After much too-ing and fro-ing decided I could not justify replacing my two year old Garmin 152 non mapping plotter with a mapping plotter.so decided to go for The Admiralty(RYA) Chart plotter in a dedicated laptop linked to my plotter.

Having just been trying it out really do think its good value for money-particularly like the tidal displays-current day /or whatever you choose. Also like the way it operates on the laptop.Means of accessing info. etc etc.

Will add more comments when I have it linked in to GPS.

The Laptop which handles the programme very well is an old IBM Thinkpad 600 (£50 courtesey of e bay)-300mhz slow by modern standards but quicker than I can think!When installed it is going to fit into a void under my wheelhouse chart table with screen at head of table and attached mouse available on chart table.

Total cost for a mapping GPS with 13 inch screen and map software about £120.

Of course I know this wouldnt work in an open cockpit but great even just if you use the plotter for programming your mapping gps.

Phil

We use the Admiralty plotter on board too, with the laptop and a GPS152 as the source.  This year the coverage has been extended, so we get all of our cruising area covered for £46 - provided you ignore the price of the laptop, which we'd have on board for email and watching DVDs anyway!  The only drawback is that it is not updated, nor updateable - a new version is issued each year, so always check your planning with the up to date paper charts you have on board...

A big advantage for me is that I can use it off the boat to plan my routes, including entering all the tidal details to get accurate CTS figures etc - saving time programming a plotter on board, and probably reducing the likelihood of error with the time pressure to get sailing removed.  As I tend to use a large number of the same waypoints, I have also added these to the GPS152, so I can see the route in the cockpit displayed on that - and can go below to view the laptop if I need to view the more detailed chart information.

I was thinking of Maptech, but at 4 times the price with the initial software purchase taken into account, I'm yet to be convinced of the benefits!

Luckily here in NW Scotland not a lot changes over the years so dont tend to worry too much about annual updates.

Really love how I can take it to bed on laptop and pour over details on charts-even has a world map where I can plan my round the world trips(chance would be a fine thing)

Phil

I have to admit most of the changes in my West Coast portfolio this year were pretty irrelevant to a small yacht - depths changing from 30 to 19M don't really make me too concerned, unless I'm contour following , I suppose, and being based in Oban, I was well aware of the seaplane operating area long before it made the charts!  The well publicised Bono Rock buoy move and similar updates could be useful to add to the plotter though, and as this happened fairly early in the season the plotter will be out of date for 6 months or so.

I guess it just goes to show that in the UK, we're still not ready for the transition to all electronic charts, and it's worth keeping the paper ones up to date just to make yourself aware of changes, even if you ignore the obvious power failure or Windows crashing advantages of paper!

Steve ... UK is no different in lack of electronic chart updates, but is still a world-leader in overall paper chart facilities.

As to use of PC for chart plotting - the cheapest way to go is Seaclear - free download and AIS capable. But it takes old BSB KAP charts and not the latest BSB CAP. It also takes many other chart formats ... legally near all charts should be paid for, but it is well known that many are available via p2p networks for download.

One aspect that I am believe has been corrected is the Adm. Plotter shutting down in the next year ! Early versions - you had to buy next years to get functioning again !!  No other plotting software that I know of did that !!

One of the hurdles of PC plotting on board is the power draw, especially if you start running software or charts of CD's. To reduce power demands - wherever possible copy / install as much as possible to internal hard-drivew or at least flash-cards are better than power hungry CD drives ! Second as far as possible run the PC direct of 12v or via a DC - DC converter not an inverter. You will find that the IBM 600 will run quite happily direct of 12v, take battery out and power demand is remarkably low. Suggest charge battery up and keep in plastic packet as back-up. If you leave battery in - it will never charge fully of 12V, and on DC-DC converter will require majority of the power supplied, it will also slowly drain as when PC demands more power eg when reading discs etc. - it will get a boost from battery.

All things learnt over years of using PC's on board !!

The shutting down when out of date seems to be fixed now - the 2007 Admiralty plotter didn't shut down in 2008, but it does give you a nag screen each time you start it, and for £46 it's worth buying the new edition anyway.  I'll take a look at the Seaclear stuff, it sounds interesting, thanks for the info. 

Unfortunately, you can't install the Admiralty charts to hard disk or flash card, so you have to use the CD drive.  I use a Sony laptop which conveniently(!!!) uses 19.5 volts, to ensure it is totally incompatible with everything else on board, so I currently use an inverter.  I did check the current draw, and as long as the laptop battery is fully charged, it doesn't seem too bad - especially bearing in mind that we usually day sail and have mains shore power available in the marina.  However, the idea of a DC-DC converter may be worth looking into, especially if the current draw is appreciably lower than with the inverter, so thanks for that tip!

I suppose another option would be to build up an old PC with the bare minimum of specification, and run that from 12V plus a 12V-5V DC-DC converter - I wonder what the overall power consumption of that plus a small LCD would be in comparison to a laptop...

My universal laptop adapter inputs 11-16v and outputs 16 ,18,19 and 20v 400ma load-includes a whole series of plugs-various sources well under £20-more from Maplin/PC world but no need to pay more than £30.

Seaclear  I recall is a freebie-check tucows downloads-great if you live in US because all US arcs are free to download-will also read I belive standard Admiralty Arcs.For latest electronic charts you need FUGAWI or similar but Admiralty appear to have UK charts tied up in that you have to enter into an annual contract with them.Admiralty worldwide ARCS cost same as paper and once outside UK of course there are far more competitive paper charts-EG NZ and Australian ones are about £8 a sheet covering all Pacific(and are Admiralty Copies)Likewise Chilean Admiralty Charts are about £10 covering all of latin America and again those round Cape Horn are origional British Admiralty Charts.

Oh and Steve if you want some really good charts for the west coast to use along side current valid charts check out National Library of Scotlands Chart collection-origional engraved charts C1870s-you can download A4 sections which are full of detail-EG individual sounding/beautiful 3d drawings of visible mountains,harbour entrances etc.-soundings are often still valid on current charts but without detail of each sounding-you will see some of these on Lawrences West Coast Pilots.-and if you want the origional large scale chart of Arisaig bay with detailed soundings as recommended in Pilot Books Library will do you a good quality full size copy for about £8-just confim scale against marked scale on chart.

Phil

I also run a laptop on board from a Maplin DC converter and would definitely recommend that rather than an inverter.

 I have the latest edition of the admiralty plotter but for some reason it refuses to accept a GPS input - does anyone have any idea why this could be? I have a Garmin Etrex running into a USB port which will feed correct data to google earth, yet when I load the plotter with this connected and the plotter settings on Garmin it just flags up a box saying no GPS connected.

 Any ideas gratefully received

Thanks, Neil

If its latest edition its supposed to be Garmin USB compatible-my 152 uses traditional port connection

Phil

Lack of GPS data into plotter .... maybe check :

a) Does plotter require NMEA or can it accept Garmin Protocol ? I would usually advise set GPS + Plotter to NMEA ..... get it working on that.

b) Is GPS plugged into PC via USB converter lead ? As eTrex lead as per Garmin is RS232 ... You should always make sure you plug lead into SAME USB port each time.

c) Have you installed USB lead driver before plugging in originally ?

To check which virtual port is assigned to your GPS lead ... Unplug lead, right click My Computer, select Properties, then click on Device Manager tab. Look at Com Port list. Now plug in lead and you should see it refresh and a new entry appear ... maybe something like Prolific 2xxxx Com x  etc. This is the lead and com port you need to set in your plotter software.

Some software / programs are USB aware for GPS and above is not necessary, but many plotter programs are not and need to be set-up either by auto-search or actually selecting correct port and data format.

Nigel-any experience of using  Admiralty ARCS Skipper Folios with Seaclear? Just checked Admiralty Plotter Charts and they use some totally obscure file extensions so totally unreadable.

Phil

Note that CD drives are the most unreliable part of a PC.  When I use any software that requires a CD to be present I make an image of the CD on the PC hard drive.  Look up the free software 'Alcohol 52'.  With this software you can create a virtual CD on your hard drive so you no longer need the original CD.

Paul-now that I like-will check it out.

Phil

Neil-just been looking at CD-as well as Help on main screen there is a file entitled Interface help on CD-go via my computer to cd;right click-explore.

This is specific to Interfacing and appears to be far more detailed than main screen help.

Phil

Paul-checked out Alcohol-looks like a good idea but problem with admiralty plotter cd is its heavily encrypted to prevent copying-tried making image copy using all of the pop. encryption systems offered by software but got no where.Likewise Raster charts are encrypted into obscure file format.

Phil

Neil, I've not tried my GPS152 in Garmin mode with the RYA plotter, but it is fine most of the time in NMEA.  I say most of the time, as it does drop the GPS occasionally, although the data is still fine with Memory Map.  I use Vista and a USB converter for the GPS152, and if the plotter loses the GPS, I need to reboot the laptop.  No idea why, as I say if I just restart the RYA plotter, still no GPS (mine is on Com14), but if I use Memory Map, the data is there, so it must be a quirk with the plotter.  Usually this happens within the first few minutes, and is then fine after a reboot.  Oh, and I need to unplug the GPS from the RS232-USB converter during the reboot, or it isn't correctly identified under Vista, and comes up as an HID instead!

Try putting the eTrex into NMEA mode, connecting it to the PC, set up the plotter to the correct com port and then going to "test port" (I think that's what the button is labelled) under the GPS settings menu in the RYA plotter - are you seeing any data in there?

Good luck! Steve.

Has anyone got any figures for the current draw using the DC-DC converter?  I'd like to make a comparison with the inverter current draw before spending the money to buy one.  The one Maplin does is lower current capacity than the Sony's rating, so I need to check the current draw on the Sony too, as its own adapter is rated at 19.5VDC @ 4A, and the Maplin one is rated at 3.5A at either 19 or 20V (it won't do 19.5V), and I don't want to end up cooking it the first time I use it!  I'll check the inverter figures in the next few days when I get out to the west coast again.

Thanks, Steve.

Thanks to all for the advice on connecting GPS, I will try these out as soon as. Top tip on the CD image, I'll definitely have to look into that too!

 Cheers