which chart-plotter?

My advice is don't buy anything before you've had a chance to view them all side by side. The important things are a) display quaility b) cartography used c) size d) price, in that order. If you get to the SBS in Sept. you can compare them all. When I did this I was surprised by the differences, and one in particular really worked well for me...the others didn't. I won't tell you which it was (and all has probably changed again now), but don't just follow forum members choices or magazine tests. The latter in particular have missed a number of critical points over the years IMHO. Take some time over this...don't rush in.
 
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thanks again everyone, surely there comes a point where this thing will be too big for my boat, also the larger the screen the more power hungry the plotter? I only have a 120amp battery and 80 amp engine battery.

[/ QUOTE ]I don't think a 7" plotter will be anywhere near too big physically; something like a 12" plotter might be. As far as power consumption is concerned, according to Standard Horizon the CP180 draws about 500mA and the CP300 draws about 750mA. So in an 8-hour trip, the CP300 would only use about 6Ah. If you don't think you can spare that, you'd be well advised to invest in an extra battery before you buy a plotter.
 
Lowrance 5150C incl. Chart Card, and also one of the first to state fully EGNOS compliant - not just capable. Good resolution.
As example Mailspeed Marine who are not usually the cheapest are offering out at 295.99 + p&p

As another says - look at them all, and then decide. As to power req'ts we can get our Lowrance to sub 300mA draw very easily by choosing right display brightness etc.
 
I second that, as you need to find out the pros and cons of the way you would use it. I, for example, have the Garmin 276C and also use it in the car. I think it's a great peice of hardware and I know I have a days worth of battery if my power fails. I dislike having to pay so much to "update" charts and maps and I don't mind the Bluechart charts not looking exactly like the paper versions. I find the PC software too simple for managing waypoints, routes and tracks but I like having the CD versions of charts to route plan on the PC as well.
 
If you are tempted by a plotter/chart bundle then the Lowrance/Nauticpath is very attractive but if you plan to sail on the West Coast of Scotland beware; the Nauticpath does not give full coverage. There is no detail in certain parts of the Firth of Lorne

I have also had to replace the external antenna on my Lowrance set, the first one lasted just over a year. Very expensive.
 
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Lowrance 5150C incl. Chart Card, and also one of the first to state fully EGNOS compliant - not just capable. Good resolution.
As example Mailspeed Marine who are not usually the cheapest are offering out at 295.99 + p&p

[/ QUOTE ]That's twice you've recommended Lowrance in this thread, yet they don't support AIS, which the original poster says he wants. Don't understand your logic.

And at £295 plus shipping, Mailspeed certainly aren't the cheapest!
 
We have the SH 180i with AIS and are delighted with it. We have mounted it with the bracket passing through the instument panel, so that it is just an inch or two proud of the other instruments but the aerial gets a clear view of the sky and it's easy to open the plotter to change charts. I drilled a hole in the part of the bracket that's attached to the plotter itself, so that it can be padlocked onto the boat.

AIS has really proved itself on our summer trip across the North Sea - we only had to keep track of one or two ships because the AIS confirmed the others were well clear.

For the sort of budget you (and we) had, you cannot expect to use the plotter alone - you have to have paper charts, or something, to give a better overall picture, because the screen is too small to see details and the wider picture all at once. However, it's great for detailed pilotage and makes complicated routes so much more relaxing.

So, as others have said, look for the chart coverage that you want, then select the plotter according to price and screen resolution. For us, C-map was a priority and the PBO/YM review clinched it.
 
We have had the 'budget' Lowrance plotter for 3 years. It has been 99% faultless, highly intuitive and a great help for passage making and draws very little power. But I wouldn't recommend it to you. We've done a number of cross channel trips and now sail near Harwich and would love AIS on the plotter. We do have a RADAR set but that's mainly for bad visibility. The ability to overlay AIS data on the chartplotter with the COG and SOG information would make crossing a TSS so much less stressful. I know all the caveats about AIS but it's still awesome for a busy shipping area. Don't buy a plotter without it. Having said that, the screen resolution on the Lowrance is superb and I would look for one with at least as good a resolution. BTW - I agree the 4" screen size mentioned earlier is way too small, IIRC the Lowrance is 5" and only just big enough, but then it is less than £300 all in with the charts!!!
 
If you bring up the description by clicking on the image it tells you about the voucher for a chart of your choice worth £80 or so. Not sure what that gets you. Does also have a voucher for a big discount of a large area NW Atlantic chart
 
I agree with PVB entirely. You get what you pay for. The whole Horizon range is extremely good value however in comparison with most others. Going for a slightly bigger screen is something you will not regret although resolution and brightness are as others have said, important too. I would not worry about consumption. We are not talking about high current draw with any of them. However there is a very big question regarding build quality, service and back up. In my experience, although Garmin USA used to be a market leader the UK service and back up sucks. Standard Horizon have, so far, been very helpful to me with e-mails to the USA answered same day. I know someone who did have a problem with one in Spain and the dealer there e-mailed the USA with details and was told to give him a new one and send the old one back for investigation. Try that with Raymarine or Garmin!
Last word... don't discount user friendly menus. When you are in mid channel in fog it's good to have a user friendly easy used piece of kit, especially if you have a memory like mine. Standard Horizon are just so easy to use you wonder why others aren't!
 
I agree that size of screen, screen resolution and the usability of the menu system are important factors. We bought a Standard Horizon CP300i (i.e. the 7 inch screen, internal antenna version) a few weeks ago and have found it great on all those and other counts.

The cheapest price we found was at Redcar Marine Electronics, about £615 if I remember rightly, including a chart cartridge covering the whole of the UK and European Atlantic coast from Spain (maybe Gib and Morocco) to Denmark, plus Iceland, Greenland etc.). We bought it though at Marine Superstore, paying about £630 (also with same chart), as we could pick it up from there ourselves as we were worried about not having it for our imminent trip if there were any delays in postal delivery.

We used it on our recent 2 week trip to Brittany and Channel Islands and found it really useful. Very glad we paid the extra for the 7" screen rather than the 5" (my eyesight's not what it was). The screen and the C-Map mapping are very clear, but its really valuable to have more space on the screen. We somehow left the manual behind on the kitchen table, but still managed to work it fine. (Only thing that took a while to work out was how to dim the screen for night use - initially had to cover it with a bit of cardboard to save night vision - as this is not accessed via the menus. Now sussed and is very straightforward.)

We have it mounted on the back edge of the cabin top next to the companionway. To avoid theft we just take it off the bracket and put it in the cabin when not at sea. Cable comes out via an adjacent ventilator for the time being. Bracket is not as stout as those that fix on both sides (e.g. Lowrance) but has the advantage you can swivel the screen from side to side for better visibility from either side of the cockpit. Bulkhead mounting would also lose this (and the vertical angling) ability (and as suggested above, only the separate antenna version (without the i suffix) is bulkhead mountable, because of the projection of the antenna lump at the back/top[ of the box).

One thing that surprised me about using the plotter was how easy it was to combine with traditional navigation. E.g among a series of similar looking rocks and beacons you could identify a specific beacon on the plotter chart, use the cursor to get a bearing from the GPS position, and then check this (and, of course another mark for triangulation) using the hand-bearing compass.

My only gripe with the plotter so far is that I can't find any way to slow the 'update' rate for the GPS, so the Speed Over Ground and Course Over the Ground change every second or so which is too fast for a slow moving, rolling small yacht and results in erratic, rapidly changing figures. It would preferably be slowed up to provide more consistent and easily digestible values. This could easily be done on a Garmin (non-plotter) GPS I used to have, but I can't find it in the Standard Horizon Manual. (Any ideas, anyone?)

Overall, though a great bit of kit that provide re-assurance in tricky waters and fog, and is particularly useful in a small boat where the nav-station is the cockpit. Have asked Santa for the AIS to plug into it!
 
thanks again everyone, paricularly taking time to write such long and useful replies. i'm edging towards the SH300 but will take the advice and try many at the boat show. Just another little question which could probably wait till the boat show but does the Standard Horizon connect to other DSC VHF radios? the SH literature suggests it only connects to Standard Horizon DSC radios?

Thanks

Mike
 
The Standard Horizon CP180/CP180i and CP300/CP300i can connect to other brands of DSC VHFs. It does this using NMEA 0183 outputs from the plotter (which can also drive your autopilot, etc.) to tell the VHF your position. The DSC VHF must be able to receive NMEA sentences 'DSC' and 'DSE', which as far as i can I understand it (i.e. not far) is normal.

The Standard Horizon (and possibly other brands ) DSC VHF takes it a stage further and can send signals back to the plotter (again using NMEA 0183 code). This means the plotter will show the position of any mayday or calling vessel/station, or the position of a vessel to which you have sent a DSC position request, on your screen chart. (Without this facility the position is only given (in Lat/Long numbers) on the display of your DSC VHF.

CP180 & CP180i have 3 NMEA outputs and 2 inputs.
CP300 has 5 NMEA outputs and 3 inputs. The CP300i has 5 NMEA inputs and 2 inputs (of course you need fewer inputs for the 'i' version as the GPS antenna is internal).

We haven't yet connected our plotter to our (Cobra) DSC VHF as we are lacking the relevant plug/cable for the back of the VHF. At the moment the only connection we have is the 2 wires for 12v power. Intend to connect the autopilot in the fullness of time. The plotter can display readings from sounders, logs etc. if they have NMEA 01834 outputs, but ours don't.

Hope that's clear and answers your question.
 
great thanks, answers all my questions, I forgot all about the AutoPilot aspect, got to get myself one now! BTW I also have the Cobra DSC VHF.

Mike
 
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[ QUOTE ]
Lowrance 5150C incl. Chart Card, and also one of the first to state fully EGNOS compliant - not just capable. Good resolution.
As example Mailspeed Marine who are not usually the cheapest are offering out at 295.99 + p&p

[/ QUOTE ]That's twice you've recommended Lowrance in this thread, yet they don't support AIS, which the original poster says he wants. Don't understand your logic.

And at £295 plus shipping, Mailspeed certainly aren't the cheapest!

[/ QUOTE ]

My logfic is to answer the original first post, his request about AIS is later and in fact is not a fiull spec req't - he just hopes he has enough left of his budget to add later.
Hubby and I have looked at AIS displayed on plotters and feel that unless screen size is large enough - it clutters up already compact screens. It is nice to have info that it gives, but so far we haven't had problems being without.
Another post refers to replacement antena for external equipped. Any handheld GPS supplies data to the Lowrance via NMEA 0183 in fact. The recent price in replacement LEI antena is we believe due to the addition of full EGNOS capability, not just compatibility as most others. Like said in first reply - there will be recc'd sets of various makes and models. Each are good in their own right. It comes down to price and use in the end. Our Lowrance was best resolution and price at the time with card included. We still find it does what it says on the box. Only once did we have trouble and that is due to the stiff cabling they use on external antena sets, it was trying to twist the plug in the socket. It caused intermittent loss of signal. Once we found out - took couple of minutes only, we never had it again. Talking to others with same set-up we believe that people that bought new antena may have had same problem.
 
Another plus for the Standard Horizon models is the wide range of NMEA inputs and outputs available, my 300i can supply gps data to more intruments than I have and accept inputs back from them.

Route planing is easy did my fist route with 20 waypoints in under an hour.

My only complaint so far on the C-Map charts is they dont include the forth and clyde canal, though the opportunities for getting lost were very slim with a team of BW staff accompanying the boat for most of the way.
 
Its interesting how many people have recommended SH products, I'm sure and hope they are good long term. However, I seem to remember only a couple of years ago there was the same enthusiasm for Navman products.

Is it me or have there been loads of posts on the forum recently about failing Navman products, I know Becky had loads of trouble with hers, and don't get me wrong, I know there is no connection between SH and Navman.

Mmmm, interesting.
 
I have used SH and Navman products as well as a few others. Personally I find SH difficult to use and Navman quite simple. You'll find other who say the other way around. I would go to the boat show in a couple of weeks and try to use each model. Try adding 3 or 4 waypoints and then turn them into a route. See if you can do it without the manual or help from the stand staff. If you can you're halfway there.
 
GPS update frequency...

Hi. I had the opposite problem of slow update - about once per minute and the pointer icon didn't point in the direction of travel! After peering through the handbook and finding nothing, emailing SH and receiving no reply...I started pressing buttons and discovered a "hidden" menu within the GPS page - chose the other option and am now in your "happy" position that the updates are rapid and the pointer icons are correctly oriented and I quite like that! We have the 300i connected on a flying lead; it easily dismounts and can then be used at one's leisure whilst sitting comfortably to compose and check routes for the onward passages. Paper/Pilots give the big picture; Mk1 eyeball for close quarters in anongst the rocks and shallows. Plotter just makes things so much lighter work when short handed. The bigger screen of the cp500 would be nice but for now we're happy with the cp300i and c-mapMax.
 
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