Chartplotter - a choice!

[rirvine]

If you are considering adding a chart plotter to your instrumentation you should consider using a PC (or Mac) and one of the chart plotter software packages that are now available. These packages have all the features of (and in case more than) than propriety chart plotter systems at a fraction of the costs. Yes, there is the drawn back that standard PC are not water proof and therefore must be below deck plus used PC's (and Mac's) are not expensive to replace from time to time.  There are "water proof" monitors coming on the market that can be used as "at the helm" repeaters (<$1000).  Also updated vector charts and regular updates are now downloadable from NOAA free of cost.

I have successfully installed a used laptop Mac interfaced to my Raymarine instruments running the package MacENC {http://www.macenc.com/} without a great deal of difficulty - total costs $800.

[rirvine]

More information about the available software can be found in:

Practical Sailor  September 2006 (Volume 32 Number 9)

article is   Nav Saftware Wars

www.practical-sailor.com

[foursailing]

I was lookng the Garmin 3210 or 3010 - I believe the only difference is the number of ports.  I like the idea of having the display right at the helm.  I don't like the fact that it block s visibility (10" display).  Does anyone have any experience with this unit or the smaller 3206 (6" dipslay)?

Thanks,

Bill

[Sailing Steve]

I installed a Garmin 172C with the internal antenna at the beginning of last season.  The screen is 4.5" diagonal, and I find it just fine for size and resolution.  I have it mounted on a RAM mount at the helm, which lets me move it inside to the chart table in the evening or for storage.  No regrets at all.

[Jack Hutteball]

Bill,
I have the Garmon 3006 (an earlier version of the 3206 but same size) and really like it.  The screen size is great, and I would not want it much smaller.  I have it mounted in a Navpod case on the angle part of the pedestal guard, and below the speed and depth instruments.  I like it at the helm and it does not block vision any more than the other instruments do.
Jack

[foursailing]

Thanks to all for the feedback  - sounds like the 6" screen (3206) should be sufficient and the 10" (3210) might be overkill.

Bill

[David Sanner]

Having a marinized GPS (at least as a backup) seems like a good place to start.
But adding a laptop running charting software can add some really nice features and
interface options that are hard to find on any chartplotter, certainly for the money.

Even if you already have a nice chartplotter at the helm, the larger screen laptop with a
mouse & keyboard down below for planning or logging/reviewing data can add a lot of benefit.

* And of course you can use your laptop onboard for playing music, watching movies,
    checking the weather, grib files, email, etc.

RayMarine and Rosepoint/Maptech make very nice plotting packages as do a few other
companies.  Rosepoint/Maptech supports the free NOAA ENC vector and raster charts. 
There are also a couple free options out there as well as MapSource from Garmin.
MacENC is a very affordable and powerful program for the Mac and supports
AIS, free NOAA charts (vector and ENC), GRIB weather files and more.

One option is to have a GPS at the helm (with or without charts)  and send
that data to the computer below.  I keep my laptop in the port hanging
locker. It's connected to a 17" lcd monitor (12v) that's mounted on an
extending arm/mount that rotates into the companionway.  (see attachment)
I've added a cheap external keyboard and a wireless mouse.

Instruments that output NMEA can beconnect via a simple serial cable.  If you
have RayMarine instruments all you need is a converter box to go from
RM format to a single NMEA serial cable that you connect to your computer's
serial port.... depth, wind, boat speed, heading, etc.   Many plotting packages
can not only display that data but combine the data and display all sorts of
information about heading, boat performance, and wind analysis.... stuff
that you probably won't find in most chartplotters... as well as stuff you'll be
hard pressed to find a use for.

I have a small Garmin etrex vista at the helm w/charts (see attachment) 
that sends GPS data and, since it has a flux compass, also sends heading
data to the computer.  A couple serial  to USB adapters connect the NMEA
data from my wind & boat speed sensors to give me the rest.   
It's functionally a 2 station charting setup for about 1/10th the cost.

I'm not sure what a 17-20" chartplotter with 1280x960 or higher resolution would
cost...  but my old laptop with a $200 external screen (both run directly off of 12v)
sure looks nice displaying a full screen vector chart... or a movie for that matter.

To recap: whether you have the lastest chartplotter or a simple handheld GPS with no
charting, adding a computer with it's larger screen and mouse/keyboard
interface can bring a new set of features into mix, in a non-marine price range. 
Or if you have enough 'toys' ... just get out there and sail!

[Craig Illman]

David - I like your display setup! I've installed SeaClear software (http://www.sping.com/seaclear) on the wife's old laptop, but the screen is unusable in any kind of sunlight. I picked up a $50 USB external GPS antenna and with the free NOAA charts, it's a nice application. It's even supposed to display AIS information. My question is what brand/model of display you have and where did you pickup the mount?

Craig

p.s. I appreciate all your efforts on maintaining this website!

[rirvine]

Monitors:
For a second onboard computer monitor, you might check out:
http://www.argonautcomputer.com/tflex-G6-sunlight-readable-monitor.php
You can see a sample installation at:
http://www.etapcharterlease.com/page34/page34.html

AIS:
I have just completed the installation of my Christmas gift – an AIS interface. I used the:
Smart Radio SR161 AIS Receiver
Smart Radio VHF Antenna Splitter
The details can be found on:
http://www.milltechmarine.com/products.htm

All interfaced to the macENC software package running on a MAC laptop. The details can be found at:
http://www.macenc.com/

I have found the support from both Milltech Marine and macENC to be outstanding.

As David said once you have a computer interfaced to one boat instruments, one can do all sort so fun stuff – it is just software. 

Some of the fun can be seen at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crews_nest/

Regards, Ray

[Craig Illman]

Ray -

Now I see why you win all those Fleet 1 races!    That setup looks very elegant, but a little beyond my current budget. After all, the wife's old laptop is seven years old! I hope the marine electronics manufacturers would start to realize that connecting to a standard physical NMEA 2000 bus, instead of their proprietary buses, might actually result in increased sales by letting people mix & match best of breed displays and sensors. Raymarine seems to have a lot of market share even with all the complaints I read on this and other forums. Hopefully, by my next haulout, Maretron will have expanded their product line and Garmin, Raymarine, etcetera won't charge a fortune for their bus convertors.

In the meantime, I'll use my Garmin eTrex and Maptech chartbook.

- Craig

[rirvine]

Craig:

Having a PC (or MAC) on-board and connecting it to recieve data from various tranducers (wind, depth, speed, GPS) is the first big step.  After that it is just a software problem.

Good deal of the fun is solving the networking problems associated with the instruments. Even when the manufacturers claim to support the NMEA standard, they use the term "standard" very loosely.  About the best one can hope for is that they support the electrical and data transmission sentence structure of NMEA.  The data in the sentences is a totally different situation. In the case of Raymarine, the data in the sentences depends on which Raymarine instrument you connect to – a number have both NMEA and Seatalk connections.  I have found that their Seatalk to NMEA box to be the worst offender especially in the area of waypoints and autopilot related data.

Since all manufacturers have a "closed" system model for their products, they provide very limited documentation – much like to computer industry of 20 years ago.  One would hope that NMEA 2000 would lead them to a more "Open" systems model.  I am sure that they believe that being "open" puts their business at risk with low cost PC replacing their high end (and high margin) display boxes.

Enjoy the challenges

Ray