laptop as chartplotter

[Capn Jack]

When ever we are at anchor in a harbor, with visiters, I love to fire up MS Streets on the laptop and show them the little car in the water at our position.
I was using the MS Puck that came with "Streets" but I was bothered by frequent "Drop outs". Now I'm using my old Garmin 45XL. with a "card" serial port. I'll look into that Garmin Puck.
Anyone using Captain's out there? Don't you just love the message "You have just exceeded 250K" when you go from one chart to another?

[Sea Wolf]

I think Roger (Dreamer) set his laptop and plotter up in what I would consider the ideal mode:

The chartplotter is set up for the Helmspersons view, and the laptop it set up for use by the person in the portside forward facing seat that is the "Navigator".

This not only makes more sense considering the physical dimensions and capabilities of the two units, but it also helps train and utilize the skills of the other person, a great plus for safety in the event of the disability of the Helmsperson.



Dreamer's Helm and Navigation station.

Joe.

[Dene]

Just thought I'd throw my 2 bits re. the original subject of using a laptop as a chartplotter. I use both a Garmin chartplotter, located above the helm, and a laptop which is located to my left, strapped into the passenger seat. facing me. The Garmin is zoomed in close so I can keep track of shoals and sandbars. The laptop is on a larger scale, so I can have a perspective of where I'm at, in terms of my final destination. I use an old version of Nobeltec that I got for cheap off E-bay. Works great, especially with the new Sprint USB broadband receiver, which serves both as a on-line and GPS receiver. No need to put the hockey puck out anymore.

Hope this helps.

-Greg

[blackfish]

thanks Gerg
I think I've narrowed down my electronics upgrade
new chip for my garmin 182c with my area so it can be used for backup
stand alone fish finder Lowrance or Humminbird
laptop as my main chartplotter
could up you explain this Sprint USB broadband receiver is this cell phone thing?

[RJD Wannabe]

anyone know of any decent computer monitors that'll handle the marine environment?? I have a couple of extra mac minis, that plus a GPS puck may go along way with a monitor

[thataway]

If you want a high brilliance, marinized moniter, it will be very expensive. (thousands) But, there are some good high resolution screens which will do fine in the marine environment. many of these have a 12 volt power supply, so they will run off the 12 volt DC system, with appropiate plugs. I would keep the electronics on a separate battery to avoid engine start up spikes etc. The tower type of computer will fail in the salt air environment much faster than a lap top or a LCD monitor. It is best to run the units to keep them warm and dry.

How accurate is the GPS on the Cell phone? I understand that many of these use triangulation, rather than an actual GPS reciever. Does the card contain a GPS reciever? How does this interphase with the Nobeltech software? Finally, how do you use the internet connection with the navigation? I can see that when Active Captain goes on line, it would be quite valuable. Finally, how is the reception on the water and what does the speed do as you move into poor reception areas? I find that even at our home, only 0.7 mile seaward from the cell tower, that the aircards do not work well because the signal is beamed inland and along the highways, since there are few homes seaward of the towers. I don't see any problem with putting out a hocky puck GPS--they work well anywhere in the C Dory as long as there is no metal between the puck and the sky.

[RJD Wannabe]

Bob, thanks. You are getting closer to what I'm thinking, a mac mini, a 12v decent monitor, gps puck that I bring on the boat and take off with me. Can also play movies. Hook into speakers. Alotta power for little $$. An inverter may be an answer as 110v opens many doors and they are not power hogs. My mac laptop won't run on 12v, I have an inverter for the car.

[Dene]

[Dene]

[thataway]

Active captain: http://www.activecaptain.com/index.php is a service by C Brat member Jeff Siegel. Jeff has cruised in his Defever 53 for the last few years, and found the need for up-to-date information on marinas and anchorages. Jeff is also the author of "Outdoor Navigator".

From the web site:
"A community as passionate about boating as you are.
Benefit from the knowledge and experience of a worldwide community of boaters. Gain information from others. Contribute your knowledge to the community. It's all about content, communications, and community.
ActiveCaptain currently has a visual database of over 9,000 marinas and a growing database of anchorages. "Local knowledge" and other points of interest are coming soon. To be successful we need your help."

Jeff is doing this as a service to the boating community and building the database currently. I suspect that Jeff will chime in, but as I understand the plan , one of the main uses will be to access the database and maps on line as it developes.

Thanks for the information on the GPS. It does not appear that there is good coverage in my area from Sprint--there are "future" towers about 5 and 7 miles from my house--I can barely get the Verizon cell voice which is 0.7 miles from the house. The Sprint speed expected in this area is 50-70 Kbps where available from Sprint. My cable is running 2 Mbps. It appears that there is much better coverage in Washington. Looking at the US, there appears to be fairly good Sprint high speed coverage in larger cities, but there are lots of gaps. Generally those who cruise in mid America and the East Coast have found that Verizon is the best data plan.

We have tinted the pilot house windows of only one boat--and that we didn't steer from the pilot house often. The reason is that you have loss of night vision with the tinting; if there is enough tint, it will reduce the dim lights at night significantly. We have used computers aboard since 1982 and have found that using a hood for the moniter, made of mat black foam board or poster board is satisfactory even in the full sunlight(as long as the sunlight is not directly on the screen--like on a flying bridge).

The varibility of the 12 volts, is the reason that I suggest a second electronics battery. It might be interesting to moniter the battery voltage going to an inverter. Often the wiring to the console is too small (allowing voltage drop) for heavier power draws. We have the inverter near the dedicated battery bank, and run short heavy cable runs--then energize 110 volt plugs from the central inverter. (1500 watts--but for a computer or moniter it will require much less power) The inquiry about moniters apparently involved a separate moniter from the Mini Mac computer. If you can run the moniter on 12 volts (or perhaps better yet, get a combo TV computer moniter) it may be simpler than an inverter, but if you are already running an inverter for the computer, it might make sense to use one power supply source. We run a LCD television off the 12 volt system.

[Dene]

Bob,

I'd keep my eyes open on the Sprint map. If they progress to your area, then you'll enjoy a nice 2 for 1 device.

The downside to tinting is diminished night vision but we made calculated decision to rarely, if ever, run the boat at night. Too nervewracking with flotsam and other vessels. It's our primary summer boat so having tinted windows cut down the sun/heat was a good trade off. However...we're joining the Coast Guard Auxilliary and if needed, our boat might be used some for night tasks. If so, we'll have the tinting removed.

Thanks for the link to Active Captain. Just registered. Agree that a direct inverter is the ideal way to run a laptop. We plug the laptop into our 1k inverter on the Carver whenever we need a chartplotter for the lower helm. Having the laptop up on the flybridge was an exercise in futility. Too much glare and exposure to salt spray.

-Greg

[ActiveCaptain]

I can add some info about the GPS's being integrated with mobile phones today. I have a couple of them. The latest, an AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTn II) has a real GPS chipset integrated with the phone - it does not use triangulation of the cellular signal. Along with WiFi, HSDPA 3G cellular, touchscreen, and keyboard, it makes the Tilt a pretty powerful, connect-to-anything phone.

The GPS has just about the same performance of any of the normal GPS devices that I've used. I honestly can't tell any difference. I have about 20 other GPS devices. There have been some analytical comparisons done by www.gpspassion.com. I'd say that it is giving about 10-30' resolution. This new generation of chipsets works pretty well inside too. For boats, this means that it shouldn't have any trouble working next to you while you're sleeping all tucked away (as an anchor alarm). I'll do some firsthand experiments with that in the Spring.

One thing that is pretty cool about the Tilt is that you can turn it into a Bluetooth GPS since it also has Bluetooth. There are some applications which just continually broadcast the GPS NMEA sentences over Bluetooth to a PC, etc. In an emergency, you can use it with a PC as a backup.

Another really nice thing that I just started experimenting with is using the Tilt as a WiFi hotspot. With HSDPA, I'm measuing 700-800kb throughput download and 300kb upload. Since the device has a WiFi radio, there's some registry magic that will allow the 3G connection to be re-broadcast over its internal WiFi. The bottom line for all of this is that I can connect the phone to an amp at the helm and connect multiple PC's over WiFi through the 3G cellular connection on the phone. That is very cool and will solve a lot of issues with using laptops onboard when anchored out in some remote place. WiFi is getting hard to find - cellular is almost always around (at least on the East coast).

Oh yeah, there's that ActiveCaptain thing too...