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From: Richard Goodwin (no email)
Date: Wed Sep 26 2001 - 14:50:17 EDT
Aerofoam wrote:
>
> Could you post instructions for making this system work?
> Something by the numbers from downloading the program to calibrating and
> using the charts?
Sure. Here's about all I know about it so far...
GETTING SEACLEAR SOFTWARE:
Search for "seaclear download", or go right to www.sping.com/seaclear/,
and download the software and help files for your platform.
Install the software. I took the default locaation, and ended up with
it in C:\SeaClear32\.
There are some readme files there, and some subdirectories, including
one called C:\SeaClear32\charts\, which is where you should put new
chart .gif files.
There are two executable files:
Seaclear.exe -- the program that talks to GPS and Auto Pilots and shows
where you are on the charts.
Mapcal.exe -- the program that loads new charts into the system and
calibrates them.
There is an excellent Help file also, Schelp.hlp, which can be accessed
from the software or directly.
There are various ways to get charts. You can take a paper chart and
scan it. Not sure how you piece together a big chart, but that's
another subject. You can also download a .gif file from wherever you
can find one. Basically this software just takes a picture (.gif or a
couple of other formats), and puts your boat into the picture wherever
it belongs.
GETTING NOAA CHARTS:
To download NOAA .gif charts, go to www.noaa.gov, click on "Site Map",
then on "Map Finder", then on "SEARCH FOR MAPS" in the upper left.
Check the box that says "Nautical Charts" on the left, then click an
area on the map or choose a location from the lists on the right.
You should see a section of the map with lots of red squares. If there
are no red squares, then click the button that says "Change Themes", and
select "Nautical Charts", then return here.
Once you have the red squares, which indicate the various charts that
are available, you can click one of the radio buttons above the map to
zoom in or out, pan, etc. The way this works is: Select a radio
button, then click on the map. If you are doing zoom or pan, wherever
you click on the map will be placed at the center.
Once you have the area you are interested in, select the "List Products"
button, and click on the map again inside the red squares you want
listed. You may get more than one chart listed, since they can overlap.
You should now have a page of chart numbers and names. If you click the
green GIF button to the left of a chart, you will see the actual chart
displayed in a new browser window. Once you are here, all you have to
do is download it by clicking on "File -> Save As". When it asks you
where to save it, tell it to go to "C:\SeaClear32\charts\", and the .gif
will be stored there under its chart number.
INSTALLING AND CALIBRATING CHARTS:
Now the fun begins. Run the Mapcal.exe program. Right click in the
middle of the window that comes up, and choose "New Map". You should
see a list of files from the charts directory, including the one you
just downloaded. Double click on the .gif you just downloaded. The
filename will appear on the left. Go to the name field and fill in a
name. You can use up to 40 characters for a name, so if you give it a
description and also the chart number, it will be easy to cross ref to a
paper chart when the system is running and automatically loads a new
chart for you. Then click "Save" to save this map entry.
Now you need to calibrate it. On the Mapcal window, right click and
select "Open Map" this time. Left click on the chart you just entered,
and it will come up in the Mapcal window. To calibrate it, you have to
do one of two things: Give it the lat/lon of the upper left and lower
right corners of the chart's image (which you don't have), or do it by
marking two points on the chart for which you *do* know the lat/lon
(this is the only way I could figure out to do it).
To calibrate it, move the chart around in the window (left click and
drag) until you find a place *near* the upper left corner where two
lat/lon lines cross. In the case of chart 13269_1 for the
Cohasset/Scituate, MA harbors, there is a convenient intersection of
42deg15'N and 70deg47'W. So now you can right click on the chart and
select "Marker 1". Then place the mouse crosshairs right on that
intersection on the chart and left click. A red circle should appear on
that spot. You have now marked a known lat/lon location near the upper
left corner of the chart.
Repeat this procedure down near the lower right corner of the chart, and
this time select "Marker 2". When you left click on the lat/lon
location, it will put a green circle around it. You are now ready to
fill in the actual calibration numbers.
Right click again on the map, and select "Calibrate". Fill in the
appropriate numbers for lat/lon for the red and green circles. You can
click "Apply" at any time to save what you have, then move the chart to
the other circle, bring up "Calibrate" again, and fill in the other
lat/lon. Or just write them down before you get to this step. The
lat/lon fields are formatted to accept 3 digits of degree, 2 digits plus
3 decimal places for minutes, so if you have to use
degrees/minutes/seconds, you'll need to do some math. With larger scale
charts this shouldn't be necessary.
Now "Save" this calibration. You are almost done. Move the map around
until you find the scale, e.g., 1:10,000. Remember it.
Finally, right click on the map and select "Edit Map", and choose this
map again. Fill in the scale -- 10000 in this case. There is also a
box for Projection, if you want to change that, like to Mercator, which
this chart is.
USING THE MAP YOU JUST CREATED:
Now if you bring up the Seaclear.exe program, you can use the new map.
If you are hooked to a GPS, then seaclear will get your current lat/lon
position from that. If not, then it will shortly go into DR mode. If
you right click in the middle of the window (not near the edges), you
will get a menu. Selecting "Tools -> Options" will let you change
settings. Selecting charts will let you pick a chart to display. If
you put it into automatic mode then it will only display the chart and
location where it thinks your boat is. With no GPS, you get no
display. But if you aren't connected to gps, you can click on "Tools ->
DR update", and give it a specific lat/lon, which it will then think is
where your boat is, so if you give it one within the bounds of an
installed chart, it will load the chart and display the lat/lon for
you. If you turn off automatic mode, then you can move the chart around
all you want, and can still select "Charts -> Find Boat" to have it
locate your position manually.
It has lots of neat features, most of which I have no idea how to use
yet.:-)
Dick
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