Is Navionics robust enough?

[HeadedToTexas]

I have used Navionics exclusively for the last two years navigating in the Great Lakes and it has never let me down. I create routes with Chart Viewer on the website and save them to be used on my iPad. Works great.

What I don't do (yet) is save tracks. As we venture into less familiar waters, saving tracks feels more and more important, if only to follow the breadcrumbs back out of tight areas. Is Navionics robust enough to save and use those tracks to aid navigation?

 

[GoneDiving]

Navionics? Yes.

Tablets? Charge ports? Cables and Chargers? Not so much. Especially in a salt water environment. These are the weak points rather than the software. Get protective cases etc and have spares onboard

 

[mvweebles]

Not sure what you mean. Navionics on a phone/tablet? Navionics as base charting on a Simrad MFD? But sure, navigation function is fine. If question is whether it's possible and/or advisable to create a route from trackline and reverse it, I don't see why it would be a problem unless the capacity of the device or software was exceeded. Personally, I prefer inserting waypoints, then connecting the dots to create a route. That way I can NAV to a waypoint between two channel markers and know where I am headed. With a trackline-route, if you deviated for some reason (evasive action, stopover somewhere, etc.), not sure what would happen when you re-activated the route.

Peter

 

[boathealer]

I have used Navionics exclusively for the last two years navigating in the Great Lakes and it has never let me down. I create routes with Chart Viewer on the website and save them to be used on my iPad. Works great.

What I don't do (yet) is save tracks. As we venture into less familiar waters, saving tracks feels more and more important, if only to follow the breadcrumbs back out of tight areas. Is Navionics robust enough to save and use those tracks to aid navigation?

The Google map tracks that are on the main page our website (http://n37scout.wixsite.com/travels) are direct exports from the tablet-based Navionics chart plotter aboard.

They were post-processed to have a 500ft accuracy to make the files smaller and then imported into Google maps. You can click on any one of the track segments (easier if you open window into full-screen) you can see all of the statistics related to that track (avg speed, time, etc.).

The native exported GPX file from the Navionics tablet is extremely accurate from our experience (relative to the tablet's GPS accuracy, of course) and therefore creates very large output files.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

Sorry, I am asking about Navionics running on an iPad. I am comfortable making and keeping the tablet and associates connections working reliably. It’s a challenge, but I’ve been doing it for years. My question is about the cloud based back end and how permanent the tracks and routes are once created. Anyone lost data once created? And what about using Navionics in areas of marginal connectivity? Does it ever need cellular access to dump data, or is the memory available sufficient to store long stretches of GPS track data without saving now and then?

 

[mvweebles]

I just looked at a route I created in 2018 on my android phone from St Pete FL to Rio Dulce Guatemala (I didn't travel this route, only created via Navionics for information). Route itself appears fine, but I had to re-download the charts themselves as my subscription to Mexico /Central America expired a couple years ago. I suppose it's a good thing that it allows me to download the version that is presumably from my last subscription download, but curious I need to download it at all.

My only takeaway for your purposes would be to make sure you have updated your charts while you have connectivity. Appears the information is stored properly, but as you suspect, you never know. I can almost guarantee the data is stored on AWS (Amazon) or Azure (Microsoft) could storage which delivers corporate integrity, but does ocassionally fail. Especially if Navionics doesn't cough up the money for redundancy.

Peter.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

That makes sense, and keeping ahead with downloading charts is a pretty easy lift for reliability.

Getting back out of new areas with marginal navigational aids after getting in would seem to benefit from a track that could be followed or reversed to get out. And that's very short term storage. It sure would be nice to be able to pull up a previous track when returning to a spot after a year or so. Your example from 2018 is reassuring. I have not used that feature of Navionics, but love everything else about it. Hoping tracks will impress just as much.