when should i renew my plotter card to get the latest version?

Burnham Bob

Burnham Bob

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I have a plotter that uses a Jeppeson C-MAP card. As it's the east coast and holland and germany card (not the english channel) it seems that every other day a new wind farm appears so charts need regular correction. Won't be serious sailing until April/May so when do forumites recommend I renew my card to get one as up to date as possible?
 
Hi Bob

I just ordered a new plotter and need a new C-Map 'local map card' for the North East coast (Bridlington Bay to Montrose), my supplier said if I can wait until March there is a new updated version coming out, so I would check the one you want IS THE LATEST version.

Mike
 
dunmor said:
they did mine, if you go to their website they will send you the updates, you give them your cc details as long as you send
the card back to them within a specified time they dont charge you.
Click to expand...

Now, are you sure you're talking about chart cartridge updates, not plotter software updates?
 
pvb said:
Now, are you sure you're talking about chart cartridge updates, not plotter software updates?
Click to expand...

I'm with you.
software updates free (supply credit card details just in case you don't return the cartridge)
AFAIK no chart update.
Be warned though, do a software update and you loose all WP's plus every time you turn the plotter on you get a warning message that you have to acknowledge, that your chart cartridge is out of date and should be updated :mad:
 
Burnham Bob said:
I have a plotter that uses a Jeppeson C-MAP card. As it's the east coast and holland and germany card (not the english channel) it seems that every other day a new wind farm appears so charts need regular correction. Won't be serious sailing until April/May so when do forumites recommend I renew my card to get one as up to date as possible?
Click to expand...

If you decide to go through with this, and it ends up costing you money, there is a fair to good chance you may recover about 50% of the cost by selling the old card on EBay (provided it's not locked to your plotter in some way).
There always seem to be plotters for sale - without chart cards, so there is a 2nd hand market for the cards, despite the drawbacks of being out of date....
Graeme
 
pagoda said:
If you decide to go through with this, and it ends up costing you money, there is a fair to good chance you may recover about 50% of the cost by selling the old card on EBay (provided it's not locked to your plotter in some way).
There always seem to be plotters for sale - without chart cards, so there is a 2nd hand market for the cards, despite the drawbacks of being out of date....
Graeme
Click to expand...

Do you actually have a plotter? Or indeed any idea of how chart updates work? Let me explain - when you have a chart cartridge updated, they just write the updated data to your existing chart cartridge, and the cost is about 50% of the cost of a new chart cartridge. So you don't end up with anything to sell on eBay.
 
pvb said:
Do you actually have a plotter? Or indeed any idea of how chart updates work? Let me explain - when you have a chart cartridge updated, they just write the updated data to your existing chart cartridge, and the cost is about 50% of the cost of a new chart cartridge. So you don't end up with anything to sell on eBay.
Click to expand...
This is not always correct. Twice I have tried to have C-Map NT+ cards updated to be told that the update would not fit on the old card. I had to buy new bigger cards for the update. I was left with the old cards which I sold on Ebay
 
White Diamond said:
This is not always correct. Twice I have tried to have C-Map NT+ cards updated to be told that the update would not fit on the old card. I had to buy new bigger cards for the update. I was left with the old cards which I sold on Ebay
Click to expand...

Most people don't have that problem with updates, as opposed to upgrades. (Cue loads of people saying "that happened to me too" ;) )
 
White Diamond said:
You seem to be the only person distinguishing between upgrades and updates!
Click to expand...

The OP was asking about updates, and normally these are simply done by reprogramming the existing cartridge, although you seem to have had problems. I only mentioned upgrades because some people choose to upgrade their cartridge to, for example, a wider area, and in this case there may be a need for a new cartridge with additional memory.
 
White Diamond said:
This is not always correct. Twice I have tried to have C-Map NT+ cards updated to be told that the update would not fit on the old card. I had to buy new bigger cards for the update. I was left with the old cards which I sold on Ebay
Click to expand...

That's the sort of circumstances I was talking about. My plotter uses Navionics cards, FYI. Updates are fairly costly- as are new cards.....
 
I juat got this reply from Jeppeson

Our charts are updated three times a year (in March, June and October) and it is
recommended for our customers to update them at least once a year in order to stay
safe on water.

So for a full season's sailing it looks like the March update. Must admit, with up to date paper charts and the back up of my IMRAY digital charts I won't be updating the CMAP every year. I really only use the chart plotter for a quick picture of where i am i- as opposed to detailed navigation re hazards etc - that's plotted on IMRAY at home (which us updated and corrected in a montly basis) and entered into the waypoints of the chart plotter, and progress recorded on paper charts every hour under way.
 
Burnham Bob said:
I juat got this reply from Jeppeson

Our charts are updated three times a year (in March, June and October) and it is
recommended for our customers to update them at least once a year in order to stay
safe on water.

So for a full season's sailing it looks like the March update.
Click to expand...

I run Navionics on a Raymarine plotter, with the 28XG whole of UK chart, and update the chart cartridge every couple of years. Update is about £100. I noticed that Navionics say that they made 19,000 changes to the 28XG chart in 2011, quite a lot of changes!

Incidentally, Navionics now have a rolling programme of revisions, and if you buy a new chart or an update you can apparently get unlimited free updates for a year.
 
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