Make your own charts

Have any of you had any experience with this setup up from Navionics. I often thought it would be nice to be able to have some way of charting isolated river mouths or even the upper reaches of rivers (or any areas of doubt) in the tender to enable the safe entry of my boat. I've found that the standard purchased electronic charts have a lot to be desired in some locations and this new gear from Navionics may give piece of mind.

http://www.navionics.com/en/sonarphone?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=iOS_SonarPhoneSCLive_FY15&utm_content=NAV454_iOS_SonarPhoneSCLive_Int

If you follow that link through to the price page you will find the box costs $US150 plus postage I think.

But the important thing is that if you zoom out on the chart you can move across to Aus and zoom in to a fair
copy of the local charts, but you cannot click to get info from the chart as in a downloaded chart. [This on a computer]

Maybe useful in an emergency

I often wonder if one of these could fly over uncharted places for for anchoring

NSWsailor, no need to use that map just use this one.
webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en

Maybe I should have titled this topic "Enhance your charts" It not about finding ways around purchasing charts, it's more about making the charts (Navionics Charts) you have more accurate when you need it. I've been to places where some electronic charts aren't worth a pinch of (something) and being able to fill in the gaps would be great. Even better when this information can be uploaded at a later date for others to use.

Say RiffRaff,

That's an excellent site. Question: If you plug in a GPS plug/receiver to your computer will it show your position??

Ramona, that's the type of chart, raster or vector, I can never remember which, but one shows all the info and the other shows more detail as you zoom in.

Some years ago a million $ stink boat was motoring in the coral sea and the owner who was driving had his charts set way out.
He ended up on top of a reef that was too small to be seen at the scale he had set but large enough to wreck the boat.
Qld authorities threw the book at him as well as making him do a complete salvage. Ouch

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nswsailor said..
Say RiffRaff,

That's an excellent site. Question: If you plug in a GPS plug/receiver to your computer will it show your position??

No, it's just a web site, not a navigation app. It has no way of communicating with your GPS

Ramona, that's the type of chart, raster or vector, I can never remember which, but one shows all the info and the other shows more detail as you zoom in.

Raster chart is a scanned paper chart and what you see is all you are ever going to see, in reality, the further in you zoom the chart just becomes more pixelated and blurry.

A vector chart is a mathematical electronic description of the chart and operates on several layers, so as you zoom in you are looking at a more detailed layer of information, bearing in mind that too enlarged a magnification the data can't be supported enough to be accurate.

Some years ago a million $ stink boat was motoring in the coral sea and the owner who was driving had his charts set way out.
He ended up on top of a reef that was too small to be seen at the scale he had set but large enough to wreck the boat.
Qld authorities threw the book at him as well as making him do a complete salvage. Ouch

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Charriot said..
Garmin GPS 550 with build in charts....pic. one...
The same location on Navionix ...pic two..










Should I buy Navionix ...?

The answer to that question depends on whether you were actually on land or water.

When I flashed up my Navionics last time it initially showed my position as on the sand bank and not at the marina berth where I actually was. It corrected itself after about 90 seconds. For the rest of the day it's positioning was spot on.

This subject has to be more about the quality of the GPS chip in the device than the particular navigation program and charts.

Navionics...bottom right hand corner "Acknowlegements....Not to be used for navigation purposes."

I am sure Garmin would have the same disclaimer.

One thing I do like about Navionics is it's "Red Arrow" position symbol. It does not assume you are on a motor launch as Garmin does.

I am not a fan of Garmin as they make their software and devices incompatible with other proprietary brands. Sort of Garmin all the way or no way.

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Charriot said..
My Garmin is proper plotter with build in charts, but does not show the details
I would expect from such a unit.
Seems to me that Navionix is step ahead.

Navionix, on line doesn't activate build in GPS on my iPad.
Guess only option is buy full off line version......? ?..

Must by free on line Navionix version only,
because all the other software, on line and off line works well .

Navionics web app will not activate your GPS as it's only a web page and not a navigation program and therefore has no idea on how to communicate with your GPS.
Assuming that your GPS did communicate then you're reliant on having a constant internet connection and because of position updating you would incur data charges, which could work out costly.

There is no free version of Navionics ..... But, if you know where to look there are pirated versions. I run Android but I guess there are as many pirated versions out there for IOS.

Navionics will only work for navigation on a device with built in GPS.

Once the program and maps are downloaded onto a device, neither phone reception or internet connection are needed.

The device will obviously need internet connection to download the program and maps which will take some hours for the whole of Australia and New Zealand.

For less than $20 it is a bargain, so why would anybody muck around with pirated versions?????

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LooseChange said..

Hours? What sort of slow connection do you have?

The reason I mentioned pirated copies was in response to Charriot saying there must a free version of Navionics online ... the pirated ones are the only ones that are free.

I have ADSL2 internet but the program will only accept segments of the maps up to a certain size.

I wrote a simple web app to make it easy to produce geo-calibrated (KAP) files from scanned paper charts, which can then be used with OpenCPN.

The app can be found here:
www.arribasail.com/tools/chartlayer.html

and a description can be found here:
blog.arribasail.com/2013/06/tech-making-charts-for-use-with-opencpn.html