Looking for Good Navagaion Software

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Bert Kinyon

I've got an ST4000+ Auto Helm and a Garmen GPSMAP 230. I'm looking for some good navagation software that will work with both these devices and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Anyone have a hint for me?
 
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Derek Rowell

Software

I used to use Fugawi because it was inexpensive, but have moved to Maptech's Ocean Navigator. I'm happy with it so far. Both plot the Maptech/BSB charts. I'm not sure what you mean by using the software with your GPS AND the ST4000+ autopilot, because in normal operation the computer and the autopilot will be "listeners" on the NMEA connection. In other words the GPS will be the contolling device when navigating to way-points, and will talk directly to the ST4000+. The computer will simply listen-in and act as a plotter. You will, of-course, want to up-load courses and way-points to the GPS from the computer's navigational software, but I can't see a situation where it will be in direct communication with the autopilot. Derek
 
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Buck Harrison

Bert,

I use Nobeltec's Visual Navigator... very satisified.... but see "Practical Sailor", Feb 1, 2002 issue. It has an excellent article evaluating Captn., Nobeltec, etc.
 
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Jose Venegas

Comparison of software

This is a copy of an e-mail from my brother inlaw, Pascal Goncalves,that I think you may find helpful. He has an Autohelm ST4000 and several Garmin GPS's. "Hi felows, I had searched, analised and made some tests of the folowing new PC softwares: MaxSea Navigator (US$ 500): CMAP vector, Raster Maptech and Softcharts Raytech Navigator (US$500) Maptech Raster, CMAP vector and ARCS raster MapTech Ofshore Navigator (US200): only Maptech PCX and BSB raster Transas Tsunamis Navigator (US500-900): only Vector from Transas Nobeltec Visual Navigator Suite(US$500): Vector Passport(based on Transas), Raster Maptech PCX/BSB, Softchart The CAPn: (US$500): Raster Maptech PCX/BSB and Softcharts Garmin MapSource(US100): only vector "maps" from Garmin OziExplorer(US$75): Raster Maptech PCX, BSB, DRG, User scanned (TIFF,JPG etc) Supports Garmin Gps for download/upload waypoints and Routes: Maptech, Nobeltec, MapSource and OziExplorer Supports Garmin Gps for download/upload Tracklogs: MapSource and OziExplorer Conclusion OziExplorer suports Garmins, Magelans and other brands of popular gps, does download/upload for routes, waypoints and tracks, does Real time navigation using NMEA, drives the Autopilot, acepts user scanned charts (TIFF, BMP, JPG and others formats) , accepts raster charts Maptech PCX and BSB, and costs only US 75.00. I will stay with OziExplorer until the others have made significant improvments and have reduced drastically their costs. Regards Think Globally, Sail Locally Pascal Goncalves s/v NavStar S 13 00/W 038 27 Salvador-BA-Brazil
 
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Hugh

Garmin Bluecharts

I have Garmin Bluecharts, and find it easy and very useful. It was about $100. I have all the charts for my area turned on, and commonly plan routes on the PC and upload to the GPS. This spring I will connect the GPS to the autopilot, and I expect that the autopilot will take direction from the GPS (I think by responding to the data on 'off course' info. That is, the GPS says you are 130 feet off course, and need to steer to 128 degrees to get back on course. Then the autopilot turns to get back on course.) I *think* that is how it will work. I am using trial and error here; my goal was to be able to plan routes and upload to the GPS. Controlling the autopilot will be a bonus that I am willing to try for the cost of the connecting cable.
 
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Jose Venegas

GPS-Autopilot connection

I also have the Garmin program MapSource wth Blue Charts on my laptop. The program works very well to make and download waypoints, routes and charts to my Garmin gps 176 126 and III+. It can also be used as a chart plotter when connected to the GPS. I have tried some of the other programs and felt that MapSource was the easiest to use. For those interested here as another e-mail from Pascal that explains how to do the connection; INTERFACING A GARMIN GPS WITH AN AUTOHELM AUTOPILOT This is a briefly hints and tips in the interfacing of a gps with an autopilot we had learned by experience, in the hard way, that is, by trial and error. This happens because (I think) nor Autohelm nor Garmin literature have suficient details to guide the user in this task. I have my autopilot (AP) Autohelm (AH) ST4000 interfaced with my Garmin GpsMap130 in my sailboat working since 5 yrs ago. I can use my AP using the AP "flux gate" magnetic compass, or interfaced via Autohelm Sea Talk protocol with with the wind instrument (ST50) or in "track mode" interfaced with the gps. The physical conexion is very simple: two cables, one conecting the the gps "data out" to NMEA + on the AP and the other, conecting the ground shield of the GPS with the NMEA - on the AP. The garmin gps is set to NMEA 183 Version 2.0 in the interface page. The "language" that Gps talks with the Autopilot is known as NMEA 183; the commands or messages are sent by gps to the AP, wich does not respond, only listen. The format of the messages is, several types of variable fields separated by comma. There are many types of messages, begining with $, but the AP uses mainly the two below: $GPRMC,HHMMSS,A,DDMM.MMM,N,DDDMM.MMM,W,XXX.X,XXX.X,DDMMYY,XXX.X,E*XX Where: 1. Time (UTC) 2. Position valid (A=valid, V=invalid) 3. Latitude at UTC time (degrees and minutes) 4. latitude direction (N=north, S=south) 5. Longitude at UTC time (degrees and minutes) 6. Longitude direction (E=east, W=west) 7. Speed over ground (knots) 8. Course over ground or track (degrees, true) 9. Date (day, month, year) 10. Magnetic variation (degrees) 11. Magnetic variation direction ( E=east, W=west) 12. Checksum Example: $GPRMC,151653,A,1248.594,S,03827.667,W,010.0,321.3,080302,023.0,W*6A $GPRMB,A,X.XX,L,CCCC,CCCC,DDMM.MMM,N,DDDMM.MMM,W,XXX.X,XXX.X,XXX.X,A*XX Where: 1. Position valid (A=valid, V=invalid) 2. Cross Track error (nautical miles) 3. Direction to steer (L=left, R=right) 4. Origin waypoint identifier 5. Destination waypoint identifier 6. Destination latitude (degrees and minutes) 7. Destination latitude direction (N=north, S=south) 8. Destination longitude (degrees and minutes) 9. Destination longitude direction (E=east, W=-west) 10. Range from present position to destination waypoint (nautical miles) 11. Bearing form present position to destination wypoint (degrees, true) 12. Closing velocity to destination waypoint (knots) 13. Arrival flag (A=arrival, V=not arrival) 14. Checksum Example: $GPRMB,A,9.99,L,T002,T001,1301.130,S,03846.883,W,022.5,236.2,000.9,V*31 My Autopilot AHST4000 was designed almost 10 years ago, when the NMEA 183 standard (this is the manufactures agreed standard for marine electronic equipment interface) specified that the Waypoint names should have 4 characters in length, and should consist only of upercase leters and numbers. Because this, it is very important that your routes have waypoints with 4 or less characters so that the AP can detect every wpt in sequence. If You do not observe this rule, the AP can miss some waypoints of the route, or eventually, can folow the route using only the XTE and/or the distance to waypoint wich is not 100% correct and can lead to a dangerous situation. When you use only a simple goto there is no problem with the wpt names since there is only one wpt to folow. Your AP must be correctly calibrated to magnetic deviation of your boat, like is explained in the AH manual, but after determining the deviation, do not try to adjust the AP HDG to be equal to your boat magnetic compass as it is sugested in the AH/AP mannual, because if You do this, there will be an error on the boat HDG when the AP turns it to the Wpt BRG. This error is of the same magnitude of your local Magnetic Variation (here in my place it is 23 degress West). This happens because in the old ST4000,(not in the new ST4000+) the AP display shows the True HDG, not magnetic HDG (believe me). The operation setup if very simple: after selecting and activating a route in the gps, I press AUTO in the AP, them press the butons (+10) and (-10) simulataneously. The AP receieves the name of the waypoint, the bearing to it, bips the alarm, and gives me the direction of the turn (port/starboard); I must press again the two butons to authorize the heading change and them the AP finally turns the boat in the direction of the bearing of the waypoint. Betwen 2 waypoints, that is, in the "active leg", the AP uses only the XTE information from the gps to keep the boat in the track and does not care about the BRG. My AP displays continuowsly the true heading, XTE, distance to Waypoint, and WPT True Bearing intermixed. Newer AP from Autohelm or Raymarine like the ST4000-Plus can display up to 7 data types from gps. Upon arriving in the active waypoint, the AP receives from the gps the name and the true bearing of the new waypoint; the AP than bips the alarm, displays the true BRG to Waypoint, the direction it will turn the boat (port/starboard) asking for authorization; You must press again simultaneously the (+10) and (-10) buttons in order to authorize the turn. If You are planing to use the Trackback of your Garmin gps to guide the AP,You must know that It was implemented in diferent ways in the folowing gps receivers I have: a)Garmin GpsMap 130: The trackback route is obtained by reducing the active log directly, selecting the most signifcative trackpoints in order to create a route with up to 30 waypoints named as T001, T002 etc.. This is a "real route" wich have "real waypoints"; the user can acess them, to rename, copy etc, and it can be navigated in the original sequence or inverted, like any other route. If the user wish to save this route he must copy it to an empty route number, and renaming it. b)Garmin GpsIII or GpsIII-Plus: It brings a good inovation because the user can save up to 10 tracklogs with upto 250 trackpointeach, reduced from the activelog, and each tracklog can be named at discretion of the user. The important thing is that, the user can ask the unit to create a Trackback real route with up to 30 temporary waypoints named T001,T002, T003 etc, and naviagte it the same way the trackback route of the G130. The advantage here is that I can store the 10 tracklogs to naviagte when I wish. c)Garmin GpsMap 76: Like the GIII+, the user can have up to 10 saved tracklogs, but with one important the diference: it does not create a "real route", nor "real waypoints"; the "pseudo route" and its up to 50 "virtual waypoints" wich are created automactly by the gps, are not user acessible, for rename, delete, copy, edit etc. The virtual waypoints have fixed names like: BEGIN, TURN 1, TURN 2, TURN 24, END. The bad news is that because this virtual wpt name convention, wich have more than 4 characteres and a space betwen, the trackback route does not work with AH autopilots. OTHERS USEFULL TIPS 1)Press the (+10) and (-10) buttons briefly (1 second); if you press these for more than 1 second You will get an error and the alarm bips. Several friends myne had made this mistake in the begining,and this can ocurs again eventually, if you tell a crew member to press the buttons. 2)The AP is very conservative, in that it will bip and displays the BRG to next wpt and the port/starboard info on every new leg. Somebody may do not like this, but I think is very good regarding the security of the boat; imagine what could happen if the AP turn the boat 90 degree to port without warning and there whould be an another boat. 3)Today, with the gps system giving a 10-15m precision, we here use the AP interfaced with the gps almost 90% of time when cruising, and we think that it is very secure (at last I think it is beter than to give the helm to an unexperinced crew member) and very relaxing, mainly in trick routes and/or at nigth. But remember that the chart my be wrong, so do not relax to much in the first time you go a new place interfaced. 4) You can "dodge" the boat in the normal way with (+1),(+10),(-1) or (-10) without leaving the track mode. The AP would return slowly to the route by using the XTE, or you can revert the change again. 5) One big advantage of the AP/GPS interface is that the AP will compensate automatically for the current. In a strong current by the side, You would note that the heading of the boat is several degrees of the BRG, wich indicates that it is compensating the current. 6) If you are navigating using an active route, you can cut one corner, that is, skip the next wpt, just making a goto to the next one in the active route page. When the boat reach that wpt, it returns to navigate the route as normal mode. But if you do a goto to a wpt wich not is in the route, than it will stop at end and does not resume navigating the active route. 7) When you begin the interfaced navigation, I recomend that you make a goto the the active route wpt you wish to enter the route, because if you do not do this, the gps will instruct the AP to go a HDG to intercept the nearest route leg at about 90 degrees , wich could not be what you wish. 8) I sugest that You set your gps to display TRUE BRG instead of magnetic, so that the HDG and BRG information displayed by AP will be equal to the GPS and thus, will be less chances to You make a mistake. 9) A good way to test if the interface is working 100% correctly is as folows: in a calm day, with no boats trafic near, under engine, activate a route you use most, put the autopilot in Auto mode, than, activate the interface with the 2 buttons as explained. Wait the boat achieve a XTE of zero, than invert the route; the AP will sound the bip as usuall and you must authorize the change. If the interface is working 100 %, the boat will do imediatelly a 180 degree turn, and return folowing the inverted route leg, directly upon the previous waypoint, exactly over the wake it had just created, as is spected. 10) Concluding, if you uses your AP interfaced with the GPS very frequently in good weather You should get a good feeling on how your Gps and the Autopilot works together, and this can be very usefull in bad weather situation. By contrast, do not atempt to try this by first time when caugh in a danger situation. Think Globally, Sail Locally Pascal Goncalves s/v NavStar S 13 00/W 038 27 Salvador-BA-Brazil
 
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Hugh

Excellent info Jose.

Thanks, Jose, some EXCELLENT info. And thanks to Pascal as well.
 
B

Bob Howie

Caribbean & Back

I've sailed to the Caribbean and back using The Cap'n and a Garmin GPS48. Worked for me.
 
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