What do you do for Raymarine C80 CF charts??

[StoneCrab]

I just acquired a brand new never used Raymarine C80 with RADAR.

What I've learned today is that navigation charts are no longer available on CF cards from Raymarine. What is the solution?

Can I buy a SanDisk CF card and download free charts to it like I do with OpenCPN?

I've also read quite a few articles about upgrading the C80 with an update. What is changed with the update? Any new features?

Being new to this unit, I am a bit overwhelmed and need some advice as well as to be pointed in the right direction. Am I waisting my time with this unit? I'd love to have the RADAR functions but it's kind of pointless or cumbersome if I don't have charts.

[Sailormantx]

Navionics CF chart cards of varying age are available on eBay. They are no longer produced by Navionics. I don't know if their current charts on SD cards would work with a CF card adapter. I will follow this thread, curious if anyone has used non Navionics charts in the raymarine C and E model chart plotters.

[StoneCrab]

Originally Posted by Sailormantx

Navionics CF chart cards of varying age are available on eBay. They are no longer produced by Navionics. I don't know if their current charts on SD cards would work with a CF card adapter. I will follow this thread, curious if anyone has used non Navionics charts in the raymarine C and E model chart plotters.

I saw some of those charts listed on Ebay. The reviews were pretty bad, so I stayed away, but the real problem there is whether it would be safe or reasonable to sail with ten year old charts.

I also saw a CF to USB adapter for sale. Apparently if you want to upgrade the unit, you copy a downloaded file onto the CF card and reboot the machine to setup mode to install the update. I didn't see any reference to copying chart files onto the card for use by the plotter, which is why I posted here.

If I got the adapter to copy files to the CF card, there are a lot of issues that could come up. Just a few that comes to mind, is the acceptable file formats, CF card max size, whether any special metadata files are needed to provide an index of files present or a passcode to the C80.

The last time I played with Open CPN, i recall having to build the catalog of what I had available before the program could use the files. It kind of makes sense since different chart files are brought up based on location and zoom level.

There are a lot of smart people here. I'm hoping someone figured this out and is willing to share the solution.

[Hobby]

Do you know the software version the C80 is running? I believe ver 5.16 is the last release, from about 2012.

I used a C80 from 2016 to 2019 and updated the software and charts. The main advantage to the updated software is that it allows the unit to read a larger capacity CF card. This makes it easier to down load charts. I did not use radar with the unit but the updated software may also improve the radar interface. And of course updating the software is free.

You have probably found this already but Raymarine has an extensive library of information online.
This is just an example of one of the threads
https://forum.raymarine.com/showthread.php?tid=3683

I have never heard of anyone who was able to get a Raymarine MFD to display third party charts.
The Navionics charts for a C80 appear to still be available here
https://www.navionics.com/usa/updates-downloadable.html
but they are pricey.

Hope this helps.

[StoneCrab]

Originally Posted by Hobby

Do you know the software version the C80 is running? I believe ver 5.16 is the last release, from about 2012.

library of information online.
This is just an example of one of the threads
https://forum.raymarine.com/showthread.php?tid=3683

The Navionics charts for a C80 appear to still be available here
https://www.navionics.com/usa/updates-downloadable.html
but they are pricey.

Hope this helps.

Hobby,
Thanks for these links. I did not have them. That card reader's price is astronomical. The same thing is less than $15 at Best Buy.

From what I read, you are only buying the card reader at that $179 price and need to purchase the charts separately.

Any idea what the largest size CF card the C80 can use?

I haven't powered the unit up yet. It is still new in the box, so I don't know what version of software it is at.

Thanks for the help

[StoneCrab]

Is that Raymarine forum still live? I tried to register and it just says that it isn't working. My registration doesn't go through.

I was going to ask what the maximum size Compact Flash drive the C80 will read if I upgrade it. The smaller CF drives are mostly unavailable on the sites I've visited so far.

[Hobby]

From Navionics-you are buying the CF card reader, a CF card and a chart subscription. The CF card shows in the picture, attached to the card reader. The importance of the CF card is that it has been setup to be recognized by the C80 and allows the charts to be read by the C80.

Once you receive the card reader and CF card, you go online and download the charts from Navionics onto the CF card. Once the charts are on the CF card, you insert the CF card in the C80.

As to Raymarine, yes I believe they have shut down the ability to ask questions on the forum. But I think all the previous posts are available with a search.

I don’t remember the CF card size limits. I could look for it if you need it.

[Pete7]

I have recently passed a Scandisk 2Gb card to a friend with V5.16 on it that used to update my C80 about 10 years ago. He had tried other CF cards without any success, but my CF card worked first time. The updates allow the use of larger cards in the future.

There was a 128Mb limit back in the early days of the C80 which a the time wasn't a problem. Finding a 128Mb Scandisk card today is going to be tricky.

Why it has to be Scandisk, I don't know but a decade ago Raymarine were quite specific this was the card to use for charts and upgrades.

Pete

[smac999]

chip size is base on the software.

5.04 added 16gb cards.

https://www.raymarine.eu/service-and...s-classic.html

[StoneCrab]

Raymarine obsoleted the CF cards but Navionics has a path for charts using the old CompactFlash cards.
https://www.navionics.com/usa/updates-downloadable.html

Hobby's description of what you get is accurate. For $180 you get a five dollar CF to USB reader and a ten dollar 2GB Compact Flash card and a year long subscription.

With that you can download their free updater software which will download your cartography after you present a valid older activated chart card.

This need for an older card is odd to me, but it actually does not have to be a CF card. It can be an SD or MMC card.
https://www.navionics.com/usa/suppor...ionics-updates

The old card doesn't have to be from Navionics either:
Cards from other manufacturers:
C-MAP: BDS, Essential, 4D, 4D Local, 4D Wide, 4D MAX, 4D MAX+, MAX N, MAX N+, MAX-N Bathy, MAX NT and MAX NT+ on SD/MSD
Fishing Hot Spots on SD, MSD, and MMC
Lakemaster for Humminbird, LakeMaster ProMap for Lowrance and LakeMaster for Lowrance (Newer versions)
Lowrance Insight and Lowrance Insight HD on SD/MSD
Lowrance NauticPath on SD
Raymarine Lighthouse
TrakMaps for Garmin on SD/MSD excluding the Demo Cards
TrakMaps for Lowrance
Magellan BlueNAV XL3 on MMC.

The way I am understanding this process is that the old card activates the software, enabling it to download the charts that you want. There must be a purchase or subscription code included in the update package that you purchase to prove that payment was made for the charts. (I didn't get that far)

I read somewhere that future updates can be purchased through the software for 50% off, but I can't re-locate that information right now.

So, since the software can be activated with any older chart cards on the list, and written to a different physical media, I got to wondering if I couldn't buy any Navionics chart updater, my own CF card formatted with FAT32 and CF to USB adapter to get the same result. Bass Pro Shop has a package on sale right now for $39.97. It includes an SD card but would have the yearly subscription included.https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/navi...82ec&gclsrc=ds

If the file formats (NV2) haven't changed, I don't think the software would really care which media it was writing to ... SD vs CF.

Any thoughts on this?

If anyone has some old chart cards from the list above that they no longer need, I'd love to have one to activate a CF card for my unit. PM me for an address.

I'll report back what my successes or failures were after trying this out. Even if I have to pay the $180 for the official updater kit, I will still need an old activated card to get everything working.

I also heard that the latest firmware update allows the C80 to read up to 16GB CF cards but the Navionics site says that they will only write up to 2GB on CF cards. Their FAQ's suggest partitioning larger cards into 2GB drives to avoid compatibility issues.

Can anyone comment on their experience with a C80 reading all 16GB?
At this point the Navico software would seem to be the limit.

My final thought on all of this is whether you can't just copy the files you want onto the CF card manually and get beyond the size limits and the CF card upcharge.

[apoc]

I have this chartplotter and purchased the 180 dollar upgrade path from Navionics. It worked but I haven't had to renew my subscription so I can't vouch for pricing. You do need an older card to do the activation process.



My plotter is about 13 years old, so I'm planning on upgrading the whole system in a few years. Just need it to last until then.

[Hobby]

StoneCrab
Is there a CF card included with the C80 that you purchased?

[OldGreyB]

Originally Posted by StoneCrab

The way I am understanding this process is that the old card activates the software, enabling it to download the charts that you want. There must be a purchase or subscription code included in the update package that you purchase to prove that payment was made for the charts. (I didn't get that far)

I read somewhere that future updates can be purchased through the software for 50% off, but I can't re-locate that information right now.

So, since the software can be activated with any older chart cards on the list, and written to a different physical media, I got to wondering if I couldn't buy any Navionics chart updater, my own CF card formatted with FAT32 and CF to USB adapter to get the same result. Bass Pro Shop has a package on sale right now for $39.97. It includes an SD card but would have the yearly subscription included.https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/navi...82ec&gclsrc=ds

If the file formats (NV2) haven't changed, I don't think the software would really care which media it was writing to ... SD vs CF.

Any thoughts on this?

From my own experience with Navionics and Raymarine, Navionics provide a very helpful email product support service. But as I found when having card / subscription download issues, even if Navionics provide their propriety nTag.txt, if you copy to a non Navionics provided card ( ie your own) , the charts download to the new card but will not display on the Raymarine plotter.

As explained at the time by Navionics Product Support: "
You are not able to use a non-Navionics card to display the charts as the information is copyrighted. You may have been able to download the charts onto the card, but as you have discovered, the chart plotter will not function properly because when you attempt to open the copied charting, it will corrupt the card in the process. "

From my own interaction with this sort of issue, is your statement " Hobby's description of what you get is accurate. For $180 you get a five dollar CF to USB reader and a ten dollar 2GB Compact Flash card and a year long subscription." is that you are really paying for the Navionics subscription AND the priority code embedded by Navionics on the 2GB Compact disk.

Following to see how you eventually resolve

[flightlead404]

From what I understand the new charts require significantly more memory (RAM not storage) than the ~ 20 year old gear you and I have, and a congruent increase in processing speed as well.

I passed this up as I didn't think that even if I could get them to load that they would behave well e.g. rendering. I'd love to hear otherwise, but I've found Aquamap on an iPad to be just fine.

[Desert Spray]

I agree with flightlead404 regarding the compatibility problem with using new charts and old chartplotters. I needed to install charts for the Med on my C series plotters. I found help from a shop in Bellingham, WA, where the CF card was loaded with an abridged form of the modern charts to work with the limited memory and processing ability of the old plotters. This has worked great.
The person who helped me was Rob at Radar Marine Electronics. This was 4 years ago, so this service may no longer be available.
Good luck!