Laptop or Garmin?

[Jeffrey S]

I haven't encountered a chart problem with MaxSea (or MapMedia or NN3D) but did come across some software issues. Support from MaxSea direct (i.e., France) was excellent.

We sold a lot of MaxSea software over the years and I have to say that my experiences were all fantastic.

Much of the US support is handled by Furuno. When there was a question that we couldn't handle, we'd refer the user to them. Whenever I heard back, their experience with Furuno support was out-of-this-world great. Those guys would walk them through the issues and fix the problems. It was very rare that something didn't work and I can't think of many times when I went back to France myself with an issue. If the solution couldn't be arrived at, we'd always refund the purchase and MaxSea never had a problem with that.

I think that MaxSea is a wonderful and capable developer. We're lucky to have so many great choices in our boating world.

 

[sunchaser]

If one were to go with CE, would Windows 7 or 8 be the OS of choice?

 

[Ski in NC]

I asked that of Rosepointnav, I think the answer was anything from XP up. I'm going to try it on a vista machine. I'll know friday how it works.

 

[mbevins]

It seems that everyone talks of using CE (and other PC nav software) as a backup or planning choice to Plotters. I find this somewhat unusual. I use it with a Raymarine M1500 monitor on my bridge as the primary nav system. I use the E-120 plotter as the display for the radar and the backup for the PC system. I can stay current much easier with the PC, in fact if I decide I don't like it I can even change to a new software for next to nothing. You can't do that with a proprietary plotter unless your prepared to spend thousands.
I've been using this system for. 10 years and I would never go back to a strictly plotter only on the "big" boat.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

 

[HenryD]

Mbevins - Interesting point. When my Raymarine radar died (came with boat and is over 12 yrs old), I installed CE on a mini PC (now using Lenovo M92P Tiny). I had a 24" monitor and am now installing 3M touch panels at the helm.

My primary system is CE. My backup will be a black box solution from Simrad or other that can use the same touch panel displays.

 

[tpbrady]

I use CE as primary with Lowrance HDS 7/8 as backups. They run as sonars when underway and provide gps data to CE through an N2K gateway. To use CE as primary you should consider N2K and NMEA183 interfaces to be fully capable to receive and send AIS, AP, and position data. Radar I run on a separate display since I haven't made the 3G radar jump yet from an old Raymarine SLC70.

Tom

 

[twistedtree]

It seems that everyone talks of using CE (and other PC nav software) as a backup or planning choice to Plotters. I find this somewhat unusual. I use it with a Raymarine M1500 monitor on my bridge as the primary nav system. I use the E-120 plotter as the display for the radar and the backup for the PC system. I can stay current much easier with the PC, in fact if I decide I don't like it I can even change to a new software for next to nothing. You can't do that with a proprietary plotter unless your prepared to spend thousands. I've been using this system for. 10 years and I would never go back to a strictly plotter only on the "big" boat. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

I'm with you on this. It was a big ah-ha moment for me when I finally figured out that I was relegating the wrong tool as the backup. I now use CE as the primary nav tool, and the chart plotter as secondary nav with overlaid radar. Over the past year CE added very complete support for n2K so all communications to the computer is via a single usb adapter and cable. It can display any data except radar and sounder, both of which are proprietary, and can fully control the autopilot..

By the way, a mac mini makes for a great nav computer. They are small and power friendly, and can even be hacked to run directly off 12V. Using VMWare fusiion or Parallels, you can run Windows-whatever and CE, and still run all you Mac apps too. Mine doubles as a media server for the boat with a big library of music and movies.

 

[mbevins]

I'm with you on this. It was a big ah-ha moment for me when I finally figured out that I was relegating the wrong tool as the backup. I now use CE as the primary nav tool, and the chart plotter as secondary nav with overlaid radar. Over the past year CE added very complete support for n2K so all communications to the computer is via a single usb adapter and cable. It can display any data except radar and sounder, both of which are proprietary, and can fully control the autopilot..

By the way, a mac mini makes for a great nav computer. They are small and power friendly, and can even be hacked to run directly off 12V. Using VMWare fusiion or Parallels, you can run Windows-whatever and CE, and still run all you Mac apps too. Mine doubles as a media server for the boat with a big library of music and movies.

This is what I like about this approach. We can change hardware as required at a reasonable cost.

One thing that I am careful about is connecting this computer to the internet. I'm a little paranoid about viruses in this situation. I'd be curious what other users think and do about this.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

 

[Ski in NC]

CE showed up today. Loaded into the old laptop (vista basic), no problems. Carried it to the boat and plugged in usb gps, came right up. Fiddled with going through the charts. This is amazing (luddite, here) how the thing just picks the right charts right away!!! That old maptech stuff was like breaking rocks with a small hammer!!

I almost went for a little ditch run, but it is cold (19F), low tide, and dark. Figured if I did I would report back "software works great, but I'm piled up on a bar". So better judgement intervened. I'll play with it tomorrow in the daylight and report back.

 

[tpbrady]

Mbevins,

Connecting to a network is a fact of life for most devices. Protection is everything not to mention backups. I guess I have survived pretty well having used the same computer for CE for 8 years. I have relegated it to backup status (#3 in line actually) since I think the motherboard is starting to act up. It has a hard time booting at times. During that 8 years, it was my primary at home computer. It survived being banged around in a RAM mount on 2 C-Dory's and being carried everywhere the boat went. Compared to that, trawler life for my new notebook is benign.

Tom

 

[twistedtree]

Glad CE is working well. Be sure to go through the whole sync process while on a good network connection to be sure you have the latest charts and active captain data. They have an introductory manual/document that is worth reading completely, and the tutorial videos are worth watching too. There are a variety of little treasures that you are unlikely to find on your own. I think the one complaint I have with CE is that the Help and user manual info tends to be out of date. Early on I struggled to do some very basic task and the online help said it was a menu pick, but in the newer version i was running they had made some changes and it was now a dedicated button on the screen. Obvious and convenient once you know, but difficult to find the first time without any hints.

And play around with the different view tabs. They are great for viewing supplemental data while cruising like active captain, tides and currents, routes, etc.

 

[Ski in NC]

Took CE for a couple hour ditch ride today. Too rough to go offshore. Overall, pleased with it. Still a newbie and learning the features, but satified enough to call it ready to head south in say March.

One complaint: When enabling the track function, the line is hardly visible on ditch charts. Not a big deal as I should not rely on that. But when taking a return track at night, it is nice to be able to follow the line exactly if vis is poor. If you convert a track to a route, it becomes very coarse and unusable. You can massage the route points to smooth it, but that's a lot of work. It might be that I just don't know it well enough yet. I'd like to lay a track, then later come back and follow it on return, exactly.

When I get a nice day I'll try it offshore. So far, pleased. Very stable and seamless combination of charts.

 

[Ski in NC]

Update: Found that inshore local tracks are much more visible using vector vs raster charts. Also clicking on the photo image is another neat way to follow the track line.

Still would like a way to save and store the track line without converting to a route. And a brighter track line.