Merry Christmas everybody. This is my first time posting and I am looking for some important info. Here goes: I am about to buy a navigation system, however I want to access and run it off of a laptop rather than an all in one system for two reasons, first I prefer the larger screen with better resolution and second, I want to be able to add charts to an underlying chart, that ios to say super impose personally gathered info onto a preexisting map. My question to y’all is the following: If any of you are currently (2005 on forward) running such a setup, could you please list ALL of your components. Asumming I get good feedback I plan on copying one of the posted setups to the T. Ps. Please add all components such as software, depth reader, etc… Thanks y’all Chris
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laptop set up
Chris, There are many navigation programs available that will interface with a pc for plotting . most of them link by using a serial port cable. I use Captain Voyager and love it. There are many others that are similiar, like ocean navigator pro, or lite, from maptech. you can buy a serial cable already that plugs in or you can make one. The pins on the 9 pin serial cable you will need are pins 2 " nema 0183 in " and 5 " signal ground ". Just hook the nema output from the GPS to pin 2 and pin 5 " ground ". This will listen to the gps .
Chris, There are many navigation programs available that will interface with a pc for plotting . most of them link by using a serial port cable. I use Captain Voyager and love it. There are many others that are similiar, like ocean navigator pro, or lite, from maptech. you can buy a serial cable already that plugs in or you can make one. The pins on the 9 pin serial cable you will need are pins 2 " nema 0183 in " and 5 " signal ground ". Just hook the nema output from the GPS to pin 2 and pin 5 " ground ". This will listen to the gps .
Ozzie Explorer
I use Ozzie Explorer with a Garmin GPS feeding NMEA data via a serial to USB adapter to my Dell laptop. Ozzie is available for about $80 online and you can use the free NOAA charts with it. You can save your own points of interest or waypoints on the charts. It makes route creation and waypoint creation easy as well as giving you digital readouts of your track and speed at the PC. We carry a Garmin handheld for backup and an old Compac laptop to back up the Dell. The laptops run off a 135 watt modified sine wave inverter. There are, I'm sure, other good systems out there. One reason we chose Ozzie is that it is very Garmin friendly, readily downloading existing waypoints and uploading new ones. Good luck with your choices and enjoy knowing where you are at a glance. Jack
I use Ozzie Explorer with a Garmin GPS feeding NMEA data via a serial to USB adapter to my Dell laptop. Ozzie is available for about $80 online and you can use the free NOAA charts with it. You can save your own points of interest or waypoints on the charts. It makes route creation and waypoint creation easy as well as giving you digital readouts of your track and speed at the PC. We carry a Garmin handheld for backup and an old Compac laptop to back up the Dell. The laptops run off a 135 watt modified sine wave inverter. There are, I'm sure, other good systems out there. One reason we chose Ozzie is that it is very Garmin friendly, readily downloading existing waypoints and uploading new ones. Good luck with your choices and enjoy knowing where you are at a glance. Jack
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