Furuno and Navionics

[wkearney99]

So for me its not a case of 100% one or the other, but rather pick your view based on your need at the moment.

A tangential point to consider, most chart plotters weren't very fast up until recent generations of hardware. So lots of compromises had to be made to get reasonable performance. It was painfully slow to slog in-in-in, out-out-out of menus and such to make changes. Let alone time to pan around on busy charts. Modern gear is MUCH faster, making a lot of things possible that couldn't be done as effectively before.

The trick now is for the underlying software to 'catch up' and start implementing smarter features for adjusting things like on-screen detail levels based on depths and/or speed. Car nav systems do this now, zoom in/out automagically based on your approach to making a navigational change. It'd be great to have that same sort of 'smarts' for marine chartplotters.

There's also the storage question, old gear didn't have much, thus the charts had to deal with that. That's pretty much no longer an issue.

I'm not at all a fan of Garmin's acquisitions and their sunsetting mentality on hardware/charts.

 

[FWT]

A tangential point to consider, most chart plotters weren't very fast up until recent generations of hardware. So lots of compromises had to be made to get reasonable performance. It was painfully slow to slog in-in-in, out-out-out of menus and such to make changes. Let alone time to pan around on busy charts. Modern gear is MUCH faster, making a lot of things possible that couldn't be done as effectively before.

The trick now is for the underlying software to 'catch up' and start implementing smarter features for adjusting things like on-screen detail levels based on depths and/or speed. Car nav systems do this now, zoom in/out automagically based on your approach to making a navigational change. It'd be great to have that same sort of 'smarts' for marine chartplotters.

There's also the storage question, old gear didn't have much, thus the charts had to deal with that. That's pretty much no longer an issue.

I'm not at all a fan of Garmin's acquisitions and their sunsetting mentality on hardware/charts.

Excellent point.

With only one teeny quibble. Personally I don't like "smart" devices. I don't want a MFD to assume I want to change a view. Just give me an easy interface to hit the button when I want it changed. But this preference is so minor and doesn't change your point.

 

[Barking Sands]

What's that sinkhole?

I have no idea. I have passed it a million time and never known it was there. It may have been from a dredge or something. Ill have to check it out next time I am out there.

Actually now that you mention it...it could actually be sinkhole. Everywhere down here. One swallowed my last house..lol

 

[Barking Sands]

The trick now is for the underlying software to 'catch up' and start implementing smarter features for adjusting things like on-screen detail levels based on depths and/or speed. Car nav systems do this now, zoom in/out automagically based on your approach to making a navigational change. It'd be great to have that same sort of 'smarts' for marine chartplotters.

.

I was messing around with the new Garmin Navionics Vision + this morning and it had several features like you described. Of course there where 5 things to "toggle" on or off. Things like photos, Marinas, and just about all the clutter in the chart pics I posted. But it also had several categories to choose "Levels of detail" that did space out the contour lines and soften the features displayed. The more I go through it the more I like it.

I also downloaded the high resolution relief shading. Thats a fisherman's dream. I think every manufacturer has that though?

 

[ranger58sb]

A tangential point to consider, most chart plotters weren't very fast up until recent generations of hardware.

Good point. And I think that was behind the "Time Zero" name when Furuno intro'd their NN3D system back circa... ummm... 2005-ish? In color, too...

Instant redraw really WAS a big technical improvement. I remember the Cetrek plotter that came with our previous boat was so slow... we almost tried to avoid making any change (range, scrolling, whatever) that cased a redraw... 'cause it could take until next year to finish. That was all gray-scale, too, so it was painful even just trying to distinguish objects...

-Chris

 

[Helmsman]

Looks like at least two of Furuno’s CP’s are still compatible with Navionics.

https://www.navionics.com/aus/blog/...971f-are-now-compatible-with-navionics-charts

 

[danderer]

This clarified things for me:

It might seem odd but the GP1x71F can use the mapping direct from the Navionics sold chart card. The NavNets can not. They need the data into MM3 format. Under new ownership, Navionics has opted to stop selling mapping data to third parties, while this stops MapMedia from selling Navionics data maps, units like the GP1971F can run them using the Navionics SDK and Navionics sold map. I understand on the surface it is a bit confusing but one type of data is completely controlled by Navionics and the other isn't. They have opted to stop selling mapping data to third parties for which they don't have full control of the end product. For the GP1x71F, the card is sold and controlled by them so while we lost support on the MM3 type maps on the NavNets, it can be added to units like the this model. We are happy to add it as an option to this product.