Which Chart Plotter?

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NormanS

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I am trying to decide which plotter to buy, and it looks like one of these three.

Standard Horizon CP300
Lowrance HDS 7M
Garmin GPS Map 750

Does anyone have any comments, based on experience of any of these?
 
Got an HDS8M Gen2 and we're pleased with it - fast responses and decent functionality - part of the Navico family of products, so plenty of options to go with it. I've had Garmins in the past and they are good too. Don't have any experience of Standard Horizon.

Lowrance have just released their Gen2 series and there are still some good deals around on the last of the original MK1 series - pretty much the same functionality, just a slower processor. Worth looking around. We have an HDS5M Gen1 at the chart table and that is also very good.
 
I used the CP 130 and in general found it very easy theough perhaps newer packages have better user interfaces. Planning on the unit was very good and never took long even for more complex passages. If you can try and see them all working in practice, after what is intuitive to me could be double dutch to you. One strong point for SH is their service which is in my experience excellent
 
NormanS said:
I am trying to decide which plotter to buy, and it looks like one of these three.

Standard Horizon CP300
Lowrance HDS 7M
Garmin GPS Map 750

Does anyone have any comments, based on experience of any of these?
Click to expand...

They will all do the job but you are not really comparing the same. SH CP300 is around £500 while the other two are nearer £1000.
 
I have recently purchased a Lowrance. Its got lots of functions I will never use. It takes a bit of gettin of used to, ie its not that intuative and the menu function is fiddly. Its not that easy to access the functiond you want.

Inputting waypoints is easy, its the editing/creating routes from the waypoint list thats a bit of a fafff as is naming waypoints.
In saying that it gets a fix very quickly and hasn't as yet "lost" itself. The engine read outs page is pretty pointless IMO. Why?, surely a mobo with engines as main motive power will have a set of gauges anyway!?

It also has and input for radar to give an overlay. Looking at the manual a radome, Lowrance obviously, can be plugged straight into it. I may have misread that, but it does give that impression looking at all the gumph that was in in the box.

It takes a variety of Navionics chat formats. I got it bundled with a Gold chart of England/Ireland. It does cover northern France. Screen resolution is pretty good. Zoomes down to a level where it even showed the pontoon we were moored on. Give options of north up, course up and the option of Forward view. It basically puts the cursor, you, at the bottom of the screen so you can "look" further ahead. With the split screen function it all gets a bit small and crowded and hard to read. I wouldn't bother it that myself.

I always think that the makers make these things too complicated for their own good. But then waht do I know. Some of it is a bit "gimmicky" really.

Just a few thoughts of the top of the noggin. All in all a good bit of kit, but the user interface needs getting used to. I'd give it an 8/10
 
Thanks for all the comments so far.
I'm not wanting to interface the plotter with anything else.
I have previously had a Raymarine A65, which used Navionics charts, which I like. The Lowrance uses navionics, but I cannot find an agent within Scotland who can show me an HDS 7M.
Today, I have seen a SH 300, up and running, and it seemed OK, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the C Map charts.
Tomorrow, I'm going to see a Garmin GPS Map 750, up and running.
Anyone here near Central Scotland with the Lowrance HDS 7M, that I could see?
 
I don't know if the others do something similar but from Garmin you can buy (about £35 I think) Homeport. You load this onto your computer at home and can easily set up waypoints, routes etc at your leisure in the warm and dry. Then just load onto an SD card for easy transfer to the plotter.

I have just installed a Garmin 750, not really used in earnest yet. So far very pleased, including AIS.

No connection etc to Garmin.

HTH
 
All Navionics based plotters come with a licence for the Navionics equivalent of Homeport.

Think carefully before purchasing anything with a touch screen - very nice in good weather, but some have a tendency to go crazy when they take a good splash of sea water. The Raymarine touch screen plotters also have switches and joystick controls and you can turn off the touchscreen in bad weather.
 
maby said:
All Navionics based plotters come with a licence for the Navionics equivalent of Homeport.

Think carefully before purchasing anything with a touch screen - very nice in good weather, but some have a tendency to go crazy when they take a good splash of sea water. The Raymarine touch screen plotters also have switches and joystick controls and you can turn off the touchscreen in bad weather.
Click to expand...

Garmin's are fine in the rain. A software update sorted that issue.
 
NormanS said:
I am trying to decide which plotter to buy, and it looks like one of these three.

Standard Horizon CP300
Click to expand...

Why is it better to buy one of these where you then have to buy the additional memory map chip (at a lot of money) when you can buy a GPS with maps included. (says he showing his ignorance)
 
Jim@sea said:
Why is it better to buy one of these where you then have to buy the additional memory map chip (at a lot of money) when you can buy a GPS with maps included. (says he showing his ignorance)
Click to expand...

I guess it is a question of functionality and future map updates - it is more critical that the charts in your marine plotter are up to date than in your car GPS - hence you need to take into account the cost and ease of future updates in your selection - which can affect the price comparisons.

If you only want a plotter, they are probably all very similar in capabilities. If you want it as the core of a system, then you have to look at the available peripherals. Having seen the demonstrations, I want to add Broadband Radar, and that currently means the Navico family of products.
 
NormanS said:
I am trying to decide which plotter to buy, and it looks like one of these three.

Standard Horizon CP300
Lowrance HDS 7M
Garmin GPS Map 750

Does anyone have any comments, based on experience of any of these?
Click to expand...

My constant problem with chartplotters is that if fitted at the helm, most seem to be difficult/very difficult/near impossible to read with sunlight on the screen.

I have a Garmin older series that is in the near impossible in sunlight range, and having used Raymarine C80 and C120 and a SH300 on other boats, rated them barely any better for brightness. I looked at an earlier cheap Lowrance 3500 last week on someone's boat, and it was much brighter than my old twice-the-price Garmin 3005.

As far as I am concerned, I aim to be able to go most places singlehanded if I need to, and a plotter at the helm is really useful - when you can see it. I've sailed more miles with minimal and sometimes no electronics at all than with modern gear, but I do like chartplotters.
 
I have owned both the Standard Horizon CP180 and then Garmins 5008/ 5012 ( the bigger brother of the 750).

The Garmins are amazing. We went so far as to spec our new boat with Garmin only equipment as it was so good on the last one.

Very easy to interface, very pretty and very easy to use.
 
A bit of info in this thread on Garmin Touchscreen chartplotter: A word of caution!
I'm a great fan of Standard Horizon, I've found the kit and update service excellent and had no issue with CMap, I've just extended my cartography to include S UK, W Atlantic, Med and N Africa - £269 (M-EW-M010). I'm not sure how that stacks against other formats.
If your preference is for Navionics cartography then maybe that is what you should stick with. The Navionics Homeport sounds like a good free extra.
 
I can also confirm that when caught in a squall last year, with rain p*ssing out of the sky, the touchscreen didnt like it.

However, it just needs to be dried with a tea towel and it all goes back to normal.

it was a one off, and while it was a little off-putting at the time, it didnt stop us from going with the same system with our new boat.

It is obvious that I am Garmin biased, however that 750s is a huge amount of kit for the money.

The touchscreen is more of a help than it has ever been a hindrence. However if you have fingers like a couple of fat pork sausages, then a keypad plotter may be better.

I guess you have to try them both out and make your choices. Good luck
 
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