PC Marine Navigation 1.Comparison Test by Richard Fairman Overview Comparison of nav programs and chart typesPC Marine Navigation 1.Comparison Test.PC Marine Navigation 1.Comparison Test.Introduction.There are a number of free or nearly free, marine navigation systems for the PC which are supported by forums and a loyal band of enthusiasts.I have long wondered how these systems would stand up on a long voyage over several days of sailing.Which would be best in terms of reliability and usability and is navigating using a laptop as a real alternative to a costly dedicated onboard nav systems provided by such manufacturers such as Garmin and Raymarine.The results were interesting and in some cases surprising.Test Objectives.To compare the Suitability, Reliability Accuracy of four navigation systems in a real life situation over 1.Limiting factors.Running four navigation systems on a single netbook may have reduced performance andor reliability.I am more familiar with Sea.Clear and Google Earth than Open.CPN and Polar.View.NS. It would have been easy to slip into the easy chair of known software.Any comparison is likely to be more subjective than objective.Unable to compare commercial navigation systems due to cost with the exception of the Raymarine G8.Used differing charts formats Sea.Clear WCI, Open.CPN Cmap 9.Polar.View. NS. KAP so difficult to compare chart displays like for like.PC Marine Navigation 1000nm Comparison Test.PC Marine Navigation 1000nm Comparison Test.Introduction.There are a number of free or nearly free, marine navigation.Our vessel was not equipped with an AIS deceiver or transponder so the AIS part of the test was conducted with a live AIS feed from San Francisco.Even with the above limiting factors it was felt that the comparison test would yield results useful for the average yachtsman or womanEquipment Used.Samsung NC1.Dabs. com Bluetooth GPS receiver from www.Power supply 1.Marine Navigation Software Used.Sea.Clear from www.Open.CPN From www.Open.Cpn. com. Polar.Com Polar.View from www.Google Earth from www.Accessory Software Used.Google Earth 5.2.1.1329 Beta' title='Google Earth 5.2.1.1329 Beta' />Franson.Gate To split GPs signal into four COM outputs from www.Franson.Gate. com.Navigator V.To create kml files for Google Earth from www.Charts Sea.Clear.WCI charts georeferenced satelliteimages from.Polar.View. NS Polar.View Polar.Com. Open.CPN Cmap 9.Google Earth Overlay charts PC Marine Navigation systems under test.Sea. Catalyst Software Suite For Ati Radeon X700 on this page. Clear v. 1. 0.Open.CPN v. 2. 1.Build 6.Polar.Com Polar. View v.Google Earth with Chart Overlays v.The Trip.Start Bodrum TurkeyDestination Alexandria EgyptReturn Destination Bodrum Turkey via Symi and Kos GreeceTrip Length 1.Measured via trackDuration Outbound approx 4 days Inbound approx 6 days.The Vessel.Jeanneau 1.Raymarine G8.Chartplotter.Autohelm autopilot.Yanmar diesel engine.Test Comparison Criteria.Downloading.How easy is it to download the software and does it take a long time.Installation.Is installation straightforward and safe Support.What support is availableChart Availability.Are charts easily available within the US and worldwideInstalling Charts.Is it easy to install charts Documentation.Is documentation available and easy to useConnecting GPSHow difficult is it to connect to your GPS Pretrip planning.Route planning.Weather Planning.Navigation During the voyage.Usability.Positional accuracy.Satellite Image Support.Stability.Route Following.AIS Display.AIS Collision Warning.Test Results.Sea.Clear. Downloading.Sea.Clear was easy to download from www.Installation.Installation was straightforward and the installation was self contained in the sense that all required files are located under a Sea.Clear folder and the computer register is not accessed or modified.The calibration and chart installation program, Map.Cal, was also installed but a desktop icon was not created.This has to be created manually.Map.Cal is the sole method of installing charts for Sea.Clear 81.Support Development of Sea.Clear seems to have come to a halt with little direct support from the developer.The main support path is the forum http groups.This forum is very active and supportive of Sea.Clear and I know the Sea.Clear developer, Ollie, monitors the forum and steps in with advice when needed.Chart Availability.Sea.Clear uses unencrypted BSB charts or charts in the Sea.Clear.WCI format.Within the US charts in the required format are freely available but outside the US legal availability is limited Companies such as 1yachtua supply charts for the Med.NOTE Visit.My. Harbour now supply legal UKIrelandBelgium and Netherlands charts for Sea.Clear, with more areas coming.Installing Charts.Installing charts was a convoluted process using the utility Map.Cal.Installing charts was a big support load for the Sea.Clear forum on Yahoo.Visit.My. Harbour charts are pre installed saving the user any bother.Documentation.Documentation is provided in the PDF format.The documentation was comprehensive but very poorly organised and presented.This has led to publications such as Sea.Clear Unleashed 71.The Visit.My. Harbour packages have a comprehensive built in help section written by the author of THIS article, Richard Fariman.Connecting GPSOnce the COM port for the GPS signal is established, connecting to Sea.Clear was straightforward but the BPS must be set to 4.The input NMEA signal can be monitored via Sea.Clears System Monitor.On rare occasions Sea.Clear lost the input signal and had to be restarted.Pre trip planning.You have to enter the Route Editor mode to create and edit routes.Some problems were experienced with adding or inserting waypoints to a route but those were relatively easy to overcome.Not possible with Sea.Clear 01.Navigation During the voyage.The GUI of Sea.Clear was old fashioned and cluttered compared to the other systems.This could be improved by hiding the dashboard.For the majority of the trip Sea.Clear was positionally accurate.On one occasion.I observed that Sea.Clear was plotting a position about 2.The boat was on the west side of the harbour and the plotted position on the east.Sea.Clear accurately displayed georeferenced satellite images although these were not quilted.Sea.Clear was stable throughout the whole 1.Once loaded it was easy to activate a route.If you are some distance from the route Sea.Clear plotted a route at right angle to the first leg to reduce XTE to a minimum as soon as possible.This may cause problems with a connected autopilot.The solution was to ensure your first waypoint is in close proximity to your vessel before you activate the route.It was only possible to have one route at a time on display.Connecting the AIS signal was just a matter of selecting a port via ToolsProperties and setting the speed to 3.Sea.Clear multiplexes its inputs into a single stream which can be seen via the System Monitor.Sea.Clear quickly plotted the positions of vessels with AIS transponders.All the AIS vessels display in the AIS list at the Sea.Clear Dashboard The Find button locates the vessel for you, or the Info button opens an AIS Target Info dialog box It was not possible to de clutter the AIS display of vessels.Vessels under way and at anchor were displayed 71.CPA Closet Point of ApproachMax and TCPA time to Closest Point of Approach are set via ToolsProperties Setting CPA and TCPA values too high, resulted in Sea.Clear identifying most vessels in the area as potential collision risks with the resulting alarms.If CPA and TCPA settings are violated Sea.Clear sounds an audible collision warning and a collision warning displays on screen which shows the collision danger vessel name near your vessels position.Princess In China Coldplay Free Mp3 Download here.Open. CPNDownloading.Downloading was fast and easy from http opencpn.Installation.Installation was fast and trouble free.Support.There is a very active support forum at http www.As the software is being actively developed the developers monitor the forum and respond very quickly.Feature updates occur almost every month with more frequent bug fixes as required.Chart Availability.Open.CPN utilises BSB charts which are freely available within the US with limited availability worldwide.Cmap 9.Visit. My. Harbour are now making charts for Open.CPN and Polar Navy, available on a portable Chart.Stick.Installing Charts.Chart installation was quick and easy.Browse for chart directory, add it to the list and force a full database rebuild and the charts are displayed on screen.Fallout New Vegas 2.Extended HD Edition pc Action RPG 3.D 0.Russian, English, Spanish, Italian, German, French ISO Bethesda Softworks Obsidian Entertainment 1.HD.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2017
Categories |