The new free RayTech Planner software looks exactly what I need to plan
routes and to transfer them to my C-80. From reading the instructions
it seems tough that a special reader ($75) is needed to read the
Navionics Charts. Question a

1) Anyone tried this with just a Compact Flash reader
2) The Navionics descriptions states to not use it in a computer, it
may damage the data?
Is this true? Am I running a risk of loosing my charts when trying
this?

Thanks any help welcome

Cat

wrote in news:1151389317.659064.143990
@c74g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

it seems tough that a special reader ($75) is needed to read the
Navionics Charts. Question a

The price of the software is embedded into the price of the reader, just
like that $79 printer sitting next to you that takes ink jet carts
costing $8000/gallon to run. They get their money, one way or the
other...(c;

1) Anyone tried this with just a Compact Flash reader
2) The Navionics descriptions states to not use it in a computer, it
may damage the data?
Is this true? Am I running a risk of loosing my charts when trying
this?


True, true. All we do is design the cart so that it trashes the charts
when it finds standard compact flash's power leads.

Automatic erase is designed into it so you cannot READ the chart off into
the computer to steal the cartographer's data you paid for with taxes
long ago. Same old NMEA story. Design it all proprietary so they have
no choice but to buy from ME and ME only. It's why they all use their
own proprietary bus structures and just pay lip service to NMEA0183 or
2000, another proprietary structure, itself. We wouldn't want you using
some non-member's TCP/IP router or html or Java would we?

How silly....

Oh, and let's not forget to re-design everything every couple of years to
make it completely incompatible with everything we made last year,
parcelling out the incompatible technology in little pieces so they can
replace EVERYTHING, not just the display unit, for fun and profit.

1) Anyone tried this with just a Compact Flash reader
2) The Navionics descriptions states to not use it in a computer, it
may damage the data?
Is this true? Am I running a risk of loosing my charts when trying
this?

No, you won't lose your charts. I put my platinum card in several different
readers and nothing happened. No card access but no deleting either. I put
the card straight back into my E-80 and everything still works fine.

It appears they've changed the lengths of the pins used in the socket. As a
result the card never gets power or signals from a normal CF slot. No idea
whether or not there's a way to fiddle with a regular socket and get it to
work. That seems like it'd be far too easy....

-Bill Kearney

Thanks, for the info. That helps greatly. Looks like I'll get the
reader. I tried to order the part for $75 figured it be worth it but
its on backorder, go figures.


Bill Kearney wrote:
1) Anyone tried this with just a Compact Flash reader
2) The Navionics descriptions states to not use it in a computer, it
may damage the data?
Is this true? Am I running a risk of loosing my charts when trying
this?

No, you won't lose your charts. I put my platinum card in several different
readers and nothing happened. No card access but no deleting either. I put
the card straight back into my E-80 and everything still works fine.

It appears they've changed the lengths of the pins used in the socket. As a
result the card never gets power or signals from a normal CF slot. No idea
whether or not there's a way to fiddle with a regular socket and get it to
work. That seems like it'd be far too easy....

-Bill Kearney

Hans Petter Faale wrote in
:

It's an efficient way to protect the software because you need a
special piece of hardware, the Navionics card reader, to use it.



We're just lucky Navionics doesn't make notebook computers or it would only
work on a Navionics 3000 series notebook computer....

Could be they have done it like that, but I suspect the Navionics card
reader also works like some sort of a hardware authentication key
(dongle) for the RayTech Planner software.

I rather doubt Rayplanner's dependent on the Navionics device. Mainly since
it's capable of speaking with an E-series over ethernet. But then I suppose
that's the ultimate dongle, eh?

The only thing the software will read from and write to is a card
reader and not just any card reader, the software must identify the
card reader as a Navionics card reader.

Mmmm, not sure about that. It won't read the Navionics charts unless
they're in a Navionics reader. But it'll import/export to other media just
fine, including other CF cards.

It's an efficient way to protect the software because you need a
special piece of hardware, the Navionics card reader, to use it.

True, the combined burden of making cards that physically won't work in
regular readers and the requiring that reader appear with a special USB ID
hwid is certainly a dastardly way to screw your customers. I mean, yeesh,
we've already spent $500 to buy they're eff'ing charts and they still want
to treat us like thieves? Jackasess.