Electronic charts & GPS

[Windjammer]

I have been messing about with a laptop and an Ipaq 3670 with Fugawi along
with an old Magellan 3000 GPS. It works, but it is really clunky and then
there are all the cables that lie around.

I think that I want to buy some sort of integrating charting/GPS
combination. I have resisted this because of the high cost of the Garmin &
other charts.

Is there a solution that I could mount at the steering pedestal on a
sailboat that can use both purchased and free(enc) charts? This could be a
chart plotter, a PDA or even an addition to my existing older PDA.

 

[Jim Besse]

You might want to look at the Garmin iQue 3600 running Fugawi ENC.
The downside is the iQue isn't weather proof.

 

[Windjammer]

"Jim Besse" wrote

You might want to look at the Garmin iQue 3600 running Fugawi ENC.
The downside is the iQue isn't weather proof.

I have thought about the iQue - Going the PDA route, I suppose I could add a
slot mounted GPS to my iPaq and do the same thing for a bit less money - it
already has a good size memory expansion. I wonder though about the size of
the screen and it's visibility in sunlight - The weather proofing may not be
too big a big deal - It could be used under the dodger in wet conditions.

Are there any larger screen units that can use Fugawi and ENC charts?

Alternatively, are there any cost effective units with proprietary charts
and reasonable screen size? We would use this mainly in Lake Ontario and
St. Lawrence River. If we went on a long trip, we would likely have paper
charts plus a laptop.

 

[Marshall Banana]

I have been messing about with a laptop and an Ipaq 3670 with Fugawi along
with an old Magellan 3000 GPS. It works, but it is really clunky and then
there are all the cables that lie around.

Is there a solution that I could mount at the steering pedestal on a
sailboat that can use both purchased and free(enc) charts? This could be a
chart plotter, a PDA or even an addition to my existing older PDA.

If you like the PDA form factor, you might look at the Garmin Ique.. it's
a PDA running PalmOS with a built-in GPS. It of course displays Garmin
charts naitively, and with software from Fugawi it can display the free
ENC charts.

Dan

 

[Marshall Banana]

Also Sprach Windjammer <[email protected]>:

If you like the PDA form factor, you might look at the Garmin Ique.. it's
a PDA running PalmOS with a built-in GPS. It of course displays Garmin
charts naitively, and with software from Fugawi it can display the free
ENC charts.

I should really read all the replies to a thread before throwing im my two
bits.

Dan


--
Microsoft Haiku #163

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

 

[Windjammer]

Thanks Lisa - I will look into those two.

For a small combination GPS/Chartplotter there is the Lowrance iFinder Pro.
This unit uses a 240V x 180H 3" screen. These are waterproof. At only
$167 you get a lot of bang for the buck. These units use proprietary
Navionics Gold, or HotMaps charts. With charts priced at $176 you will
spend more the on chart than on the GPS itself.

I have tested the Raymarine RC400. This is a portable waterproof
Chartplotter/GPS with a 3.5" Daylight viewable screen. These also use
Navionics cartography. You can find these on the street for around $540.

The Ipaq is marginally daylight viewable but alas it is not waterproof.

Lisa
www.ultimatepassage.com

 

[RussPK]

I am running an IPAQ 3635 with a Navman 3420 GPS sleeve and Fugawi with BSB
charts as well as ENC charts.Works very well more sunlight better viewing..
Is not water proof but woks in a plastic sleeve.I also have an IPAQ 3955
with a Navman 3450 GPS sleeve running Mem-Map Navigator with BSB
charts.Works great as it also has provisions for an external antenna.Fugawi
also runs great on this combo.The 3955 is better as it has more internal
memory and is 400 mhz.But for boating they are equal.
Regards Russ

 

[Windjammer]

I am running an IPAQ 3635 with a Navman 3420 GPS sleeve and Fugawi with BSB
charts as well as ENC charts.Works very well more sunlight better viewing..
Is not water proof but woks in a plastic sleeve.I also have an IPAQ 3955
with a Navman 3450 GPS sleeve running Mem-Map Navigator with BSB
charts.Works great as it also has provisions for an external antenna.Fugawi
also runs great on this combo.The 3955 is better as it has more internal
memory and is 400 mhz.But for boating they are equal.
Regards Russ

Thanks Russ - I will have a look at the Navman sleeve - Have to consider
costs vs stan-alone units - I would need upgrade of Fugawi to ENC version
plus the GPS sleeve.

This would be more or less what I have now, except I get rid of the separate
GPS and the connecting wires. In fact, I hav enever set mine up to work in
cockpit because of all the wiring and supports needed for iPaq plus separate
GPS.

I would like to have a larger screen though - Hard to see very much when
iPaq is zoomed out, but it's OK when detail is needed.

Graham

 

[Jack Erbes]

Fugawi with <snip>

Thanks Russ - I will have a look at the Navman sleeve - Have to consider
costs vs stan-alone units - I would need upgrade of Fugawi to ENC version
plus the GPS sleeve.

This would be more or less what I have now, except I get rid of the separate
GPS and the connecting wires. In fact, I hav enever set mine up to work in
cockpit because of all the wiring and supports needed for iPaq plus separate
GPS.

I recently starting playing around with using GPS on a iPAQ 3630.

I bought this cable http://www.gomadic.com/comip9leadpr.html from
Gomadic to use for it. For now I am using a terminal strip to make
connections for experimenting. It is working well using the NMEA output
from my Magellan 330M and the iPAQ runs off of a 5 Volt power source
input through the Gomadic cable at the terminal strip.

That gave me the iPAQ, with GPS input and powered up, on the end of a
single 12 foot or so umbilical that is only about 1/4" in diameter. All
the rest of the pieces are grouped a convenient distance away and that
could represent a clean, dry spot, behind behind the dash or somewhere
like that on a boat.

I am just looking at land navigation now and am using the Navteq
software package that comes with the Dell Axim X30 for now.

With marine navigation software I could see using this at a typical
out-of-the-weather helm station. For an open cockpit, I would
want the iPAQ in a weatherproof box with a clear lid. That could be
taken out of the weather if you have to open it. But the weatherproof
box, it might work for hanging or laying around at an exposed helm
station.

Typical marine navigation programs don't need a lot of human interaction
if routes are preplanned and the computer display used to monitor things
and as a secondary input to help you feel good about where you think you
are.

As an aside, I wanted something to use to upload and download boat
pickup and delivery routes to and from my 330M as a navigation backup
during deliveries. I use the same routes regularly. To build the
routes and get them on the GPS I just starting playing around with the
SeaClear (freeware) program http://www.sping.com/seaclear/ on my laptop
and am pretty impressed with it.

It looks like SeaClear will satisfy nearly all my needs. It has some
things that make it better suited for people that understand computers
pretty well (like using the g7towin software package for GPS up AND down
loads. I really like the way SeaClear handles a BSB chart library and
ease of using it for building routes. All the zooming and panning and
chart selecting can be done with a mouse and very quickly and intuitively.

I would like to have a larger screen though - Hard to see very much when
iPaq is zoomed out, but it's OK when detail is needed.

That's where I find myself with the chartbook in one hand and looking
back and forth between the screen (of any type or size) and the chart.
I could probably used SeaClear pretty well without a chartbook because
you can zoom in and out and change charts pretty quickly.

Jack