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Author
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Topic: Open CPN and charts in Mexico - O-Charts?
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Jeff Webb
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posted December 29, 2020 05:12 PM
Does anyone have experiencing getting chart from O-Charts loaded into OpenCPN? Doing a charter out of La Paz in March and would like to do some planning using OpenCPN. Your help is appreciated!
From: Denver, CO
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David Burch
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posted December 29, 2020 06:24 PM
Yes, I have used quite a few of these o-charts and they are great. I think we have a video on this. I recommend loading them with a dongle then you can easily move from one computer to the next. I think the dongle is about $20? Only need one for all of your charts. It is an id device, not a storage unit.
see www.starpath.com/videos Go to View OpenCPN full play list.
The dongle has to be shipped from Europe and these days that takes a while.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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Jeff Webb
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posted December 30, 2020 02:38 PM
Ok. So it looks like I pay O-Charts in Euro's.. then I can download a file that contains the 3 or 4 charts of the south sea of cortez/la paz area. Not sure what the dongle is for??? (I'm guess external storage for charts - I already have this set up on an external hard drive). If there is a video on how to get O-charts chart files onto OpenCPN I'd love to have that URL. Thanks David. For whatever reason, Navionics seems much easier than this for charts that are not included in the OpenCPN chart downloader.
From: Denver, CO
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David Burch
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posted December 30, 2020 04:32 PM
the video links are given above.
the dongle is a key not a storage unit. It is discussed in the videos.
the big difference is the o-senc charts are official charts, guaranteed up to date, and easily updatable yourself.
the Navionics are not official charts and not guaranteed to be accurate or up to date. Also the Navionics charts can in principle display differently in different instruments because (as i understand it) they license both the charts and the zoom levels of the charts, so one device may have a better license than another, showing more zoom levels. There have been historic examples of problems caused when you go from one level barely indicating a hazard to the next level, which is large scale of an actual atol.
With that said, the Navionics are certainly the most convenient to purchase and least expensive of all global charts, and used carefully they will do the job.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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