Seaclear Charts

[Retcoastie]

Opie,

You are correct. SeaClear does work just as you described. My luck though, when I want to check a chart for tomorrow's anchorage, it will be the 982nd one of the 1000 and that is a lot of scrolling in File/Charts/List All.

Ken

[opie]

Ken,
I understand the reason and method you use for file handling. Kudos to you and fair seas......

[tangentair]

Well, I do not usually get this excited about a new toy but I bought a GlobalSat BU-353 GPS reciever from buygpsnow.com and it worked. It wasn't the cheapest they had, there were several others around $20 available but it was under $40 and with the free shipping that they offered (be sure and use the promotion code) and the reviews, it seemed like the best "impulse buy of the week." And it was, only took a couple of days to come by regular mail, loaded the driver, plugged it in, went to the hardware manager for the usb port and set the baud rate to 4800 as the directions said it needed to be, checked Sea Clear under tools and properities and found that baud rate was already 4800 and sure enough there was the little boat on a chart parked next to the road where I actually live. Found the satilites much quicker than my handheld and had no trouble with clear sky - I was in the den, watching tv while I set it up. So if you are experimenting Sea Clear on a laptop without GPS like I was, or are thinking about trying to feed NEMA signals from your GPS to the laptop like I was, I have to say getting one of these usb gps mouse(s) is a much easier way to go.

[The Mutt]

Anyone know where SeaClear charts for Australia can be found.

Glenn

[corkscrew]

tangent, very cool news......question I have is this. I loaded up all my charts...I have to selected which one I want to pull up......how does the GPS unit know which chart and where on the chart to place the icon of your boat? Are the charts encoded with the info or something?

[MadMacX]

For those of you that are interested in a Seaclear tutorial, here is a site that I found that might be of interest to you. I found it on one of the other sites I frequent.

http://www.boatmaine.us/seaclear-training.aspx

It's pretty basic, but it does have some useful info.

Pat

[Love MACs]

Tangent, let me first explain that I am somewhat tech challenged When you purchase/use your Bluetooth (GlobalSat BU-353 GPS) do you have to purchase a separate service (wireless service) to use it or are you simply purchasing the unit? Will it work with any internet service? Or do you even have to be connected to the internet to use it? Does it say in the manual if it could be used with a windows mobile phone? I am interested in the unit but can find nothing on their website to answer my questions.

Thanks in advance,

Allan

[tangentair]

corkscrew
When I first fired up Sea Clear, it went to that spot off Africa, and I would load the chart I wanted which involved a lot of trial and error until I found the Lake Michegan charts that covered my area. Then as noted in a previous post, I played around with placing the boat on a chart and watching it move around. But as soon as I plugged in the gps mouse, it went to the chart that had the smallest scale for the location I was al. How it knew??? just good programming I guess. I getting to the point where I will be searching Craig's list and ebay for a plotter/printer soon. I haven't begun to utilize the capabilities of this software and with the government giving free "wall hangings" my den may have a new look soon. (just an aside for the Shakespereian's out there - damn I miss living in Conn. and being able to pop down to Mystic or drive out to the Cape)

[Inquisitor]

Tangent, let me first explain that I am somewhat tech challenged When you purchase/use your Bluetooth (GlobalSat BU-353 GPS) do you have to purchase a separate service (wireless service) to use it or are you simply purchasing the unit? Will it work with any internet service? Or do you even have to be connected to the internet to use it? Does it say in the manual if it could be used with a windows mobile phone? I am interested in the unit but can find nothing on their website to answer my questions.

Maybe I can field that one… Bluetooth is a radio type technology to hook a device to your computer. It’s analogous to a cable between your computer and say... a printer or in this case the GPS unit. So… No - you don't have to have any service. No - you don't have to be connected to the Internet. Your computer or phone DOES have to have the Bluetooth transceiver. Many cell-phones come with them and many laptops can be configured with them, but it’s usually an option. However, if your computer does not have one, you can purchase a little USB dongle that contain the Bluetooth transceiver. Something like this: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202367521 Modern operating systems will know what to do with it when you plug it in. After that, you’ll have instructions with your GPS unit that allows it to connect to the computers transceiver. Once its made the connection (via radio waves), you’ll be able to configure Seaclear to receive the data on the new port via its configuration. I currently run TomTom and another chart program with my Bluetooth GPS puck with either my PocketPC Phone or my laptop.

Good luck.

[tangentair]

Love Macs et.al
I probably should have done this to begin with - sorry, here is the link to the product I bought and as I say they have several other options cheaper if you surf the site. It is not a blue tooth unit, it plugs into a usb port and has a 5 foot cord and a magnetic mount so you could use it in the car also if you have the chart(s). Some one else posted earlier how to convert pdfs to charts - I haven't even begun to look at that option using free dowloadable topographic maps.
Again this was as close to plug and play as many windows devices get. First put the driver cd in and click on the appropriate button to load the XP/vista/MAC driver (and the little gps location program). Plug in the mouse like device and the operating system will find it, set the baud rate (start-rightclick on my computer, select manage, double click on device manager, pull down to the Ports (COM and LPT) and select the one the directions on the card tells you to, click on advanced and set the baud rate etc) (side note to Jim and others that were guessing what comm port to select in Sea Charts - you will find it here if you look in the device manager) and then everything works - you can run the little gps program they give you or Sea Charts at this point. Setting that baud rate is really easier to do than I make it sound.

[Inquisitor]

Here are some of the things I've learned over time playing with these things.

Wired Puck - Pro - whenever its plugged into the computer its being powered.
BT Puck - Con - You got to remember to charge it.
BT Puck - Pro - However, most Bluetooth pucks come with a USB cable so it can be connected and charged at the same time. So you can run it optionally as a wired or unwired puck.

I personally find that I can't really use my laptop in the cockpit. One I don't want it getting wet. Second, its a 17" model so its bigger than the cockpit. I use a PockePC phone or PDA in the cockpit and have a bracket mounted to the console behind the wheel next to the Tac. To my knowledge (not that its comprehensive) no PocketPC phone or PDA can be connected via a cable to these GPS units. They only can be connected via Bluetooth. I keep the Bluetooth GPS mounted somewhere else in the boat. Bluetooth has a 30 foot range so you can move the laptop/phone/PDA anywhere on the boat and not be tethered to the GPS unit.

Just a thought.

[tangentair]

Just to reserect this old post and keep everything together for later searchs---

Is anyone using seaclear on one of the new small laptops with the Intel® Atom Processor N270? They are going for about 250 these days and that is as cheap as the repair costs for my busted gpa/fishfinder?

And how stable is sea clear with vista or rather how stable is home vista?

Thanks
Ron

[opie]

I use Vista Home with Seaclear with no problems. I also use the BU-353 GPS.

But your idea for the ATOM look good. In fact the Chinese product Mio N890 has both wireless and GPS built-in, so no need for external anything. Still not salt-spray proof though....

[tompolak]

tangentair:

All the atom netbooks in that price range are Windows XP based. They don't have the horsepower to run Vista. Make sure you get one with a hard drive not a solid state drive (SSD) and a 6 cell battery if at all possible.

I too have been looking at them for a "cheap" GPS setup that actually has more features than most real GPS devices. Only if there was a way to get them to be water resistant (water proof is too much to ask).

[paj637]

Any one used a LINUX OS laptop with a Windows emulator program for running Seaclear? I know that Seaclear is only supported for WIndows based OSs. You can get a cheap LINUX OS netbook for about $150 online that would be a very inexpensive setup if the emaulator program will work.