[Surfnski]

The former owner of my boat had a way of connecting my Garmin 492 chart plotter and Furuno radar to a laptop. Both the Garmin and Furuno are about 10 years old. I still have the Belkin switch that connects to the laptop via a serial to USB adapter.

Does anyone know what software is out there to integrate electronics of this vintage to a laptop?

Thanks in advance.

Bill W
S/V Alembic, Whitby 42

 

[Bill-Rangatira]

open cpn should be able to handle nmea 0183 via serial port

 

[Gladrags1]

Garmin's Home Port and Blue Chart charts will do it. This will also give you up to date charts.

Tod

 

[night0wl]

I'm curious about the radar...how was that displayed!

 

[hellosailor]

"I still have the Belkin switch that connects to the laptop via a serial to USB adapter."

The Belkin switch connects two serial devices, one or the other, only one at a time, to a USB port on the computer?

Then any software which reads the radar (good trick, might be proprietary to Furuno) and GPS data over a USB port will still read them.

If the gizmo is ten years old and you are using a new computer with a newer OS, the gizmo may need (or may not have) new drivers to work with the new OS. In which case you buy TWO modern certified approved serial-to-usb converters, put one on each device, and ditch the old switch. They're not expensive. Uncertified ones often work, but ones that are certified and approved for your OS are a safer bet.

 

[TakeFive]

Garmin's Home Port and Blue Chart charts will do it. This will also give you up to date charts.

Tod

AFAIK Garmin HomePort software for PC will not accept GPS input or any other instrument data. It will only display a compatible Garmin chartplotter's charts for planning purposes.

Since purchasing it, I have found it to be almost worthless. In the US, NOAA's raster and vector charts are superior options, using other software that will do a much more comprehensive job of integrating various sources of instrumental data.

 

[Gladrags1]

I thought the OP was looking for a program to display his chart plotter's charts to plan.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TakeFive]

I thought the OP was looking for a program to display his chart plotter's charts to plan.

He says he wants to integrate his electronics (chartplotter and radar). Usually that means displaying real-time data, not just static pictures of charts.