Just a thought... If you can use a 386/Win 98 for OpenCPN, one option to consider, if you want to be somewhat immune to the water damage etc. is a second hand ToughBook by Panasonic. They can be had for around $200-$300 (the older, the cheaper). I have one that has an older Pentium in it and runs Win XP. The model I have seems to come from some law enforcement agency. The best source for them is a local “Computers for Schools” programme. Companies give them away after 3-5 years in service and the CfS can’t off-load them that easily. Those PCs are fully ruggedized and are water resistant (if not water proof). Many come with touch screen, which might be a bonus when used for navigation.
I don’t use mine for navigation; I have a chartplotter for that and I don’t need one where I sail. So I cannot really vouch how good they would be. But this might be something to consider. Marek in Ottawa From: Della Barba, Joe via CnC-List Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2015 12:15 PM To: mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Della Barba, Joe Subject: Re: Stus-List OpenCPN question I find OpenCPN better than SeaClear in almost every way. SeaClear has not been worked on for many years and OpenCPN is in constant development. What SeaClear is great for is old low powered computers. My nav laptop is an old IBM Thinkpad 386 running Windows 98. SeaClear is quite fast on it and OpenCPN is a bit slow. I did not try and use the same chart directory for each program, even that old thing has room for 2 copies. One OpenCPN disappointment was the ENC charts. I found the rendering so horrible I just could not stand it and stuck with the BSB format. The ENC charts were the original reason I got OpenCPN, but now I am used to the tides, currents, and more AIS options I generally have stuck with it. The Navionics program on my iPhone is vastly better at doing vector based charts. Speaking of which, if you have a device that run Navionics it is well worth the low price they charge for it in the App Store. Hint for reliable nav PCs: Do not use it for ANYTHING else and NEVER connect it to the internet. Joe Della Barba Coquina C&C 35 MK I From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Joel Aronson via CnC-List Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2015 11:58 AM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Joel Aronson Subject: Re: Stus-List OpenCPN question Dennis, Install OpenCPN and then tell it where the charts are. The plugins for tides, currents, weather are great! I have not used the weather routing plug in. BTW, the developers seem to hang out on cruisersforum.com. There are many helpful threads these. We used OpenCpn at the nav table to/from Newport. Joel On Wed, Sep 9, 2015 at 11:53 AM, Dennis C. via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: I was looking at the OpenCPN website, it looks nice and may have more functionality than Seaclear. My question is: I already have the NOAA BSB charts I want downloaded and in a folder on the laptops. Can I download OpenCPN and copy the charts into its chart folder? Or does OpenCPN allow me to point it to the Seaclear chart folder? (BTW, I have waaaay too many GPS units! In addition to Navionics on 2 iPhones and 2 Android tablets, I have Seaclear on a couple of laptops with a GlobalSat BU-353 GPS adaptor. All work great but are primarily backups to the Chartplotter at the helm and text only GPS at the navstation. Also have a handheld GPS and a VHF with GPS. That's a total of 10 GPS units. Sheesh!) Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA _______________________________________________ Email address: CnC-List@cnc-list.com To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the bottom of page at: http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com -- Joel 301 541 8551 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Email address: CnC-List@cnc-list.com To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the bottom of page at: http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com
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