My NOAA Charts App

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ssobol

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22 Cruiser
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SoBELLE
NOAA is beta testing an Android app that gives access to their charts and other information. It has tools for routes and distances and will interface with GPS.

http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mynoaacharts/

I haven't tried this while cruising, but it looks promising.

Thanks ActiveCaptain.
 
I'm curious as to why this app (MyNOAACharts) hasn't been used discussed and compared to the Garmin and Navionics apps. It's FREE and all the charts plus the Coastal Pilot are FREE.

There have been general discussions on navigation using a tablet. Since a tablet has a 7" or 10" screen, it looks better than the small screen on my JRC plotter. In addition, a tablet is certainly cheaper than a corresponding 10" dedicated plotter.

Both Garmin and Navionics provide download apps for charting, wherein you use their dedicated charts. Both of these are good, but their source data comes from the NOAA charts, which are provided by the US Govt/NOAA to all of us.

For the Inland Waterways (mostly eastern rivers,) here's a $15 app which give access to both the Army Core charts and NOAA: Marine Navigation. And as you navigate the planned routes, it gives voice directions.

In both those apps the charts are free. And they appear to be a fully capable navigation tool, allowing planning and following routes, integrating GPS.


And, please note that there's not a Navigation Forum on the C-Brats site. How does one go about establishing one?

Boris
 
There are several android chart readers available which work with Active Captain, which adds another valuable dimension to boating:

"SEAiq
SEAiq by SEAiq is available in a few different apps. SEAiq Free provides free ActiveCaptain access and free US NOAA vector charts (above 1:50,000 scale); SEAiq Open (also free to try) is for international use and is the only iOS app that lets you install your own S-57, S-63, IENC, or CM-93 vector charts. The SEAiq apps are also the only ActiveCaptain apps for IOS that support external NMEA/AIS over WiFi."
 
I agree with Boris.

And OpenCPN is another FREE app very similar to the NOAA app, with a bit more functionality built in. Very useful for a backup chartplotter or at-home planning.

In time these will out-compete the Navionics of the world (and force their prices down) and will incorporate crowd-sourced data like Active Captain.

jd
 
The viability of proprietary charts rest on what the chart plotters use. Despite the increased use of computers and tablets, the sales of high end chart plotters have increased and not been impacted by these alternatives. They are faster and integrated with engines, depth sounders, radars etc. They are also easier to use for navigation.

I think they will remain as backup and planning for most users. Of course many of the newest chart plotters have connection with the tablets.
 
MyNOAACharts seems to be very similar to MX Mariner, it may even use the same engine. I have downloaded MyNOAACharts (some time ago) but have not had a chance to use it while cruising.

MyNOAACharts is not available for all devices. I can get it for my android tablet, but not my android phone (MX Mariner is available for both).

MX Mariner is working to incorporate the Active Captain markers. I don't know if MyNOAACharts will ever allow that sort of integration.
 
Well, Bob, time will tell as to the usefulness of tablets in onboard navigation. You and I are "old school" but have adopted several new concepts as they came along. And things are still changing.

I'm reading (OK, rereading,) Eric Hiscock "Cruising Under Sail", updated in 1981. He doesn't even mention electronic aids to small boat navigation including radar, loran, etc. He does mention WWV. So, in the last 30 years we've gone from the sextant and mechanical chronometers through loran to GPS; from paper charts to CD's that you could use on you laptop to dedicated displays and now back to tablets (and laptops) with up-to-date charts and radar overlays. And what happens if GPS goes down? We are either in deep trouble, as is the whole airline and shipping world, or we read the Glonass data, and get home.

I agree that a tablet is a backup now but paper charts were mandatory until the last decade and still have their place. So we only can see the future and move along. Clearly dedicated displays are waterproof, faster, more specialized and expensive. Tablets offer a choice at this point and are easily customizable.

My goat is to change to a PC based system this winter including radar, and we'll see how that goes. As for engine data, etc., if the data can be displayed on a dedicated plotter, it can be displayed on a PC, there's no magic there. As usual, I'll screw up at times, but I think it's the way to go.

Boris
 
Sorry, my bad, in my previous post I meant to say MXMariner, not OpenCpn as being an Android app.

Right now, I have a $12 adapter that plugs into the OBD port for my pickup that links via bluetooth to a $10 android app that displays all my engine/transmission metrics on my tablet in realtime. There are literally hundreds of metrics/performance statistics that I can choose from to display. If you can't already, you'll soon be able to do the same with your outboard, transducer and radar. When that happens, my $2000 Chartplotter becomes the backup to my $350 tablet.

jd
 
At this point, I believe that most computer based systems in small boats, are sort of clobbered together in relation to the ease of installation of the single chart plotter, which remains my preference. It is not plug and play to get all of the information which is available in a $700 Garmin Chart plotter however. Certainly many of the larger vessels have a central dedicated computer, with terminals, and multiple monitors. I used computer based systems in 1998 with the 42 foot trawler I owned. Worked OK--but was not as easy to use as a chart plotter. The interphase with many of the chart plotters in most boats now is all NMEA 2000 (or similar protocol), and petty much plug and play. Plug and Play is what the average boat owner wants.

Susan and Eric Hiscock were some of the pioneers and wrote a number of books (13 I believe) that many of us read before we first started our own voyages. Hiscock's Cruising under Sail in 1981 was a combination of the earlier Cruising Under Sail and Voyaging under Sail.. He was not happy with the last boat, and had her radically modified. If you read Two Boats Two Voyages published in 1985, he extoles the virtues of Sat Nav, depth sounders, SSB radio etc. If you look at pictures of his last boat he had Sat Nav aboard. He did reject some modern rigging cruising gear, because he found what he was familiar with was easier for an elderly couple to use (like worm gear roller furling over jiffy reefing or a cruising chute). He did try new technology when it came along. By 1983 I had Sat Nav, Omega, Loran C, Radar and Weather Fax aboard. Plus two sextants, one of which I had already used to navigate to Hawaii.

The latest versions of I pad and i phone have both GPS and Glonass.
 
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