PC Navigation -what can go wrong :)

[boating rich]

I am running through options for new navigation suite on my 2009 Back Cove 37. I really like running my iPad with Aquamaps with Wi-Fi to NMEA 2000 data and I am contemplating going PC for the second option instead of a FURUNO MFD. Digital Yachts has their aquapc which draws 20 watts. They are the same similar software Timezero and the PC option would allow for ongoing upgrades contrary to the mfd’s slowly going absolute the moment it is installed. My helm is inside so no need to be weather resident. I see many of the bigger boats like Tony Fleming have pc based bridges.

What can go wrong?

 

[AlaskaProf]

<<what can go wrong?>>

Nothing. Coastal Explorer on something with a bright display should be just fine. I had a small Garmin and a big outdated Si-tex, but CE was always my primary tool. Cheap, updates constant and free.

 

[boating rich]

That is what I was thinking. Pair it with a nice touch screen monitor and it feels like a great option. I can then monitor predict wind and other apps and sites.

 

[Portage_Bay]

You have the weather and sunlight viewable solved. Redundancy is worth considering. PC are fragile compared to marine hardware. Fortunately laptops are cheap these days.

I worked on the water most of my working years. As soon as good navigation software was available for PCs I never wanted to use anything else.

I am running through options for new navigation suite on my 2009 Back Cove 37. I really like running my iPad with Aquamaps with Wi-Fi to NMEA 2000 data and I am contemplating going PC for the second option instead of a FURUNO MFD. Digital Yachts has their aquapc which draws 20 watts. They are the same similar software Timezero and the PC option would allow for ongoing upgrades contrary to the mfd’s slowly going absolute the moment it is installed. My helm is inside so no need to be weather resident. I see many of the bigger boats like Tony Fleming have pc based bridges.

What can go wrong?

 

[boating rich]

You are right on those two items. My iPad always struggled on our prior boat with getting too hot on our flybridge. My crew has gotten used to 72 degree boat with our controlled environment.

 

[sunchaser]

Your laptop running CE can be paired with a cheap monitor for inside viewing. I've always used the PC for charting only with no other programs and never online except for charting updates. The PC can be the AP connection. For Windy etc your IPad will more than suffice.

A decent stand alone radar, plotter, depth, fish finder, cameras, second AP connection etc unit rounds out the assemblage. It's easy enough to pair the plotter for daylight viewable FB use. I've found this a better solution, cheaper too, than having the PC tied into a sunlight viewable FB screen. That way the PC stays in a lower helm safer location.

There are a hundred and one ways to do this, none of them wrong. All that is required - space and money.

 

[psneeld]

One boater I know had his new Hinkley Picnic Boat outfitted with 2 I-Pads built into the dash.

One nav one systems.... either could backup the other.

Clean, neat and worked for years till I lost touch.

Me.... I still might have had another smaller screen to backup basic engine parameters.

I liked the look of the helm station.... finally looked more like modern commercial shipping, warships, airliners and spaceships than the cockpit of a WWII B-17.

 

[tpbrady]

I’ve been running CE since 2005. I run it today on a Dell laptop with a Microsoft Surface as a back up. Yes, I have had to reboot underway, because I didn’t do a daily reboot, but I have a chart plotter with sonar always immediately available. I have an IPad with Navionics but my fingers and touch screens don’t play well together. For that reason my primary input device is a trackball. It takes minimal helm space and is easy to control in rough water.

Tom

 

[O C Diver]

I've been running Coastal Explorer on a NUC with a 22" monitor and wireless keyboard / mouse for 2 years. Have their interface for NEMA 2000 to data cable to bring in all the other information.

Have a Samsung 12" tablet for Aquamaps.

If I were to start with a new boat, I would add a Koden radar and a second monitor to the NUC for the radar. Hard to justify the ridiculous price for marine electronics inside a pilothouse.

Ted

 

[AlaskaProf]

It's been discussed here before; an external monitor for a bigger display is favored. Pay extra for brightness; it matters. Even in the pilothouse, on a bright day with sunglasses, a typical computer/TV monitor may be hard to see. After a couple cheap experiments, I went "all in" for a Big Bay 1000 nit monitor.

 

[tiltrider1]

Twenty years ago I recommended that PC navigation not be your primary source. This was do to PC’s having a tendency to crash when needed most. Now days I find the PC’s, IPads, and MFD’s all extremely stable. I no longer have a preference. I do still recommend a backup.

I actually have all three onboard.

 

[DDW]

In the trawler I have a Raymarine Axiom and my Macintosh laptop/OpenCPN always on at the helm. The Axiom (running Android as its OS) crashes far more often (maybe once a month average) than the Mac (never). Still, the connectivity to all the marine gear is better on the Axiom, and it costs far less than a good laptop.

 

[twistedtree]

Like Tom, I have been using Coastal Explorer for a long time. Not quite as long as Tom, but close.

As for a computer to run it on, I’d suggest getting yourself an Intel NUC. They are small, can be configured any way you want it, and are available from many different sources. And Rose Points Nemo gateway is an excellent way to interface NMEA 2000 and NMEA 0183 data to any computer, especially one running Coastal Explorer. I struggle to see any reason to buy any sort of specialize marine computer.

 

[AlaskaProf]

<<what can go wrong?>>

Nothing. Coastal Explorer on something with a bright display should be just fine. I had a small Garmin and a big outdated Si-tex, but CE was always my primary tool. Cheap, updates constant and free.

I forgot to mention, highly customer focused! The price inludes three platforms. I once called Rosepoint/C.E. and asked how much it would cost for an additional license because one of my three computers had died. The answer: "no charge, just tell us which one you are replacing." Similar experience with updates; about a year after I first started using their product, I asked what the charge would be for another year of updating. "No charge, we get the data for free from the government, why would we charge you?"

The boat is long gone, but CE still updates on my home computer every time I boot it up. No charge.

 

[boating rich]

Thanks everyone. That gives me a ton of ideas I need to hunt down. I was thinking a touch screen monitor that runs off the usb port but they appear to top out at 16 inches. Going standard monitor gets me into the bigger screen ones and I am trackball based at home so that would be great.

 

[DDW]

I struggle to see any reason to buy any sort of specialize marine computer.

I guess one reason might be cost. If you add up the components you get included with a modern MFD, you are often well above the price of the MFD. Now if you have already made the decision to go PC, then I can't see the advantage of a 'marine' version over another one.

 

[AlaskaProf]

.. I am trackball based at home so that would be great.

Hah! After many years in the air traffic system, which is all about trackballs and multifunction keypads, it was like coming home when i realized that the helm allowed no space for mouses...er...mice.

 

[tpbrady]

AlaskaProf,

I got into trackballs by association with ATC, air defense, and then space ops. Then on the C-Dorys I owned using CE with a RAM mounted notebook, there was a little space just right of the helm where you could Velcro a trackball. But from those days on I realized one thing, while CE was my primary nav system, you still needed good MFD with sonar and radar. The sonar especially the new chirp systems give you a very good view of the bottom where you are about to drop your anchor. I just wish someone would produce an MFD you could control with a trackball.

Tom

 

[Nepidae]

PC NAV, what could go wrong.

What could go wrong, plenty and Tony Fleming has a much bigger boat and unlimited support.

PC's were NOT made to operate in an environment that is moving, vibrating and even inside will experience temp changes and Laptop screens are not made for the outdoors and since that is a MAJOR safety item, yea, you should trust it to a PC.

Think about your 37 skipping across the waves and you can envision what vibration would be like. Tony doesn't have that.

After all what is your boat & crew worth, save that money on a Garmin suite and buy 2 PC's.

Sorry, the Chartplotter is made and designed to operate in the marine/boat environment. I don't know about the addons of Radar, AIS, and autopilot on a PC but hang-ons with multiple cords is not what I would want on my bridge.

You probably spent more for your boat than I did for mine but I am still a big safety nut and have items on my boat because of it and I don't worry too much about cost because in the long run do you want to be standing, hopefully, thinking I should have spent the money.

I expect a lot of blowbacks on that but that will not change my opinion on how I perceive safety on our boat and an 8yr Loop supports that.

I carry a laptop onboard, but not to run the boat. Great for email, and other chores, but NOT to run the boat.

Good luck.

 

[Bob M]

"Digital Yachts has their aquapc which draws 20 watts."


The AquaPC OS is Windows 10. Microsoft drops support for this OS in October, 2025.

 

[psneeld]

Despite what some may say, PCs were used on commercial fishing boats well over 20 years ago....open tower types and tube run displays with pretty good success.

I used laptop nav for over 20,000 miles and 10 years of ACIW navigation from 2011 to 2021.

Would I try one on my skiff or even any high speed power boat with the pounding and salt spray much of the time? Heck no. But in a trawler pilothouse? Every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Even my old assistance towing service went to I pads years ago for billing and other onboard mission stuff...and those boats were subjected to probably rougher service than most of us would put them through.

I would bet most that don't trust computer nav and equipment on boats have limited experience with it. As for wires on computer equipment being in the way....show me marine electronics that don't have some wiring too.....

 

[Bob M]

I've been running Coastal Explorer on a NUC with a 22" monitor and wireless keyboard / mouse for 2 years. Have their interface for NEMA 2000 to data cable to bring in all the other information.
Ted

Questions on this:

• What NUC are you using?
• What OS on the NUC?
• Are you able to see NEMA 2000 engine data, battery data and tank data via the NUC?

 

[Intrepid]

I’ve been running a PC based system on my sailboat for eight years now. Have made several passages between New Zealand and Marshall Islands.
Has not missed a beat.
I am using a fanless PC running Windows, marine grade monitor(bought used, eBay, new condition) and a NMEA 2k to Ethernet converter, so everything is hardwired. Using Opencpn, Simrad radar works on this system. I have a chart plotter as backup, has never been needed. The cost was less than a thousand dollars for a fifteen inch monitor system.

 

[O C Diver]

Questions on this:

• What NUC are you using?
• What OS on the NUC?
• Are you able to see NEMA 2000 engine data, battery data and tank data via the NUC?

A NUC is a small computer.:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...-nuc13-pro-small-outside-powerful-inside.html

My NUC is running windows 11.

The Gateway I use that takes NEMA 2000 and 0183 information and converts it to information transferred through a standard data cable to the NUC, is made by the same company as Coastal Explorer:

https://www.rosepoint.com/nemo-gateway/

I added a wireless keyboard and monitor. The NUC has a WIFI built in and all the other information is delivered through the NEMA 2000 network. While you can switch the WIFI off, you will need it for downloading Coastal Explorer and your navigation charts, and then periodically updating the charts and Coastal Explorer.

I added a Maretron converter that takes my Can Bus feed from the JD engine and converts it to NEMA 2000. Not sure if it's displayable on Coastal Explorer. I have that information on a simple 4" Garmin display that is hooked to and powered by the NEMA 2000 network.

Ted

 

[twistedtree]

A NUC is a small computer.:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...-nuc13-pro-small-outside-powerful-inside.html

My NUC is running windows 11.

The Gateway I use that takes NEMA 2000 and 0183 information and converts it to information transferred through a standard data cable to the NUC, is made by the same company as Coastal Explorer:

https://www.rosepoint.com/nemo-gateway/

I added a wireless keyboard and monitor. The NUC has a WIFI built in and all the other information is delivered through the NEMA 2000 network. While you can switch the WIFI off, you will need it for downloading Coastal Explorer and your navigation charts, and then periodically updating the charts and Coastal Explorer.

I added a Maretron converter that takes my Can Bus feed from the JD engine and converts it to NEMA 2000. Not sure if it's displayable on Coastal Explorer. I have that information on a simple 4" Garmin display that is hooked to and powered by the NEMA 2000 network.

Ted

I have essentially the same setup. I have used Mac Minis and Intel NUC platforms, all with 100% success. And now you can configure the platform with solid state memory so no moving parts.

 

[O C Diver]

I have essentially the same setup. I have used Mac Minis and Intel NUC platforms, all with 100% success. And now you can configure the platform with solid state memory so no moving parts.

Yes, and thank you for your informative posts so I could copy it.

Ted

 

[boating rich]

Are you running your nucs off 12 volt?. I have been reading that some can run off straight 12 volt and others are 18-20 volt.

 

[O C Diver]

Are you running your nucs off 12 volt?. I have been reading that some can run off straight 12 volt and others are 18-20 volt.

Both my monitor and my NUC can run off of 12 volts (withot the 120 VAC adapter). Thought about it and decided I didn't want warranty issues. I'm out of warranty now, but it hasn't reached a high enough priority to do it. My refrigerator is on the inverter 24/7, so probably not a significant savings.

Ted