OpenCPN on Windows 7 Starter

[kmacdonald]

Will Open CPN work on Windows 7 Starter?

[djmarchand]

Yes, OpenCPN works fine on my Toshiba netbook under Win 7 Starter.

But some hockey puck GPS' might not stay connected. The ubiquitous BU353 would drop out after 30 minutes to an hour. I replaced it with an equally cheap Transystems GPS and it stays connected. Something about the USB/UART driver. Some systems with Win 7 work ok with the BU353, some don't.

David

[kmacdonald]

What model Transystems GPS do you have?

Thanks for the response.

[djmarchand]

Transystem GM-2

[S/V Alchemy]

I've installed it on my Windows 7 Starter-equipped Asus eeePC 1018 PED, a pretty modest netbook. I believe it's the Holux GPS I've got going on it. I got Open CPN to work with NOAA charts and acquired pretty quickly in the parking lot of my club, where I made "2 knots on the hard".

Haven't really had the opportunity to play with it since, because the water's gone hard.

[marc2012]

T tried it on my win 7 & would not load charts.Put on flash from other computer(xp) works fine.Using handheld garmin.marc

[S/V Alchemy]

Hmm. I created a designated folder for all charts, and expanded the downloaded ZIPS into that. What can I tell you...I did the same procedure on the Win 7 netbook as I've done on two older XP laptops, and after a couple of tweaks with the usual port finding nonsense, it worked properly.

[Gaia]

We have it working on two Asus eee netbooks, Windows 7 starter with Cm93 charts. works fine.
One question for sv Alchemy re Your Holux GPS. Are you using Bluetooth??
We have a Holux C1000 and it works fine plugged into the usb port. I was trying to make it work using Bluetooth but have not been successful so far. Any suggestions? Thanks

[S/V Alchemy]

If I do, I haven't used it. The Holux and my other GPS "puck" (a BU-353, I think) are both USB 2.0 connected. So I can't make suggestions because, like the Firewire connectors on my older computers, I've never used it.

[WILFR]

Have been testing, on land only thus far, OCPN with a BU-353 GPS puck on an Archos 9 Touch Screen Tablet. The Archos ships with Win7 Starter and I have not had a major problem over the past couple of months with either the OCPN, the puck or the Archos. The Archos speed won't satisfy gamers but is adequate for the application.

I cut the 110VAC cord (Archos does not offer a 12VDC adapter and the connector is unique) and connected to a 12VDC supply. This along with the fact that the Archos 9 does not have a fan makes the Archos practical, although it won't float, for some less threatening marine environments.

I have displayed NOAA RNCs and converted some scanned lake charts, using techniques discussed in other CF threads, In addition to OCPN I have run Streets and Trips with the setup. The system holds great promise and the cost leaves room for some other toys.

[Dustymc]

I got it to work on an HP 110 netbook running Windows7, kinda. As above, the GPS (BU353) dropped out constantly and the only resolution I found was a reboot. Between that and Windows, HP, or both constantly trying to "upgrade" something or another, and the fact that the notebook almost NEVER shut down peacefully after I installed OpenCPN (thus coming back up slowly and angrily), I finally gave up and installed Ubuntu's netbook distro. I can now have OpenCPN running and a GPS fix 35 seconds after I hit the power button. Total crashes so far: Zero. Number of time's it's misplaced the GPS port: Zero. I've only had this setup for a week or so, but I think perhaps I've found a workable combination. You can test drive Ubuntu from a stick, but it was crazy-slow on my machine. Installed on the HD, it's worlds faster than Windows was. It just works. Color me impressed.

[S/V Alchemy]

Good advice. I haven't had that problem so far, but then I can't do actual boat tests until launch in late April. I like that Ubuntu works well.

[jettaknight]

Hello, I'm new to this forum but what I've seen so far it really looks great! Lots of helpful information. I had OpenCPN on an old laptop with XP and the BU-353 gps receiver. It worked flawlessly. Now I have a new asus netbook 1015pem with windows 7 starter and having similar problems as mentioned above. On bootup, everything works fine and it picks up the data from the bu-353 and com port just fine. Then usually within an hour it just drops the signal. It says the com port is "inactive" and I can do nothing to re-activate it except to reboot the netbook. All this time, the receiver red led is still flashing as normal.

Has anyone figured out anything else that can be done as a workaround to make this function properly? Is it the OpenCPN software, windows 7, or the bu-353?

I did try just the gpsinfo utility from USGLOBALSAT and as long as I didn't also start up opencpn, it seemed to just keep on working???

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[djmarchand]

jettaknight:

As mentioned above a Transystem GM-2 hockey puck GPS does not drop out like the BU-353 does. It is probably a driver problem. If USGlobalSat would recognize this and fix the driver (actually third party chip supplier) then it would work. Had a lot of conversations with their tech support guys, but gave up due to my limited computer skills.

The Transystem GPS is the same price (about $40) as the BU-353.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by jettaknight

Hello, I'm new to this forum but what I've seen so far it really looks great! Lots of helpful information. I had OpenCPN on an old laptop with XP and the BU-353 gps receiver. It worked flawlessly. Now I have a new asus netbook 1015pem with windows 7 starter and having similar problems as mentioned above. On bootup, everything works fine and it picks up the data from the bu-353 and com port just fine. Then usually within an hour it just drops the signal. It says the com port is "inactive" and I can do nothing to re-activate it except to reboot the netbook. All this time, the receiver red led is still flashing as normal.

Has anyone figured out anything else that can be done as a workaround to make this function properly? Is it the OpenCPN software, windows 7, or the bu-353?

I did try just the gpsinfo utility from USGLOBALSAT and as long as I didn't also start up opencpn, it seemed to just keep on working???

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

This could be due to the power conservation settings of the netbook. Find out how they are set. If you aren't tapping the keys or the touchpad, the netbook may go into standby mode, which might depower the USB sockets first.