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Let's start a war... Opencpn vs timezero vs Inavx

Sailingfun

Member III
I tried Opencpn and do not like it. Inavx is brilliant but comes short on NMEA2000 and timezero is really... expensive...
What is your favorite soft for sailing??
I'm in the process of finish my electronics (everything is NMEA2000) so let's start the game...
Best bang for the buck!
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
By coincidence, I received an email out-of-the-blue about a week ago from the company that acquired the MacENC plotting application.
I have done deliveries with that application on my MacBook and also with the prior version GPSNavX.
Good products. They say that they have rewritten the code for the new/current MacOS.
Link: https://www.navstation.net/2020/05/navstation-acquires-macenc/

Of course I have not tried it out, yet. Hopefully in 2021.
 
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kiwisailor

Member III
Blogs Author
OpenCPN with RNC charts on a Samsung 10 tablet WiFi connected to Vesper for AIS overlay + paper charts as back up and route planning.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Curiosity.... Do you have an external GPS antenna plugged in? The specs for the current Samsung model do not mention GPS, just wifi.
(My older Mac used a 'hockey puck' antenna that is sensitive enough to work fine with both computer and 'puck' secured to the nav table of several different boats.)

Current system is the Lowrance 9" plotter/radar display at the helm, apropos of whatever.
Chief advantage, among some others, is the sunlight-viewable display, and of course being waterproof.

...There must be about ten 'right' answers to this line of inquiry...
:)

Hmmm. A "war" where no one loses, as long as they find their way home!

Add link: https://www.globalsat.com.tw/en/pro...with-USB-interface-SiRF-Star-IV-BU-353S4.html
Looks exactly like mine, but probably with some performance upgrades over the years. Available from various web vendors.
 
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Sailingfun

Member III
I think to install a GPS puck (USB, nmea0183 or nmea2000) is a good idea. Anyway, any navigation software or Chartplotter will take just one signal, relegating the rest as support.
If you ask me, I will prefer to install a gyrocompass GPS like Furuno or maretronic or Raymarine unit. Basically not take just the GPS signal but add 3 or 5 or 9 axis signal in order to add more information at autopilot. But those units are expensive. Montessier hat, the add for the raspberry opencpn comes with a 9 axis compass but work through the soft is a little bit complex.
In a perfect world a GPS/gyrocompass is a necessity if you want your autopilot to go straight and without kill your batteries
 

eknebel

Member III
As Loren said, there are many right answers. For those that used hockey pucks and dead reckoning in the day, what a magnificent improvement. But does take some of the adventure out of it...

My primary source is a ray marine mfd mounted on the binnacle. I like iNavX on the phone in a waterproof case, because I generally have it both on and off the water. That way I can pass it around in the cockpit or bar(pre COVID) to others as we discuss and ponder various courses and tactics. Convenient and only $6 now. But things break, so I also have a gps puck and opencpn (free is its most outstanding feature, but it does work, I mostly use it to sort out routes and waypoints, rarely real time navigating. I also have a functional handheld gps but discontinued by Garmin,so no new maps for 15yrs. It is kept in a clean paint can with batteries and desiccant in case of lightning strikes.
 

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goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
I have Navionics on my iPhone and my Axiom MFD from Raymarine comes pre-loaded with Navionics.

I try not to run into stuff I can see and with GPS coordinates I figure out I can work out the other details mostly.

I mostly want easy and reliable more than I want cheap/free.

5 sources, assuming I don't forget my phone at home:

GPS on my iPhone
GPS on my AIS
External GPS antenna on my NMEA network
GPS in my Axiom MFD
GPS in my VHF radio

I think I would need my laptop to get the GPS data from my AIS, so that's not really fair.
Excluding phone call it four sources, three hard-wired and visible.
 

steven

Sustaining Member
I'm way behind the times on this - still using paper charts and dead reckoning. Sorry for dumb questions.

Is the Navionics ($15 bucks ?) per device ? Are there ongoing charges of any sort. Only need in-shore US East Coast.
Does a GPS puck require a subscription to a service? Are some brands better than other or is it all commodity.
Can I use an iphone as a GPS hotspot ? By that I mean use bluetooth or wifi to get to the GPS signal through the iphone (and without cellular service)?

Thanks for starting this thread.
 

gabriel

Live free or die hard
Hi Steven,

On navionics you pay a subscription to use the charts. The subscription for the united states charts is $15 per year per device.

GPS is a free service there shouldn't be any fees other than buying the equipment to use it...same as a rooftop TV Antenna.

An ipad will have an internal gps that the program can use to find its bearings. The ipad can use this gps without being connected to the internet or cell network.

hope that helps.
 

e38 owner

Member III
There is a nice little ap that runs on android. SailGrib
It does routing and does a decent job. Free for up to 100 miles of routing.
It does weather route optimization etc
 

K2MSmith

Sustaining Member
I use navionics on an ipad pro (and on my iphone) . I also have an old raymarine (c80 ?) chartplotter that is networked to raymarine instruments. My plan is to get rid of all the raymarine stuff and replace with wi-fi sensors and wireless instruments with displays mounted on the mast. I then can connect my computer and ipad to the network and get live inputs from the sensors. It's on my list but probably not for a year or two.
 

wynkoop

Member III
I am rather old school and until this year had no plotter type thing on Silver Maiden. When I moved her to the new home port I could not lay my hands on a paper chart of the area I was to traverse so I loaded openCPN on my old samsung galaxy S5 (no cell service) downloaded all the needed charts via my home internet, and loaded the same on my every day carry cell phone which has a 7 day battery life.

I played with opencpn for a couple of days on board in the marina before treking to the new marina. It preformed well on both devices. I did wish I had a tablet with built in GPS as sometimes the phone was hard to see and a tablet mounted at the right place in the cabin could have been seen just fine from the cockpit.

My long term plan is to set up a big (13 inch) monitor on the head bulkhead connected to a raspberry Pi running opencpn with one of my old cell phones doing the GPS duties. Heck I have about 6 old cell phones that still work fine as nema gps devices. Why not use them.

I should be able to see that from the companionway and I can also have opencpn on my cell phone as backup.

I do not know anything about the other software mentioned, but for the several hours I used it opencpn seemed to do everything I needed. I will admit I did not program in waypoints to sail to. I just used it as a moving chart display and I picked my course as I went having of course reviewed the route before starting.
 

p.gazibara

Member III
We used OpenCPN on our voyage to NZ. It was running on a dedicated 12V micro computer down below with a GPS puck 24/7 while we were underway. Amusing to watch on the 3800nm run from CR to FP.

My iPhone 6 was loaded with navionics and when we got close to port, I would take that into the cockpit. It did randomly lose gps signal out in the middle of the blue.

I want to try one of those new android rugged phones.

-P
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
A $500 chartplotter comes loaded with world charts, features depth and speed, and has the typical functions of a car GPS in terms of guidance to destination, time of arrival, and so on. Waterproof, probably has AIS receiver too.

Mine does not talk to any other source and fills the bill reliably as prime navigator far from land. Just sayin'....
 

p.gazibara

Member III
A $500 chartplotter comes loaded with world charts, features depth and speed, and has the typical functions of a car GPS in terms of guidance to destination, time of arrival, and so on. Waterproof, probably has AIS receiver too.

Mine does not talk to any other source and fills the bill reliably as prime navigator far from land. Just sayin'....
Can you overlay the GRIBs on these? AIS receiving is a big perk. I had to use another device to plug in AIS, it’s fantastic to know the name of the vessel an MMSI number in case you need to hail them.

I’m a big fan of open source systems. OpenCPN is nice and that fact that you can run it from a flash drive on any PC is a nice bit of redundancy. And GRIBs can easily be overlayed giving you a good feel for real time weather routing.

-P
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I consider my 7" chartplotter screen to be too small for effective AIS display, and its mounted in bright sun at the helm. A dedicated AIS display at the nav station below (Vesper Watchmate transceiver) is where I ponder shipping encounters.

I do all GRib and weather stuff and email communication on a laptop belowdecks, using GPS hockey puck and satphone hookup.
 

footrope

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
It is great to have so many inexpensive and accurate navigation system options.

When upgrading nav gear in 2014-2015 we brought the chartplotter and radar display out to the helm in a 7-inch Raymarine e7. Best navigation move we have made so far. We live and cruise in the Puget Sound and frequent the inside waters between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland. Paper charts are hard to use in these cockpits and even below there is seldom enough room to spread out the charts. Chartbooks are ok up to a point and we used them for years and carry them as backup with our government-issued paper charts. Our marine electronic charting back up is an old iPad with Navionics installed. It works great and we have a waterproof pouch for it that works fine. When considering an iPad or other tablet, be sure you know what you're getting. The iPads with cellular data capability are the ones that had a built-in GPS back in the pre-Air days. Something to be aware of. We took out the sim card long ago to reduce costs and it works great with just WiFi for updates.

It would be nice to be able to swap the chartplotter display from boat at the bottom pointing upwards, to a display that places the boat on either the left or right edge of the landscape display and moving the map left to right (or the opposite). Then you can see more of the path behind or ahead without zooming out or moving the center of the display by touch. Laptop based nav displays may have the edge here. In this area we're almost always in a narrow, 1 to 3 miles wide, corridor that would make a portrait or 90 degree rotated display much more convenient especially for AIS data.

The fast movers also should benefit from our transmitted AIS data during low visibility. The AIS permits them to confirm radar targets as small pleasure boats well before they can actually see us, and sometimes before radar returns are available. I am very much in favor of transmitting Class B AIS from small boats while underway. What I don't like is the fact that so many parked pleasure boats, in marinas, transmit their AIS data. That has forced me to disable all AIS alarms on my displays and marine VHF radio. Fortunately we usually cruise in visual conditions and can see traffic without electronic aids.
 
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