gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:41:31 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:22:54 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

I've got a copy of OpenCPN but the version I downloaded does not
contain any utilities to create virtual ports. Is there an accessory
package that I should get?

The virtual port software comes with the USB GPS that I mentioned.

O.K., came with mine too :-)

To measure distamce and direction on OpenCPN I create a route with one
leg and display the properties. There may be other ways also.

It is laziness I know but I like the ability to stretch out the COG
line to see whether I need to correct a bit for the tide. And, my wife
is always asking "when we are gong to get there". It is easy to read
off distance to 'X' and say well it's 10 more miles to go :-)

And I really dislike having to go into an anchorage in the dark!

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:04:16 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

It is laziness I know but I like the ability to stretch out the COG
line to see whether I need to correct a bit for the tide. And, my wife
is always asking "when we are gong to get there". It is easy to read
off distance to 'X' and say well it's 10 more miles to go :-)

And I really dislike having to go into an anchorage in the dark!

You can plot out the route in advance. Once you activate the route,
a data window appears which shows your ETA, Time-to-go and
Distance-to-go. Time-to-go and ETA are based on your speed of course
and subject to change. We find this very useful on our trawler where
we have reasonably good control over speed. As soon as we get
underway in the morning I'll adjust speed for an ETA 30 to 60 minutes
before sunset and monitor/re-adjust as the day progresses.

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

On Tue, 7 Sep 2010 01:01:15 +0000 (UTC), JohnF
wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

I have a - no idea of the name of the thing, probably Chinese anyway
- Bluetooth GPS receiver. Came with a mini-disk with drivers which
installed a "Bluetooth serial port" and IIRC allowed one to change the
port number as required. Connected it up, configured the port and the
two chart plotter applications I have worked with no problems. As far
as I know the chart-plotter software all simply accesses one or
another of the serial ports to receive a data stream and doesn't care
what generates that data.

The problem I had was that the GPS had to be located above deck and
the battery in the Bluetooth GPS would run down in a few hours so I
adapted it to run on 12 VDC. But that was the only problem.

Thanks, Bruce. My handheld (and other handhelds I've seen)
also only work in the cockpit, which is why I thought bluetooth
might be preferable -- maybe leave the receiver in the cockpit
and the netbook at a nav station as near as possible to the
companionway. The ebay gps I linked to claims (repeat, claims)
to run 15 hours off a charge. Anyway, for the time being
I took Wayne's usb-wired gps recommendation, and will play with
that for a while.

I used the Blue Tooth GPS to get a remote GPS. The original idea was
to have an independent portable chart plotter system that could be
used in the cockpit for navigating in close quarters - up a river for
example, and to work (hopefully) if the main system failed (which is
linked to a Garmin fixed mount GPS), so the thought was to get a
remote GPS to link to my Eee computer and the Blue Tooth gizmo was the
first I came across that looked like it would work.

My feeling is that 15 hours of life is expecting a LOT. But maybe?

Which two chart-plotter applications have you worked with?
My small amount of googling suggested
http://www.fugawi.com/web/products/f..._navigator.htm
might be best, but it sure ain't cheap. I'd rather play with
something way less expensive, at least until I know what I'm doing.

I've got Cmap-ECS and MapSea. Both are fairly old versions, the CMAP,
probably 10 years old. My experience is that all of the chart plotter
applications can be used and which ever one fits the type of sailing
that you do is best. I find that I use almost none of the fancy
features that the newer versions have, as about the only "feature" I
use is the electronic range and bearing that CMAP has.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

On Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:41:17 +0000 (UTC), JohnF
wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:
JohnF wrote:

What's a good and not-too-expensive hardware/software combination
to use with a (bluetooth enabled) net/notebook running winxp for
a chartplotter application? Electronics on recent charter didn't
work right, and I'd like to put something together on my netbook
that's a little better than my handheld gps. I was looking at
gps receiver
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=270630743828
software
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280312392457
Is that a good choice? And will that gps receiver play nicely
with maptech navigator lite, that came with my chartkit?
(And is there anything for linux? -- that's what I prefer running,
but dual boot my netbook with winxp for occasions where windows is
the only game in town.) Thanks,

There is a relatively new (and free) charting package called OpenCPN.
It will work with just about any GPS:
http://opencpn.org/
http://opencpn.org/download

I don't have any experience with Bluetooth GPS units, however I
recently purchased a USB GPS that I'm very happy with:
http://www.amazon.com/USGlobalSat-BU...bled-Receiver/
dp/B000V5TV22

It is very accurate, sensitive, quick to acquire satellites,
inexpensive, small, and water proof. It has worked with every
software mapping package that I've tried it with including Maptech,
Street Map (both USA and Europe), and OpenCPN. It also comes with
utility software and drivers which create a virtual COM port, displays
the port # of the GPS unit, displays satellite info, and displays NMEA
sentences.

Thanks a lot for the recommendations, Wayne. I ordered that receiver
from Amazon (does it acquire satellites from the cabin, or only cockpit?),
and downloaded (windows, linux, source versions of) OpenCPN,
along with its documentation and their converted pilot charts.
And I'm surprised there's a linux version (but haven't had a chance
to install/play with anything yet). From the main page I see it
supports various chart formats, and assume the vector ones are better
than raster. Is there some reason OpenCPN had to specially convert them?
And are there some standard chart download sites, or, even better,
some inexpensive dvd's with them all? And some sites that explain the
formats, copyrights (I'm aware there are some proprietary ones), etc?
And, finally, I'm realizing I'll need a small efficient inverter
for prolonged use. You have a recommendation for that? Thanks again,

There are arguments pro and con regarging raster vs vector charts. I
personally prefer the appearance of raster charts. You can download
US charts for free from the NOAA web site:

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/

The GPS is sensitive enough that it works inside my house going
through two different layers of structure. No problem at all on a
boat unless you have steel or aluminum decks.

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

In article ,
says...
On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:10:44 +0200, Sjouke Burry
wrote:

Have you tried google earth? it has e few cute gps modes, and is free...

It also requires an internet connection unless you have discovered a
way to download their imagery.


Google Earth will download and cache 2GB of tile data. On a recent
trip from Ketchikan to Bellingham, that was enough to give me pretty
good data for the BC coast and Queen Charlotte Islands. It was
a bit of a pain to scroll through the projected path at the resolution
I thought appropriate. However, I think you can find scripts or
programs that will prefill your cache with a selected area and
resolution.


Mark Borgerson

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

In article ,
says...
On Tue, 7 Sep 2010 01:01:15 +0000 (UTC), JohnF
wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:

I have a - no idea of the name of the thing, probably Chinese anyway
- Bluetooth GPS receiver. Came with a mini-disk with drivers which
installed a "Bluetooth serial port" and IIRC allowed one to change the
port number as required. Connected it up, configured the port and the
two chart plotter applications I have worked with no problems. As far
as I know the chart-plotter software all simply accesses one or
another of the serial ports to receive a data stream and doesn't care
what generates that data.

The problem I had was that the GPS had to be located above deck and
the battery in the Bluetooth GPS would run down in a few hours so I
adapted it to run on 12 VDC. But that was the only problem.

Thanks, Bruce. My handheld (and other handhelds I've seen)
also only work in the cockpit, which is why I thought bluetooth
might be preferable -- maybe leave the receiver in the cockpit
and the netbook at a nav station as near as possible to the
companionway. The ebay gps I linked to claims (repeat, claims)
to run 15 hours off a charge. Anyway, for the time being
I took Wayne's usb-wired gps recommendation, and will play with
that for a while.

I used the Blue Tooth GPS to get a remote GPS. The original idea was
to have an independent portable chart plotter system that could be
used in the cockpit for navigating in close quarters - up a river for
example, and to work (hopefully) if the main system failed (which is
linked to a Garmin fixed mount GPS), so the thought was to get a
remote GPS to link to my Eee computer and the Blue Tooth gizmo was the
first I came across that looked like it would work.

On my recent trip, I used my IPad with the Navionics chart pack
for British Columbia for this purpose. To get the GPS on the
IPad, you need to get the 3G-enabled version. That adds $130
to the basic cost. However, the full BC chart pack was just $29.
That's several hundred dollars less than the Canadian electronic charts
from other vendors. The IPad got good GPS signal inside the
wheelhouse of the Nordic Tug 37 we had chartered.

My feeling is that 15 hours of life is expecting a LOT. But maybe?

Which two chart-plotter applications have you worked with?
My small amount of googling suggested
http://www.fugawi.com/web/products/f..._navigator.htm
might be best, but it sure ain't cheap. I'd rather play with
something way less expensive, at least until I know what I'm doing.

I've got Cmap-ECS and MapSea. Both are fairly old versions, the CMAP,
probably 10 years old. My experience is that all of the chart plotter
applications can be used and which ever one fits the type of sailing
that you do is best. I find that I use almost none of the fancy
features that the newer versions have, as about the only "feature" I
use is the electronic range and bearing that CMAP has.

I tried the Garmin charts with the NRoute application in BC. It wasn't
nearly as good as the IPad app.


Mark Borgerson

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

On Tue, 7 Sep 2010 07:44:26 -0700, Mark Borgerson
wrote:

In article ,
says...
On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:10:44 +0200, Sjouke Burry
wrote:

Have you tried google earth? it has e few cute gps modes, and is free...

It also requires an internet connection unless you have discovered a
way to download their imagery.


Google Earth will download and cache 2GB of tile data. On a recent
trip from Ketchikan to Bellingham, that was enough to give me pretty
good data for the BC coast and Queen Charlotte Islands. It was
a bit of a pain to scroll through the projected path at the resolution
I thought appropriate. However, I think you can find scripts or
programs that will prefill your cache with a selected area and
resolution.


I'd like to learn how to do that because it would be useful for areas
that are not well charted.

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

Wayne.B wrote:
JohnF wrote:
Wayne.B wrote:
JohnF wrote:

What's a good and not-too-expensive hardware/software combination
to use with a (bluetooth enabled) net/notebook running winxp for
a chartplotter application? Electronics on recent charter didn't
work right, and I'd like to put something together on my netbook
that's a little better than my handheld gps. I was looking at
gps receiver
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=270630743828
software
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280312392457
Is that a good choice? And will that gps receiver play nicely
with maptech navigator lite, that came with my chartkit?
(And is there anything for linux? -- that's what I prefer running,
but dual boot my netbook with winxp for occasions where windows is
the only game in town.) Thanks,

There is a relatively new (and free) charting package called OpenCPN.
It will work with just about any GPS:
http://opencpn.org/
http://opencpn.org/download

I don't have any experience with Bluetooth GPS units, however I
recently purchased a USB GPS that I'm very happy with:
http://www.amazon.com/USGlobalSat-BU...bled-Receiver/
dp/B000V5TV22

It is very accurate, sensitive, quick to acquire satellites,
inexpensive, small, and water proof. It has worked with every
software mapping package that I've tried it with including Maptech,
Street Map (both USA and Europe), and OpenCPN. It also comes with
utility software and drivers which create a virtual COM port, displays
the port # of the GPS unit, displays satellite info, and displays NMEA
sentences.

Thanks a lot for the recommendations, Wayne. I ordered that receiver
from Amazon (does it acquire satellites from the cabin, or only cockpit?),
and downloaded (windows, linux, source versions of) OpenCPN,
along with its documentation and their converted pilot charts.
And I'm surprised there's a linux version (but haven't had a chance
to install/play with anything yet). From the main page I see it
supports various chart formats, and assume the vector ones are better
than raster. Is there some reason OpenCPN had to specially convert them?
And are there some standard chart download sites, or, even better,
some inexpensive dvd's with them all? And some sites that explain the
formats, copyrights (I'm aware there are some proprietary ones), etc?
And, finally, I'm realizing I'll need a small efficient inverter
for prolonged use. You have a recommendation for that? Thanks again,

There are arguments pro and con regarging raster vs vector charts. I
personally prefer the appearance of raster charts. You can download
US charts for free from the NOAA web site:
http://www.charts.noaa.gov/

Thanks again, Wayne, I'll try that. And, just in case anyone's
interested, the OpenCPN PilotCharts_NA[N,C,W].rar files need the
password: CNF.SeaSoft (case sensitive and with that embedded dot)
when trying to decompress that already-semi-weird rar compression.

The GPS is sensitive enough that it works inside my house going
through two different layers of structure. No problem at all on a
boat unless you have steel or aluminum decks.

Good to hear. I also noticed the OpenCPN docs explicitly discuss
the BU-353 you recommended. My old handheld garmin extrex-vista
hardly works inside a paper bag; and that's pretty much the same
for others I've seen (maybe just as old, but I don't really recall).
So far, by the way, the linux version of OpenCPN has failed
to work for me -- both the precompiled (for debian linux), and
when I tried compiling from source (even after installing the
prerequisite dependencies wxwidgets and other libs). My sense is
it can eventually be made to work, but needs some careful tweaking.
So I'll probably just use the windows version for the time being,
but haven't gotten around to it yet.
If anyone else is also interested but having trouble with the
linux version, follow up here and then I'll report any progress I
eventually make to get it working.

Thanks again to you, Wayne, and to Bruce and the other people
who also followed up,
--
John Forkosh ( mailto: where j=john and f=forkosh )

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

On Tue, 7 Sep 2010 17:50:34 +0000 (UTC), JohnF
wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:
JohnF wrote:
Wayne.B wrote:
JohnF wrote:

What's a good and not-too-expensive hardware/software combination
to use with a (bluetooth enabled) net/notebook running winxp for
a chartplotter application? Electronics on recent charter didn't
work right, and I'd like to put something together on my netbook
that's a little better than my handheld gps. I was looking at
gps receiver
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=270630743828
software
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280312392457
Is that a good choice? And will that gps receiver play nicely
with maptech navigator lite, that came with my chartkit?
(And is there anything for linux? -- that's what I prefer running,
but dual boot my netbook with winxp for occasions where windows is
the only game in town.) Thanks,

There is a relatively new (and free) charting package called OpenCPN.
It will work with just about any GPS:
http://opencpn.org/
http://opencpn.org/download

I don't have any experience with Bluetooth GPS units, however I
recently purchased a USB GPS that I'm very happy with:
http://www.amazon.com/USGlobalSat-BU...bled-Receiver/
dp/B000V5TV22

It is very accurate, sensitive, quick to acquire satellites,
inexpensive, small, and water proof. It has worked with every
software mapping package that I've tried it with including Maptech,
Street Map (both USA and Europe), and OpenCPN. It also comes with
utility software and drivers which create a virtual COM port, displays
the port # of the GPS unit, displays satellite info, and displays NMEA
sentences.

Thanks a lot for the recommendations, Wayne. I ordered that receiver
from Amazon (does it acquire satellites from the cabin, or only cockpit?),
and downloaded (windows, linux, source versions of) OpenCPN,
along with its documentation and their converted pilot charts.
And I'm surprised there's a linux version (but haven't had a chance
to install/play with anything yet). From the main page I see it
supports various chart formats, and assume the vector ones are better
than raster. Is there some reason OpenCPN had to specially convert them?
And are there some standard chart download sites, or, even better,
some inexpensive dvd's with them all? And some sites that explain the
formats, copyrights (I'm aware there are some proprietary ones), etc?
And, finally, I'm realizing I'll need a small efficient inverter
for prolonged use. You have a recommendation for that? Thanks again,

There are arguments pro and con regarging raster vs vector charts. I
personally prefer the appearance of raster charts. You can download
US charts for free from the NOAA web site:
http://www.charts.noaa.gov/

Thanks again, Wayne, I'll try that. And, just in case anyone's
interested, the OpenCPN PilotCharts_NA[N,C,W].rar files need the
password: CNF.SeaSoft (case sensitive and with that embedded dot)
when trying to decompress that already-semi-weird rar compression.

The GPS is sensitive enough that it works inside my house going
through two different layers of structure. No problem at all on a
boat unless you have steel or aluminum decks.

Good to hear. I also noticed the OpenCPN docs explicitly discuss
the BU-353 you recommended. My old handheld garmin extrex-vista
hardly works inside a paper bag; and that's pretty much the same
for others I've seen (maybe just as old, but I don't really recall).
So far, by the way, the linux version of OpenCPN has failed
to work for me -- both the precompiled (for debian linux), and
when I tried compiling from source (even after installing the
prerequisite dependencies wxwidgets and other libs). My sense is
it can eventually be made to work, but needs some careful tweaking.
So I'll probably just use the windows version for the time being,
but haven't gotten around to it yet.
If anyone else is also interested but having trouble with the
linux version, follow up here and then I'll report any progress I
eventually make to get it working.

Thanks again to you, Wayne, and to Bruce and the other people
who also followed up,


What Linux do you have? I ask as I installed OpenCPN on at least two
systems - Fedora and Ubuntu with no problems I can remember.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

gps receiver and software for netbook chartplotter
 

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
If anyone else is also interested but having trouble with the
linux version, follow up here and then I'll report any progress I
eventually make to get it working.

What Linux do you have? I ask as I installed OpenCPN on at least two
systems - Fedora and Ubuntu with no problems I can remember.

Slackware 12.1 and 12.2 (I tried booting partitions with both).
Current is 13.1, but I haven't needed that (yet).
To begin with, I tried the OpenCPN-2.1.624a-1_i386.deb package,
first using alien http://packages.debian.org/unstable/source/alien
to convert .deb--.tar.gz, and then using tar on the resulting tarball.
That placed an executable image in /usr/local/bin/opencpn and lots
of other stuff in /usr/local/etc. But it wouldn't run without
the wxwidgets library, which I then had to build from sources
available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/wxwindows/ .
But that's version 2.9 and OpenCPN wanted 2.8 or later.
So I made a mess of symlinks as opencpn complained about each
missing lib, but after finishing that it finally started complaining
opencpn: /lib/libwx_baseu_net-2.8.so.0: version `WXU_2.8' not
found (required by opencpn)
for each symlinked lib.
I gave up on the .deb package and tried building from
OpenCPN-2.1.624a-Source.tar.gz sources. First I needed to build
a version of cmake (cmake-2.8.2.tar.gz) it liked, but then
the generated Makefile apparently added some unrecognized compiler
flags which I cavalierly manually edited out (don't recall exactly
what and I subsequently rm'ed the build directory which I'd have
to reconstruct to quote the errors exactly). Then the compiler
reported some source errors, which may or may not be related
to what I'd done. At this point I ran out of time to look into the
..cpp sources (I do know C and C++ pretty well).
So I gave up for the time being, and will probably just install
the windows OpenCPN-210_setup.exe file, which I suppose will work
without a hitch. But thanks for the Fedora and Ubuntu report,
which gives me confidence it's doable once I can figure out how.
--
John Forkosh ( mailto: where j=john and f=forkosh )