Electronic Charts for laptop

[RWSlater]

I was wondering if anyone out there has downloaded any Free electronic charts to their laptop and been able to sinc them with a GPS antenna connected to the laptops USB port and use them as a chart plotter. I tried going to the NOAA site and not having any luck even downloading the charts.

 

[Winkfish]

Here's the link for the NOAA Booklet Charts.

http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/BookletChart.html

I don't know your GPS, so I can't begin to give you advice on linking them up, but I used the booklet charts along tih my handheld GPS (not linked up, mind you) in the Florida keys recently, and they were grest for what we needed.

 

[RWSlater]

Thanks Winkfish

 

[windward54]

There are lots of options for the GPS. I use a GPS dongle that plugs right into the usb port of my laptop. For about $47, the one I have does a good job of being a backup for my system. Once set up, it will work with OpenCPN, Seaclear, and Airmail2000.

 

[Stu Jackson]

SeaClear will send you a pretty neat package deal: their software, all the charts, and a GPS USB dongle for a pretty good price. The dongle is the favored BU-353. It avoids having to download all the charts, or to have to deal with setting them up in the right folders on your computer.

 

[JonnyQuest]

SeaClear will send you a pretty neat package deal: their software, all the charts, and a GPS USB dongle.

Stu,
After downloading and setting up the SeaClear files, the package deal would have been far easier, good suggestion.

To comment on OpenCPN, it holds promise but is more of an ongoing open-source project for OpenCPN enthusiasts; while it might be useable, the folks on the OpenCPN board advise against relying solely on it in case of errors, crashes etc. I've tried it, it was ok and holds promise for the future, but SeaClear is fully developed and does work well.
Regards,
Jonny Quest