice I need.
Last year I had the Antares detail charts as a library in memory Map on my laptop, to select one I right clicked and selected from the short list of maps available at the cursor. This winter after buying the 2015 set (fantastic detail coverage) I thought it might be a good idea to copy the Antares charts to my wife's Samsung tablet ( Android with inbuilt GPS) and followed Bob's instructions, downloaded the Memory Map app. and then copied the 'QCT for Memory Map' charts from the 'Charts' folder to the SD card of the tablet. I presume it will find an Antares chart if there is one for the tablet location but at the moment, if I want to examine any chart, all I can do is open the chart list and select from a very long list of locations. I presume there is some way to make the small scale chart selector map work on the tablet, so how do I do that?
Do I need to copy some of the contents of the 'Files' from the unzipped charts folder? if so do I need all of them or just some?
I regret if you younger guys find it hard to cope with such incompetence and ignorance but would really appreciate it if one of you had the time and inclination to give an old duffer simple step by step instructions.
My objective is to use Seatrak on the laptop for navigation and tides and the Antares charts on the tablet for anchoring.

 

[cpedw]

I'm not sure that I've understood your problem.

On my Nexus Android, the QCT folder has to be in the correct folder. For me it's Download/Memory-Map/DMS/GB . There are Memory Map folders there called OS2012 and Maps_v5.
You should be able to check things are working by selecting the strange icon that looks like a stack of 3 sheets of paper. Clicking it brings up a list of several charts that MM thinks are relevant to your current location. There should be a few with BA names - admiralty charts, the OS road map and at least AC Selector West Coast which is the Antares master chart. Click on it and you get the coastal outline with red rectangles where detailed charts are available. To get one of those to show, move it to the centre of the screen then zoom in a lot. There will probably be an area view such as AC Selector Mull too.

Or are you wanting to access the "mobile website" that Bob describes? You get that by unzipping the file "Antares Charts2015 Mobile" on a PC then transferring the entire structure to anywhere you like on the tablet. Activate by running the ANtares CHarts double click to start in a web browser. Then you can see the chart selectors and find the pilotage notes for each chartlet. You can't get to a detailed view of a chart from this route though.

Does any of this help?

Derek

 

[Quandary]

No, I am afraid not.
I can access the various map folders on the Mem. Map App. but the Antares one opens as a list of the hundreds of charts. On the programme on the lap top I can use the cursor to select any of these from a small scale map, I do not even need to know the name or be anywhere near the location. I would like to be able to do this on the tablet without having to read through a hundred titles to find the one I want.
Am I just expecting too much?

 

[double_ender]

Hi
I had what I think was a similar problem on an Android tablet and it was that Memory Map was not finding where the charts were stored and using another file manager app to access files on sd card solved the problem. Memory Map Support sent me details I'll send you a PM with the file manager app when I get home. We are at Ardfern so no cabal trip this spring

Malcolm Feshie of Caladh

 

[cpedw]

Am I just expecting too much?

No I don't think so. Are you trying to access Antares through Memory Map or via the mobile website?
If it's Memory Map then make sure the QCT folder is in the same directory as the MM maps are in. You also must go through the MM activation process while the tablet is connected to the internet. You'll also need to have your MM username and password to hand. This only needs to be done once.
If it's the "website", then you need to start by opening the Chart_Selector.htm file in the Introduction_files folder. It sounds as though you might be opening the file Chart_List.htm instead.

 

[dunedin]

Once it is setup properly you should be able just to keep zooming in on MemoryMap and will find the charts

MM generally comes with a general UK road / coast map of the Uk. And many of us also bought the admiralty charts for £25 for the whole of UK.

So I looking for say the Antares chart of Eriskay Acarseid Mor for shoreside viewing I can use the general map to find the general area, then keep zooming in and it goes through the different charts - keep moving the intended location to the centre of the screen and zooming in again
If using for real with the GPS on this will keep you centred on screen so either just keep zooming in as before, or tap the symbol looking like the tack of three sheets of paper to get the chart list.
Works really well on the Android app on my phone

(On the other hand my MemoryMap setup on iPad is busted and not working, along with lost Yachting World subscription and lots of other stuff after I had to change my AppleID, and many support hours later only partially sorted, but that's a different matter - you might be amused to know that ANNOYED1 is not an acceptable Apple password as "too commonly used" ;-)

 

[Quandary]

Once it is setup properly you should be able just to keep zooming in on MemoryMap and will find the charts

MM generally comes with a general UK road / coast map of the Uk. And many of us also bought the admiralty charts for £25 for the whole of UK.

So I looking for say the Antares chart of Eriskay Acarseid Mor for shoreside viewing I can use the general map to find the general area, then keep zooming in and it goes through the different charts - keep moving the intended location to the centre of the screen and zooming in again
If using for real with the GPS on this will keep you centred on screen so either just keep zooming in as before, or tap the symbol looking like the tack of three sheets of paper to get the chart list.
Works really well on the Android app on my phone

(On the other hand my MemoryMap setup on iPad is busted and not working, along with lost Yachting World subscription and lots of other stuff after I had to change my AppleID, and many support hours later only partially sorted, but that's a different matter - you might be amused to know that ANNOYED1 is not an acceptable Apple password as "too commonly used" ;-)

What you describe is what I do on my laptop using the full (paid for) Memory Map package. I can open West of Scotland, right click on any location and then select from the short list of Admiralty and Antares charts for that location. I can not get it to work on the Tablet in the same way so I thought there might be an element missing which forms the link between the small scale index charts and the large scale harbour charts. I have not copied the MM Admiralty set to the tablet as I only want the Antares charts there and the chart lists are long enough. The index charts are mixed with the large scale harbour charts, I would prefer them in a separate folder to make them easier to find.
It is probably not a problem at sea when the GPS will help find the required chart but I was hoping to study some locations at home or before setting off, but then I suppose I can easily do that on the laptop.
Sounds as if it might be worth asking Memory map the question.

 

[Quandary]

No I don't think so. Are you trying to access Antares through Memory Map or via the mobile website?
If it's Memory Map then make sure the QCT folder is in the same directory as the MM maps are in. You also must go through the MM activation process while the tablet is connected to the internet. You'll also need to have your MM username and password to hand. This only needs to be done once.
If it's the "website", then you need to start by opening the Chart_Selector.htm file in the Introduction_files folder. It sounds as though you might be opening the file Chart_List.htm instead.

Thanks, Malcolm, So Feshie has not been home this winter.
I can open the charts OK, the problem I am addressing is scrolling through such a long list to select them when I do not have to do it using the similar but larger chart package on the lap top. I suspect I am just exhibiting laziness, a characteristic that was first pointed out to me when I went to school.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I've never managed to the the Antares Charts to work with Memory Map on my tablet, probably just because I can't follow the large number of intricate steps needed to make it happen. I just look at them as image files.

 

[Trop Cher]

Glad it's not just me!
I managed to get them to work with Memory Map on my tablet in 2013, but failed/gave up last year. So far this year I've installed them on my laptop, but I keep putting off doing the installation onto the tablet, this thread has inspired me to not put it off any longer!

 

[jdc]

I've made them work as .kap files with 'SeaClear' and with 'SeaPro'. Seapro was picky about the number of colours and I had to use the program 'imgkap' to convert from 128 to 127 colours (you only need about 10 anyway!) but the files then rendered fine and mixed and matched seamlessly with the smaller-scale vector and raster files I already had, the Antares charts being selected when zoomed in.

SeaClear runs on both Android and a laptop. SeaPro only on a laptop. These chart plotters are a bit of a pain 'tho, but seem to follow more or less the same process: you have to put the files in the correct directory, and then run a catalogue building routine, and then they show ok. With Antares charts it's a good idea to delete (or at least not copy to the same directory) the overview maps else these are frequently selected by the chart plotter. I've not got it, but Memory Map probably requires much the same procedure.

On Android devices there is an additional complication: the file organising program as delivered may be a restricted (actually useless) one which won't let you move all file types. On my Anroid tablet I had to remove the default filer and download another (free) one before I could put files where I needed them.