Active Captain and GARMIN Chart Plotters Integration

I'm using Active Captain on my iPad and/or iPhone all the time. My boat is equipped with two RM E120s and having iPad integrated with AC is a great 3rd "MFD".

I recall reading how owners of vessels equipped with GARMIN package provide very positive feedback, especially having intergation with AC. So, a friend of mine just bought new GARMIN chartplotter and he's having a hard time finding how to integrade AC with the new MFD. I gave it a quick look and was just as stumbled. Did basic research on the web and the only info we found is that AC can integrade with GARMIN MOBILE and HomePort PC software, but NOT the actual on board MFDs.

Is my finding correct or is there a trick that I'm missing?

P.S. I know that FURUNO just came out with the software upgrade that will use AC API for full integration. I was just under the impression that GARMIN was ahead of the game here.

With Garmin MFD's that have wifi, you can upload routes from the iPad to the MFD. The AC database does not upload so no to showing Active Captain on the MFD. Maybe in the (near) future.
Arch

That's really puzzling. So, GARMIN only optained API for MOBILE apps only, and left all the helm gear not compliant with AC?

In this case, we can only hope that with FURUNO making the move integrating AC with their electronics package, GARMIN won't be too far behind.

Alex F said:

In this case, we can only hope that with FURUNO making the move integrating AC with their electronics package, GARMIN won't be too far behind.

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I expect all of the major manufacturers will have direct MFD support for some-to-all of ActiveCaptain in 2016 (Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, B&G, and Lowrance).

Having an iPad next to a Garmin MFD is a pretty good work-around today if you have Garmin hardware.

Jeffrey S said:

I expect all of the major manufacturers will have direct MFD support for some-to-all of ActiveCaptain in 2016 (Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, B&G, and Lowrance)...

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Thanks for clarifying, Jeff. I'm sure this will be a huge selling point for new devices.

Jeffrey S said:

I expect all of the major manufacturers will have direct MFD support for some-to-all of ActiveCaptain in 2016 (Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, B&G, and Lowrance).

Having an iPad next to a Garmin MFD is a pretty good work-around today if you have Garmin hardware.

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Will it be retroactive as a software update?

Capt.Bill11 said:

Will it be retroactive as a software update?

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If I had to bet, I'd bet against it. None of the marine electronics companies seem to have any interest in updating last year's model. I suspect that, like the cell phone industry, all the developers are working on next year's model.

I hope I'm wrong. I can't go dropping 1.5 BUs every time a vendor announces a new feature in their product line, but I'd love to see AC integration.

Capt.Bill11 said:

Will it be retroactive as a software update?

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Give it all a chance to be released.

Actually Garmin is very good in that regard. I'm adding a new radar antenna to 4+ year old discontinued plotters. All features will work after a software upgrade including dual range display on the same plotter screen.

Ted

Jeffrey S said:

Give it all a chance to be released.

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What does that mean?

As Ted notes Garmin is pretty good with their updates. My Garmin equipment is not even a year old. So I'm hoping AC goes live in an update. Is that your understanding of what will happen?

Jeffrey S said:

I expect all of the major manufacturers will have direct MFD support for some-to-all of ActiveCaptain in 2016 (Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, B&G, and Lowrance).

Having an iPad next to a Garmin MFD is a pretty good work-around today if you have Garmin hardware.

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It figures, I went out and bought an iPad and Blue Charts last week and now Raymarine will finally get on board.

Regarding Active Captain. Garmin Bluecharts on an iPad paired with a Garmin compatible chart plotter is a beautiful, beautiful thing. At least for our cruising style. I use the iPad as a "backup" display, but honestly end up using it more than the chart plotter. The Active Captain data is very usefull and I agree it will be slick when it is embedded in the chart plotter UI. Until then, consider an iPad as an inexpensive companion device.

I've got 4 of those on board plus my phone, the mates phone and the owners phone. All with Bluecharts and AC installed.

But I'd still like my plotters to have it.

Capt.Bill11 said:

I've got 4 of those on board plus my phone, the mates phone and the owners phone. All with Bluecharts and AC installed.

But I'd still like my plotters to have it.

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Are any plotters "internet enabled" yet? Seems thats the rub. Instead of creating a wi-fi network like the newer models, they should be able to connect to an existing network and obtain IP address via DHCP. This would make updates trivial.

Panacea said:

Are any plotters "internet enabled" yet? Seems thats the rub. Instead of creating a wi-fi network like the newer models, they should be able to connect to an existing network and obtain IP address via DHCP. This would make updates trivial.

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I would think they don't have to be Internet enabled. They just need to be able to get periodic updates of the AC data via memory cards as they are now.