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.

On Mon, 6 Sep 2010 19:37:45 +0000 (UTC), 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,


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.



Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

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.
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.
--
John Forkosh ( mailto: where j=john and f=forkosh )

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)

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