Hello! I am Amos Cordova, National Sales Manager for Captn. Jack's Hi-Tech Products for recreational and professional navigators. I'll be on the this site several days a week for the next month to answer your questions about GPS, plotters, laptop computers, electronic charts and software, and how to connect them all together. I look forward to hearing from you all!
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Tom Ehmke
Welcome, Amos
Hi Amos, I wrote you a welcome yesterday, as did LaDonna, but we got erased by mistake. Thanks to Phil for letting me know about that. As I said then, I'm sure this will be a busy month for you at the site. My question had to do with screen fading on a portable GPS. I own a Garmin 12XL and have had it for 3+ years. It SEEMS as though the screen is fading a little bit. Is that possible or am I imagining it? I have a 12v hook-up for it, so I have it in the cockpit with me through all kinds of weather and it gets a lot of sun. waddaya think? Tom Ehmke
Hi Amos, I wrote you a welcome yesterday, as did LaDonna, but we got erased by mistake. Thanks to Phil for letting me know about that. As I said then, I'm sure this will be a busy month for you at the site. My question had to do with screen fading on a portable GPS. I own a Garmin 12XL and have had it for 3+ years. It SEEMS as though the screen is fading a little bit. Is that possible or am I imagining it? I have a 12v hook-up for it, so I have it in the cockpit with me through all kinds of weather and it gets a lot of sun. waddaya think? Tom Ehmke
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Peter Milne
Boat Computer and electronics
Amos, I have a Dell notebook, 133Mz, 32 MB, 10 GB hard drive, CD-Rom and an active matrix screen that I would like to retire to the boat. On the boat I have a Garmin 128 GPS mounted at the helm station and connected to my Autopilot (Autohelm 6000Plus), which works like a charm. How would I connect my notebook to this system and what software do I need to i) load waypoints into the GPS unit(I find entering waypoints into the GPS unit a pain with a high probability of error); and ii) use my notebook as a chartplotter? Will my computer survive the marine environment as long as I keep it dry? Thanks, Peter Milne
Amos, I have a Dell notebook, 133Mz, 32 MB, 10 GB hard drive, CD-Rom and an active matrix screen that I would like to retire to the boat. On the boat I have a Garmin 128 GPS mounted at the helm station and connected to my Autopilot (Autohelm 6000Plus), which works like a charm. How would I connect my notebook to this system and what software do I need to i) load waypoints into the GPS unit(I find entering waypoints into the GPS unit a pain with a high probability of error); and ii) use my notebook as a chartplotter? Will my computer survive the marine environment as long as I keep it dry? Thanks, Peter Milne
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bill walton
speed?
Peter, I'd like to make a comment that may get flamed. My experience from retiring laptops to my boat is that even 200mhz is marginal, from a speed point of view, if you are intending to run charting software with CD based charts. 32MB is too little. When building routes, the redrawing process as one scrolls across a chart will drive you nuts if it's too slow For what it's worth, after experimenting with several hand me downs, I built an industrial type PC with dual cooling fans and a 12V power supply so I could bypass my inverter. It's 3.5"tall, 18.5"wide and 19"deep which is not much bigger than my laptop and docking station but is much more robust. The enclosure is also shielded. I found a 15" LCD monitor that is 12V. Together they cost less than a good laptop and draw about 5A DC. They're both good to 55deg C and 90% noncondensing rel. hum.. The PC servs multiple purposes, navigation and entertainment. For Navigation, I've got a Raytheon DGPS feeding position data to the PC and the AP. I have a handheld magellen nav6000 GPS as a backup. I run Chartview Pro software which communicates CTS and other data to the AP. In the cockpit, I've got a raytheon 520 CP with cmap cartridge so I have a view of the surroundings from up there as well as WP info to steer to if the AP fails. For entertainment, I have about 300hrs, of MP3 music(from my own CDs) stored on a HD. It is interfaced to 12V amplifiers that provide any music I need. The PC has a DVD player and a TV tuner card for video entertainment on the monitor which is mounted so it can face the nav station or the salon. My goal has been to get a 12V system which is more efficient than converting from the inverter to 110v for a PC, TV, stereo, VCR or DVD player and to get fewer components. I also kept my old laptop as a backup as well as charts, compass, eyeballs etc.. We've used it up and down the Keys, ocean side and bay side, from Dry Tortugas to FtLauderdale. We'll be heading to the Bahamas in the Spring and Cuba next Winter.
Peter, I'd like to make a comment that may get flamed. My experience from retiring laptops to my boat is that even 200mhz is marginal, from a speed point of view, if you are intending to run charting software with CD based charts. 32MB is too little. When building routes, the redrawing process as one scrolls across a chart will drive you nuts if it's too slow For what it's worth, after experimenting with several hand me downs, I built an industrial type PC with dual cooling fans and a 12V power supply so I could bypass my inverter. It's 3.5"tall, 18.5"wide and 19"deep which is not much bigger than my laptop and docking station but is much more robust. The enclosure is also shielded. I found a 15" LCD monitor that is 12V. Together they cost less than a good laptop and draw about 5A DC. They're both good to 55deg C and 90% noncondensing rel. hum.. The PC servs multiple purposes, navigation and entertainment. For Navigation, I've got a Raytheon DGPS feeding position data to the PC and the AP. I have a handheld magellen nav6000 GPS as a backup. I run Chartview Pro software which communicates CTS and other data to the AP. In the cockpit, I've got a raytheon 520 CP with cmap cartridge so I have a view of the surroundings from up there as well as WP info to steer to if the AP fails. For entertainment, I have about 300hrs, of MP3 music(from my own CDs) stored on a HD. It is interfaced to 12V amplifiers that provide any music I need. The PC has a DVD player and a TV tuner card for video entertainment on the monitor which is mounted so it can face the nav station or the salon. My goal has been to get a 12V system which is more efficient than converting from the inverter to 110v for a PC, TV, stereo, VCR or DVD player and to get fewer components. I also kept my old laptop as a backup as well as charts, compass, eyeballs etc.. We've used it up and down the Keys, ocean side and bay side, from Dry Tortugas to FtLauderdale. We'll be heading to the Bahamas in the Spring and Cuba next Winter.
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Alain Jacques
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Amos Cordova
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Ralph Winkler
Autohelm - Nobeltec Interface
Good Morning Amos! I am really hung up on what the best software package is between Nobetec Nav Suite and Raynav. Several months ago I downloaded a demo of Nobeltec and the new version of Raynav. Both seemed to answer my general needs for sailing on Lake Michigan. My biggest Nobeltec question is interfacing to my current all Autohelm GPS, wind, autopilot, chart plotter, and radar. With Raynav this is a given. Can you give me any advise? Thanks, Ralph Winkler Wind Dancer C320 #394 Milwaukee
Good Morning Amos! I am really hung up on what the best software package is between Nobetec Nav Suite and Raynav. Several months ago I downloaded a demo of Nobeltec and the new version of Raynav. Both seemed to answer my general needs for sailing on Lake Michigan. My biggest Nobeltec question is interfacing to my current all Autohelm GPS, wind, autopilot, chart plotter, and radar. With Raynav this is a given. Can you give me any advise? Thanks, Ralph Winkler Wind Dancer C320 #394 Milwaukee
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bill walton
Ralph, Email me
I've got both software packages on my boat. Email me at "deissew@earthlink.net" to discuss or read my analysis in this forum under the thread started by George Kornreich.
I've got both software packages on my boat. Email me at "deissew@earthlink.net" to discuss or read my analysis in this forum under the thread started by George Kornreich.
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