Seaclear Charts

[tompolak]

That is just one more reason that this community rocks. I kept looking for a place to rescan for charts..... never thought to look in the other program. I am a computer programmer.... guess I just figured it should work without much effort on my part.

[c130king]

Okay, another question.

Got the route editor to work. Very cool feature. Easily moves from chart to chart if your route covers multiple charts.

I see from the menus and from the manual that there is a "NMEA Output" function. Has anyone used this feature?

Is there some way to feed this route into an S1 Wheel Pilot computer? What about into a Garmin GPS...which is then fed into the Wheel Pilot computer? Is a Garmin GPS, which can be connected to the laptop via USB, considered a "NMEA Listener"?

Thanks,
Jim

[opie]

Report of using Seaclear today...
We left Georgetown SC harbor at 9am today using Seaclear as our primary nav tool (paper as back up and a small old Garmin at the helm.) Into the Winyah Bay, we found 15 to 20 kts with chop and spray. Had to close the hatch and Seaclear was of no use without the admiral giving directions. Later in the morning, in backwaters of the ICW, I used it successfully from viewing it on the 16" laptop on the MacX table from my helm position. Conclusion: Seaclear is a nice addition to the nav toolkit on a large boat's chart table. But it is not practical on an open cockpit boat. Those of you wanting a giant color display that bought a $2500 Raymarine or Garmin, seems like you got a good deal. Until they make a waterproof laptop that can stand salt spray outside, those type of prices are the only helm choices for large displays, it seems......

[tompolak]

You know something that would work.......
Take your computer and mount it inside the boat, safe and dry. Then get one of these.... http://www.vhxn.com/92-inch-waterproof- ... cd-monitor (waterproof LCD monitor and I am sure there are more out there if they have this one model) and mount it somewhere close to you. Granted is does not have the ability to click around, but you could arrange that too (they make keyboard/mouse combos that are waterproof). They make monitor cables long enough for you to route it up to the cockpit area of the boat. Also could watch TV there too. How visible in the sun..... that one is probably anyones guess. Just a thought. Of course by the time you are done, you could just buy a "real" GPS, but what fun would that be.

[c130king]

Just thinking about this some more...probably won't use the laptop and SeaClear for underway navigation. Pretty happy with my Garmin GPSMap 478. But it is a great cruise planning tool. Especially when you have on-line capability and access to:

ActiveCaptain & GeoGarage

These two websites and SeaClear I think will be my primary "planning tools".

But hopefully there is a way to create a route on SeaClear and then upload via USB to the Garmin...haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Jim

[kmclemore]

Better yet, get a waterproof touchscreen monitor. Then you not only have display, but interactivity capability as well.

http://www.inducomp.com/products/raindr ... itors.shtm

http://www.vartechsystems.com/products/ ... T104XA.asp

[Hamin' X]

SeaClear requires either right click, or wheel mouse capability to access the zoom function. The touch screens may not be compatible. Check specifications carefully.

~Rich

[Retcoastie]

Jim,

You may have difficulty trying to make a Garmin to "talk" or "listen" to SeaClear. I did. I have a CSMap 76 and found the USB port only "talks" Garmin speak. SeaClear doesnot understand Garmin but does talk NEMA. Garmin also talks NEMA but on the serial port only, not the USB port. I had to get a serial cable and a serial to USB adapter as my laptop does not have a serial port.

Good Luck.

Ken

[tangentair]

I am considering editing the title of this post to Seaclear Charts for Dummys as was previously mentioned. While reading the various entries, I thought I would visit the site and see what it is all about. Yes I had an initial very steep learning curve that was cleared up by the posting on mapcal and I still haven't decided how to group the charts so that I can better search through them. Did I miss the index chart??? But the bottom line is that thanks to your advice and discussion I went from paper charts and multiple gps - to - paper charts expanded greatly by electronic charts and integrated gps and a color printer. Now I have to rethink/visit building a nav station under the port side cockpit and shifting the galley forward and maybe buying a new laptop.
There are several threads in the archive regarding NEMA talk but none really talk about wiring up the laptop's 9 pin serial port or on the new laptops, connecting to the 4 pin USB port. Direct connect or load resistors, grounding loops/concerns, possible shore power grounds getting through the laptop into the battery circuit without proper isolation, etc.

[c130king]

I posted a question on the Raymarine website regarding the issue of connecting the laptop using Seaclear to the S1 Wheel Pilot Computer via the "SeaTalk" input on the S1 computer. Below is the response I got.

I may look into a USB to Serial adapater but I still don't quite understand how that would wire into the "SeaTalk" connection point on the S1?

Any thoughts on that?

Cheers,
Jim

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Subject
I have an S1 Wheel Pilot. I use a laptop for navigation with Seaclear softwar...

Discussion Thread

Response (Chris Martin) 03/23/2009 08:17 AM
No, the pilot does not have a USB connection. If your computer as a serial port or you can get a USB to serial interface, you can then connect the PC to the pilot using NMEA.

Customer (James King) 03/20/2009 04:38 PM
I have an S1 Wheel Pilot. I use a laptop for navigation with Seaclear software. I connect a USB GPS antenna to the laptop.

Is there a way to connect a laptop to the SmartPilot Computer? Is there some cable that connects to the laptop via USB and connects to the SmartPilot Computer like a SeaTalk input?

Thanks,
James King
Auto-Response 03/20/2009 04:38 PM
The answers to the following questions may be relevant to your question:

Question Reference #090320-000073
Product Level 1: Autopilot Systems & Components
Product Level 2: Cockpit-Wheel Autopilots
Product Level 3: S1 Wheel Pilot
Category Level 1: Operational Question
Date Created: 03/20/2009 04:38 PM
Last Updated: 03/23/2009 08:17 AM
Status: Waiting
Product model name:

[Terry]

I am considering editing the title of this post to Seaclear Charts for Dummys as was previously mentioned. While reading the various entries, I thought I would visit the site and see what it is all about. Yes I had an initial very steep learning curve that was cleared up by the posting on mapcal and I still haven't decided how to group the charts so that I can better search through them. Did I miss the index chart??? But the bottom line is that thanks to your advice and discussion I went from paper charts and multiple gps - to - paper charts expanded greatly by electronic charts and integrated gps and a color printer. Now I have to rethink/visit building a nav station under the port side cockpit and shifting the galley forward and maybe buying a new laptop.
There are several threads in the archive regarding NEMA talk but none really talk about wiring up the laptop's 9 pin serial port or on the new laptops, connecting to the 4 pin USB port. Direct connect or load resistors, grounding loops/concerns, possible shore power grounds getting through the laptop into the battery circuit without proper isolation, etc.

Tangentair,
A long time ago (3 years) in a place far away, I did manage to get my little Garmin GPSMAP 76cs to interface on my notebook and provide live tracking using Garmin charts. (they have since changed to N-route to provide this) I used the USB cord and port and set the little Garmin menu to read it as NMEA on the notebook. It worked like a charm at the time but I also damaged the notebook somehow, perhaps a power surge, who knows but it worked for a couple of trips. I think the trick is to set either Seaclear to read the USB port as serial or get the GPS unit to feed the USB port as serial, I think I did the latter using the Garmin menu. I don't bother with the notebook anymore, but it still has all my Garmin charts nroute and Seaclear for me to look through.
I still cannot get the Seaclear to move seamlessly across the charts like in garmin Mapsource, even though I have a group called PNW that includes all the listed charts and it looks as though I have that group name up but still Seaclear lists one chart on the page. Not sure how I load that group name but I did add all the charts from the list to that group name. Man, what a hostile program! If I should decide to ever risk taking the notebook on the boat again I will have to use the Garmin software because that Seaclear program just won't cooperate.

[tompolak]

For USB to serial communication, I would convert to serial then connect in. It is much easier that way and it is cheap. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=447

If you need a different pin out on the DB9 connector any good local computer/printer store should be able to help you out. You can find places on the internet to get two DB9 (serial) connectors and then use a Cat5 cable between them. I use to do this all the time when i worked at a Hospital in the IT dept. http://www.pccables.com/01911.htm

[Loefflerh]

What am I doing wrong?????????????
I downloaded and extracted charts from http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov , but I do not see any .kap or .wci files?
Hans

[c130king]

Hans,

When you download you will have .kap and .bsb charts. I did not see any .wci charts from my downloads...just the four that came with SeaClear.

I downloaded to "my documents" and the copied all the .kap charts to the "charts" folder in the SeaClear directory. It worked fine. Are you confident about where you are downloading to? I initially tried to download straight to the charts directory on SeaClear but that just created new sub-folders that made things more confusing. Try creating a folder in your "My Documents" for downloading the charts.

Cheers,
Jim

[Loefflerh]

Thanks, working now.....There are 2 different sets of charts, the raster one workek. Still very unfamiliar with the program, but it looks great!
Hans