Best Free PC Nav System

[seasalt007]

What is the latest and best free PC based navigation program?

Although my bridge is not as protected as a pilot house I still would like to have a laptop running somewhere on the boat and to use as a route planner.

Previously I have used paid programs such as The Captain and Maptec but my versions are out of date.

I am assuming that charts can be downloaded free from the gov't.

I have a USB hockey puck GPS.

 

[ben2go]

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/seaclear_mapping/conversations/messages

 

[eseyoung]

I know some love it but i have tried Opencpn and it is unstable on all 3 of my laptops. are there any others?

 

[ben2go]

Try Laptop GPS World .Here is the way I did mine. USB GPS BU-353 and Earth Bridge - Setup Instructions - Laptop GPS World and use this to make offline maps EarthBridge Without Internet? - Laptop GPS World

 

[seasalt007]

Sometime ago I downloaded Sea Clear found it to be tedious. I never could get it to open the chart that I downloaded for it. Then I joined it's Yahoo group and saw that I was not the only one that had questions on how to make it work. The forum is very busy helping people who want to dedicate enough time to understand it. That's too much for me.

 

[Ski in NC]

I used maptech for a few years, found it buggy and prone to lock up. Finally bought Coastal Explorer based on input from this site. Works very well and has not locked up. Worth the money.

 

[psneeld]

OpenCPN...previous versions unstable with my old puck..the newer version and new USB puck are super...

 

[caltexflanc]

For free, OpenCPN. A lot of people prefer to step up $50 to Polar Navy's PolarView NS, which I have played around with and really like. They have a 30 day free trial demo:

Polar Navy - Marine Navigation Software

As a side piece of of trivia, we got to know the originator of OpenCPN while rafted up with his huge aluminum catamaran Nyad (nickname "BigDumbBoat") on the same mooring for a couple of days at Vero Beach. Pretty cool.

 

[DavidM]

OpenCpn has a long standing bug in that it won't work long with the ubiquitous BU-353 GPS without dropping out. But there is a pretty easy workaround. Install XPort and use one of its virtual com ports.

With that one problem, OpenCpn is by far the best free, full featured nav product available for Windows PCs. It supports both free raster and vector NOAA charts.

As a paid product, Coastal Explorer is tops.

David

 

[windmill29130]

What is the latest and best free PC based navigation program?

Although my bridge is not as protected as a pilot house I still would like to have a laptop running somewhere on the boat and to use as a route planner.

Previously I have used paid programs such as The Captain and Maptec but my versions are out of date.

I am assuming that charts can be downloaded free from the gov't.

I have a USB hockey puck GPS.

I have used Sea Clear 2 for years and love it.

 

[mattkab]

Many people have already mentioned OpenCPN... I find it to be fantastic.

I've been running it on a Raspberry Pi for a few months, and it works fine -- but I have some additional plans (autopilot, AIS) and the Rpi is simply too low-powered for that. As a straight chartplotter, though, I think it's fine.

This past weekend I got it up and running in a long afternoon on a CubieTruck (another small single-board computer but more powerful). I'll write up those steps too.

I have been using a BU-353 GPS puck with it, and have never had a problem with it dropping. In fact I had it running for about 6 hours on Sunday while we did some woodwork, and it was still holding a fix when I shut down. Not saying there isn't a bug, just saying I haven't seen it.

As a software engineer, I also like that I can write plugins for it and expand the capabilities -- I haven't completely finished them, but I wrote two plugins for it already, and will probably write more.

 

[DavidM]

Matt:

The GPS dropout problem started with Windows 7. It was related somehow to the BU-353 driver. It might have been fixed by now but as of a few years ago wasn't.

I pretty much gave up on OpenCpn then when I got a Nexus 7 and used MxMariner as my backup. MxMariner is nowhere near as full featured as OpenCpn, but it does support the offline ActiveCaptain database, so it works for me.

David

 

[N4712]

I've been debating about getting OpenCPN and hooking my Navico Broadband radar into it. Anybody try that?

 

[mattkab]

Matt:

The GPS dropout problem started with Windows 7. It was related somehow to the BU-353 driver. It might have been fixed by now but as of a few years ago wasn't.

Ah, that makes sense. I will say that OpenCPN today vs. OpenCPN of even 2 years ago is worlds different, especially with regards to stability. I've not seen it directly responsible for a crash in years -- except when I crash it by writing bad plugin code.

I pretty much gave up on OpenCpn then when I got a Nexus 7 and used MxMariner as my backup. MxMariner is nowhere near as full featured as OpenCpn, but it does support the offline ActiveCaptain database, so it works for me.

Yeah, if you find something you like, stay with it. No reason to change for the sake of change.

 

[FlyWright]

Mattkab, what kind of plug ins have you developed?

Is there any way to display Marinetraffic or Boatbeacon AIS data on the OpenCPN plot?

 

[mattkab]

Mattkab, what kind of plug ins have you developed?

The first plugin is, for my purposes, complete. It's designed to remind me to do a safety sweep (lookout) while the boat is underway and being steered by the autopilot. Essentially it looks for an active route, and brings up an alert every X minutes (defined in settings):

The second is not quite finished. It pulls down the active radar imagery from NOAA and overlays it on the map. It works, but not in OpenGL mode, and it doesn't automatically download the imagery yet.

Source to both is on github.

Is there any way to display Marinetraffic or Boatbeacon AIS data on the OpenCPN plot?

Marinetraffic has an API that could possibly be used. You'd have to contact them to determine cost.

But, the direction I'm going towards is to get live AIS signals over VHF and display it on OpenCPN. Many other people have already blazed this trail, I'm just standing on their shoulders. Early tests have been successful, but I have not yet confirmed it.

This is all for fun for me, and so the progress is slow. Interrupted quite often by work, life, and what not.

 

[johnrupp]

I used Sea Clear 2 for years with out a problem. I recently spent the $50 and got Polar Navy which is a great product.

 

[psneeld]

Used this GPS with my recent OpenCPN without a hitch now for the last 2 years now...Dell laptop and windows 7... it seemed to be the serial port GPS that drove me crazy...the USB one has been near perfect.

Globalsat BU-353-S4 Weather-proof USB GPS Receiver

 

[QB]

GPS and AIS NMEA sentences from a Standard Horizon GX2200 multiplexed through a Shipmodul Miniplex Lite to USB input on a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga running a recent beta release of OpenCPN works well. A very useful tool.

 

[Daddyo]

I have used Polar Navy the last few years for the length of the east coast and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It just works!

 

[Peter B]

I'm not a computer nerdy or fussy user, and I don't like too much information, but I do like multipurpose, light, and quick, so I have been very impressed by Navionics on my iPad, with built in GPS, and never cease to be amazed how quick it gets its fixes etc. Nice and light to take upstairs, or muck around on route planning downstairs, and it does not need to be plugged into charge all the time. I would never bother carting a much heavier laptop around the boat, and I can still access my email & the internet, (using the simcard and cellular network if no wi-fi nearby), and read my iBooks on it. The perfect back-up to my main GPS.

 

[ben2go]

Many people have already mentioned OpenCPN... I find it to be fantastic.

I've been running it on a Raspberry Pi for a few months, and it works fine -- but I have some additional plans (autopilot, AIS) and the Rpi is simply too low-powered for that. As a straight chartplotter, though, I think it's fine.

This past weekend I got it up and running in a long afternoon on a CubieTruck (another small single-board computer but more powerful). I'll write up those steps too.

I have been using a BU-353 GPS puck with it, and have never had a problem with it dropping. In fact I had it running for about 6 hours on Sunday while we did some woodwork, and it was still holding a fix when I shut down. Not saying there isn't a bug, just saying I haven't seen it.

As a software engineer, I also like that I can write plugins for it and expand the capabilities -- I haven't completely finished them, but I wrote two plugins for it already, and will probably write more.

Awesome.I thought I was the only one that played with a Raspberry Pi.Cool little computer.I'm planning an intergrated carputer in my Blue Max Cougar and seeing that cubietruck,I may go that way instead.