| Author | Message | ||
     David Sheriff Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 298 Registered: 01-2004 |
I don't think CE autosaves, certainly not by default. You must take care to save the ".nob" (navigation object file) before you quit. Just like a Windows program, eh? There must be an old acronym for "save work frequently as system may crash without warning." Perhaps someone was running a handheld as a backup? The Garmin GPS76 saves everything as long as it is on. You can save existing track info in device memory and transfer it as a named file in the removable chip. Then you clear the device memory and you are ready for a trip. You can once again save to a name and clear memory after the trip is done. When uploading, the device track and all the named removable chip tracks come to the PC. To see only one, delete the others from the MapSelect window. You can export as a .gpx. Garmin will default save as .gdb. You can edit the points on the track within MapSource, but there can be lots of them. Fortunately, you can select lots of points and mass delete them. If you never clear the track from the device memory, it just keeps adding until memory fills up and wraps around. In "auto" mode, the GPS appears to save coordinates when the course changes. This minimizes the number of points saved as they are all endpoints for line segments. I have not figured out how to save speed yet as part of the track. | ||
| Ted Lavino Moderator Username: tlavino Post Number: 111 Registered: 01-2006 |
David, this morning I looked for the track information from Thursday in CE, and could not find it in the Navigation Objects listing. Is it possible that the information is deleted when I shut down CE? I did see it tracking throughout the cruise. However I switched to ChartView on the way back to the dock to make sure it worked correctly with the new Global GPS... | ||
| David Sheriff Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 295 Registered: 01-2004 |
So the CF&G data has what engineers call "empty precision". The fact that they show so many bathymetric curves implies that the data means something. It's like multiplying 1.4 x 2.1 and believing that in the floating point answer, 2.94, the "4" actually means something. The product of the two numbers is more like 3 and the rest is "empty precision." The NOAA curves probably imply more precision than their data as well. They are derived (I would imagine) from interpolation between spot soundings. Given the date of most of the NOAA bathymetric data, they were probably using lead lines for depth and multiple bearings off known land features for position. Unless they drag a wire across an area (for which there is an appropriate chart symbol) you have no guarantee that a pinnacle is not sticking up somewhere in an otherwise featureless plain. Re: VISTA. I will be doing "dual boot," which means I can bring the same hardware up with either my existing OS )and all it's software completely intact) or Vista, with whatever issues it has. If Vista works well for me, I may only use it for those applications that will not run on w2k. Or vice versa. | ||
| Ted Lavino Moderator Username: tlavino Post Number: 108 Registered: 01-2006 |
A couple of thoughts on Vista vs. XP. Vista indeed had some issues out of the gate as all new operating systems do. It was a totally re-architected platform for Microsoft at the time (Windows Server 2003 and XP share the same code. Windows Server 2008 and Vista share the same code). However the issues were relatively minor at the time, and most have been addressed with the service pack published earlier this year. That beinhg said however there are still lingering issues with applications due to their programmers taking shortcuts for expedience sake and not following Microsoft's rules. In earlier versions those rules were not strictly enforced, leading to many security issues. To tighten up the security of Vista, Microsoft is now enforcing those rules, which in turn breaks those applications that have been violating them. Not all do-in fact most applications work fine with Vista. Take for example the radar simulator from StarPath. It was written for the Windows 98 platform yet also runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Vista. Its programmers were following the rules. The biggest culprits are titles that interact with Windows at a very intimate level such as device drivers (software that allows Vista to use specific hardware such as printers, scanners, cameras, video cards etc.) and anti-virus utilities. Most of those require specific Vista versions. Additionally, Vista (like XP) comes in a 32 bit and 64 bit environments. Again many applications can successfully be run in either environments, but the same caveat applies as above. Anti-virus software and device drivers will need to be 64 bit versions. To sum up, if you have the hardware to support it, Vista shouldn't be dismissed as being particularly bug-ridden-it is not. You just need to do your homework and get the prerequisites lined up. | ||
| Mark Howe Moderator Username: unclemark Post Number: 428 Registered: 08-2003 |
First: my advice is don't be too quick to go to Vista. Too many bugs, but they will work out eventually. Second; I did the layout on ArcView. I created the shapefile using the gpx file from ExpertGPS. Note that the CalFish&Game bathymetry does not match the NOAA contours. Most noticeable in the small canyon off DanaPoint. I think the CFG part was done without a lot of data and did it by interpolation, but NOAA has the definitive data. That comparison is one of the first exercises in the MST219 class. | ||
| David Sheriff Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 291 Registered: 01-2004 |
This is Mark's jpg of the data he sent me. Obviously Expert GPS, the software he is using, has more capability for this sort of thing than Coastal Explorer. To be fair, CE is not intended for this purpose. I cannot yet run Expert GPS for OS issues. But I have 64 bit Vista on the way, if you can believe it. EGPS will not run on W2K, and I have hit a tipping point. [As students, you are also eligible for educational software discounts.] I decided I will install Vista as "dual boot" on my main computer. I am fearful that much of the (old) software I use will not run in Vista. I think I will send Pilgrimage and waypoint data to Mark this time as his capabilities are more advanced. Someone from Acadia (Ted?) who has her track should send it to Mark as well. I anticipate taking Mark's MST 219 in the Spring. Combining what I hope to learn there with what I have learned teaching all of you, MST 218 should be much better next fall. Start spreading the word. I will be soliciting all of your inputs at the end of the semester re: what you liked and did not like about the course. Is it pitched at the right level? Too high, too low? What worked best, least? The equipment familiarization among class members is going more slowly than I had anticipated. That is the fault of my anticipation. It takes me at least a few hours with new equipment to learn how to operate everything. If it's on your own boat, you have the time. Nothing beats practice. If I could make the boats available at the dock on weekends or other week nights would you come down and make use of the practice time? I believe these Multifunction Displays are much more difficult to learn than standalone radar or chartplotter. You may sense that from operating the simulator. In future classes we may do chartplotter runs and radar runs separately and then finally combine them. So much concentration goes into just navigating the display presentation that we are not fully exploring either radar or chartplotter. As the price of bright LCD screens comes down, we may see a return to dedicated displays. The opposing push is lack of real estate to mount them on smaller vessels. A radar with a button or knob for each function is definitely easier to use. Some of the new sets I saw at the show feature a return to dedicated buttons and knobs. User interface hardware drives cost up, but it is also a differentiator. Sadly, only expect to find such goodies on higher end sets. | ||
| David Sheriff Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 288 Registered: 01-2004 |
These are both boat tracks plotted in Coastal Explorer from the 10/30 class. Notice that I mistook Acadia's position (green track) on the way to the A1 waypoint and she turned toward the A2 point early. She also overshot the A2 point while entering A3 coordinates. For the purposes of the class, it would be better to take off all way and idle at the waypoint until ready to proceed. I attempted to solve the "where is Acadia?" problem by having them report in at the A2P position, which is 1/2 mile before A2, with limited success. You will recall our relatively close approach when Acadia was proceeding toward A3 and Pilgrimage was proceeding toward P3. As Pilgrimage hit A3 I called off the exercise. I believe Acadia did at least one MOB exercise, which accounts for one of the course wobbles. I know we were not attempting to steer best compass courses, but the wiggle in the tracks shows the utility of proceeding to a waypoint, not just maintaining a DR compass course. The lack of compass illumination on Acadia is a major annoyance. I will try to solve that problem. It surprises me how much deviation there is in Pilgrimage's magnetic steering compass. [review: deviation = compass error, variation = magnetic pole location offset] I still believe you steer a straighter course by the magnetic compass because it reacts more quickly. But you have to do your own calculations on deviation from what the GPS tells you to get on the proper course. I found that looking at the trend of the heading line on the chartplotter vs. the course line was very useful in correcting deviation. Individual GPS headings bounce around, but the heading line effectively averages them. The Pilgrimage data is from Coastal Explorer on my laptop running the little USB disc GPS. Acadia data is from Mark Howe, who collected it on his GPS. He sent it to me as a .gpx file, which seems to be a well-supported interchange format. I was able to open it in Garmin Mapsource. This image is a screen capture from Coastal Explorer after importing Mark's track data and combining it with mine. That it is a screen capture says my display capabilities are still primitive. The wiggly stuff adjacent to the lines and characters are artifacts from jpg compression/decompression. |
