Pocketpc or PDA as chartplotter?

Y

Y-NOT

New member
I have a Dell Axim x-30 that I would like to use as my chartplotter. Last month Outdoor Navigator quit offering the program to do this. Does anybody else run a PocketPC or PDA and what program do you use. Where do you get your charts? Maptech makes a program with some of the charts but it's a little pricey @ $499.95
This would sure beat carrying my laptop and the plus is I can use my X-30 with wifi or cell phone to do my internet.


Y-NOT
Captain Tony
 
Fugawi makes a program for charting on the PocketPC. I haven't tried it yet but it might work and I think it uses the free charts from NOAA.

My Toshiba e750 is too hard to read in the sunlight so I have basically decided not to go that route.

For street mapping you might want to look at Mapopolis. My brother in law uses it and says it is the best out there (He's a salesman and on the road all the time).
 
Tony,

If you have already purchased Outdoor Navigator you can still activate it and download the Maps/Charts here.
https://outdoornavigator.maptech.com/ou ... /index.cfm
I have a Dell AXIM X51v I use. It works pretty good. There are only two things I don’t like about Outdoor Navigator. The maps are not seamless and they cannot be rotated to your direction of travel. I will eventually replace Outdoor Navigator with another program. Not sure which one. Still doing research. If you get another program let me know which one and why.

Thanks
 
Thanks for the replys
I had Outdoor Navigator on my first Axim X-30, but they won't let me use it on my new one.
Maptech may be the way to go since it come with the charts on 13 dvd's.
I was hoping that somebody had a good program for this application that uses the free NOAA charts. Maybe 500.00 beens isn't so bad after all. And you get to download free updates.

Thanks again

Y-NOT
Captain Tony
 
Y-NOT":2twrbkml said:
I have a Dell Axim x-30 that I would like to use as my chartplotter. Last month Outdoor Navigator quit offering the program to do this. Does anybody else run a PocketPC or PDA and what program do you use. Where do you get your charts? Maptech makes a program with some of the charts but it's a little pricey @ $499.95
This would sure beat carrying my laptop and the plus is I can use my X-30 with wifi or cell phone to do my internet.


Y-NOT
Captain Tony
Click to expand...


I used to run Maptech Pocket Nav on an Ipaq with a Nice Navman antenna. This is one of the better setup you can get as far as pocket PCs go. I have to say that the Maptech software is VERY good. The maps are unbeatable. They are incredibly detailed. The weak link in this setup was the antenna. It constantly lost signal, took forever to get a fix and was a major PITA. I know many folks around here that have this setup with various PDAs and antennas and all have issues with weak signal strength. I highly recommend an external antenna that you can mount outside the boat. I never did find one and ended up getting rid of it a few months ago. Again, can't say enough good things regarding Maptech. Here is Pocket Nav for 49.00: http://www.maptech.com/products/pocketN ... /index.cfm
 
Life may be good, I just found this site for all the charts for the U.S. coast and the great lakes.
http://www.gpsnavx.com/
Looks like these will work with a PC or Pocket PC and are the same as NOAA raster charts or should I say these are NOAA raster charts, all on one CD or DVD.
They may also work with some off the chartplotter gps's
 
Are you serious that there is a company named Fugawi making navigational equipment. Last time I heard, there was a tribe of lost indians wandering around crying, "Where the Fugawi?".
 
Well, here goes; my very first post. In September 2004 I left La Crosse, Wisconsin, and in June 2005 finished in Green Bay, Wisconsin, by way of Key West and New York. I used Fugawi (yes, I understand it really did come from "Where the Fugawi?") on a Sony Vaio, strapped to the table in my C-Dory 22 Cruiser. I claim Fugawi is the reason I never once in 6000 miles went aground, or chewed up a propeller (of course the guys in the big boats all claim it's because I only draw 22 inches :-). At any rate, I spent many hundreds of hours, scanning and calibrating charts for the trip, enough that at full precision the jpeg images take about 1.5 gigabytes. As a backup, I took a second, smaller Vaio, with only a 12G hard drive. To get the charts to fit on the smaller Vaio, I reduced the precision of the jpeg images to 25%, which means they all fit on a single CD. The loss in precision isn't very noticeable in Fugawi. I'd be glad to share the full precision charts, but they take three CDs. If you'd like to try the 25% precision ones, which take only one CD, give me an address, and I'll send you a copy, free, no strings attached. The CD contains a backup of my Fugawi libraries, so you get the calibrations as well.
 
http://www.oziexplorer.com/

I use the PC version but they do have one for Windows CE. I do question though whether the dimnunitive screen on these things is adequate. The only upside for OziE (and the like) is that you can scan and calibrate your own charts rather than laying out big bucks for the data as you would have to for dedicated chart plotters. Otherwise the latter make more sense (at least to me).
 
Without going into details, Jeff Siegel who is a Trawler owner and had built outdoor navigator has parted ways with Maptech. My correspondance with Jeff is that he will be offering the program himself again shortly, and is upgrading the program currently.
 
I have Fugiwa, and while I can't spell it, it has the advantage that you can load it on several computers (and the disadvantage that if your computer crashes, you have to get on the internet to activate it.) Another good feature is that it will read the US Govt. raster scan scarts. These are free, on the NOAA site. Plan to spend a while, because the .zip file is 26 Mbytes. These charts cover most of the US (not Canada,) and are updated. there are smaller updates and you can load specific charts. When you decompress the zip file you can store all the charts on a CD, and access them that way.

You reliaze that as soon as the govt releases all the raaster charts, Maptech, etc. will hav a little trouble selling their charts.

If you order the Fug marine version, it comes with a CD of the abovementioned charts. Also, its cheaper than Maptech, Cap'n, etc.

Not getting stuck on the East Coast is a matter of luck, and a shallow draft. I stuck the sailboat (6') while I was looking at the chart. That 22" draft sure helps.

boris
 
Boris,

I downloaded the demo version of Fugawi and have been working with over the last few days. I'm still getting used to it, but from what I can tell it is a pretty good deal for the money. The primary reason I am looking at wasn't for running on a PDA or notebook, but as a way to get current "paper charts" to back up my existing gps plotter. I have experimented with printing and it looks like it is relatively easy to print letter sized segments of charts that you could keep in a binder on board for use if the electronics went south and you are only left with a compass, dead reckoning, and with any kind of luck a hand held GPS.

In addition you could keep some of the detailed port charts available on board without going broke buying them or the space necessary to store them.

Given the price of charts this seems like a logical alternative since for the price of 9 charts I could own Fugawi and have a really neat alternative to my LCX-20 if I wanted to use it.

Has anyone tried the print angle using Coastal Explorer or NobelTec as an alternative to larger paper charts?
 
Are any of you up to date on what chart plotters will alow you to use the NOAA raster/vector charts? How does it all work? Are they for the laptop and PDA's only? My head is hurting bigtime trying to figure out all the options.

I have a Garmin 188 Map/Sounder that I love. I want to do extended crusing and for the price of Blue Chart chips I could take the Queen Mary.

Anyone wishing to write a manual on this subject ( One people could understand ) would make the Best Seller List.

Thanks,
 
To my knowlege none of the chart plotters can use the NOAA downloaded charts. Each plotter uses a specific chip/program--such as Navionics, C map or Garmin etc.

In some larger boats I have run a laptop with one of several programs and BSB or the NOAA maps. However in the small boats, there is a problem of room for the laptop. A PDA screen is not really big enough for a chart plotter. On the C Dory 22 cruiser, I use a 6" Lowrance, and a 10" combination GPS/sounder by Bottom Line. On my larger boat I use a 10" Standard Horizon and a 6" chart plotter..

A chart plotter is easier to use when underway.
 
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