Microsoft Streets & Trips w/GPS

[marlborosounds]

Has anyone used this system with thier laptops on thier sailboats?
Curious how it works as a back up. For 79.00 USD it cant be all bad if
its on the same satellites covering the pacific and atlantic.

[Vasco]

You can buy a little GPS for that. I've got one as a backup. I don't know if the Streets one gives you lat/long but these do. You can get them on Ebay.

[AnchorageGuy]

Don't know what comes with Trips and Streets now, we have an older version but we bought a GPS from Duelo and run it with our charting program on the laptop and it works just fine. Deluo USB GPS for Laptop*-*Deluo Electronics

[MyTime]

I have this on my laptop and it works very well for land. I would not recomend it for marine use. You may be able to use it as a "barebones" basic gps on a boat. It acquires the satelites quickly and it will display your location on a map with Latitude and Longitude and you may even use it as a odometer. But no other marine data is available that I know of....other then telling you you are in the water.
You may even be able to find marina locations by address but it is primarilly set up to give land access. One big drawback is it really kills your laptop battery life if not pluged in along with being an expensive piece of equipment if your laptop drops or gets wet. If you are seeking an alternate GPS you may consider a handheld for $100 it will give you just as much info and more plus they are a lot more durable and battery life of 20+ hours it is a really nice backup and very compact.

[marlborosounds]

Thanks MyTime, Yes they a pain but for a backup with a full display via the laptop or computer i was just curious how it might track. Yes I also have the 2006 ver and it will give a line point a to point b across the ocean. I was just curious how it would track on the ocean. A cheap plotter for 79.00 USD for sure. But as always anything can go wrong if you have Murphy's law for a 1st Mate.

[marlborosounds]

Yes Chuck Microsoft sells something simular for the software. Its all about the same price for 09' , it includes the GPS unit/USB. Thank you all for the feed back.

[knottybuoyz]

We've Streets & Trips w/GPS on our boat but as mentioned not ideally suited for marine use. We have other programs for that. Have used it in the truck as well but the laptop is too big and the screen too bright for night use.

[AnchorageGuy]

I use the Duelo GPS hooked to the laptop while running my Capn navigation program. It works great and does not require my GPS chartplotter to be connected to the computer. The Streets and Trips would be worthless on the boat.

[raisin56]

I use Streets & Trips in the car then use several free charting programs with the free NOAA charts with the same USB GPS module. Look in the "Navigation" section on this site for "best navigation software" and "seaclear??" threads.

[marlborosounds]

Thanks Peoples. , Yes all the great info. with a lil research the gps unit is all the same. The software of Micro isnt the same tho most of it interacts and serves the
same purpose. I was just asking a question as to how it might fair. We dont run the coastal waters much hugging land in our sight. So Im always looking for things that are under a hundred dollars that will incorporate with what I have on board. Never know when Lightning will strick and knock out a system or whatever the cause maybe. So I just like to be prepaird when im 5 thousand miles away from any chandlery.
Cheers and many thanks

[dacust]

Originally Posted by knottybuoyz

We've Streets & Trips w/GPS on our boat but as mentioned not ideally suited for marine use. We have other programs for that. Have used it in the truck as well but the laptop is too big and the screen too bright for night use.

To use your laptop in a vehicle at night (boats included) most graphics card have a color adjustment. Move the color band almost all the way to red. Experiment with it a little and you'll usually find a setting that will work.

[sandy daugherty]

If you are going to take a laptop aboard (I don't) you can attach a $30 GPS puck, and run free software loaded with free charts and have a real marine navigation system, with depths, and wrecks, and navigation markers all displayed. HOWEVER:

You will not be able to see the display in the cockpit, or even inside the boat unless you're lucky. If the laptop slides off the table, you are out one laptop, and out of the navigation business if you had come to rely on it. Same thing when the laptop battery runs down, unless you have an inverter that will let you run off your house batteries. The what ifs really pile up.

If you bought a handheld, mapping gps like the Garmin GPSmap 76, you could have all the real nautical information you need, right in front of you at the helm, where you can see it at night and in the rain. You would need your laptop to load the detailed charts to your GPS, but you can do that at home, for less that $450. Thats what you would have to pay to replace that laptop when it gets wet.

[knottybuoyz]

Just like Sandy said, there are a lot of negatives to using a laptop on a boat. We've done it for the five years we've had our boat and just got a dedicated chartplotter last year. I still continue to use the laptop having been spoiled by the large display. Keeping the canvas up (express cruiser) is essential or the screen gets washed out in the sunlight.

They're unweildly at times, cords & mouse cords all over the place etc. We have to run ours off of the inverter but even still the screen keeps blacking out (power saver mode) unless you turn that feature off which means shorter battery life.

One of the hardest things is to keep the cat off the keyboard!

[JohnKnox-TN]

I have also used the Streets and Trips on a boat tour and yes, it does show you on the water. I have never tried it but if you place a push pin on your starting location, taking you back to that location would probably be by the nearest road, LOL, Not to conducive to boats,,,
Comments on the screen washing out in the sun are true. Too bright for night use is not true with the 2007 version as it has a night mode that changes all the white area to black and greatly reduces glare.
It would be nice if Microsoft would create Navigational Software, dependant on water use only, for it though. Would sure beat the expensive alternatives to big screen navigation.
knottyboys, love the cat on the dash, haha. I have a Yorkie that will probably do the same thing on my newly acquired Four Winns 258. I was searching for info on carry on A/C units and Marine GPS's when I found this site.
Back to searching...

John
Knoxvile, TN

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF John.
Hope your searching proves fruitful; but if not, don't hesitate to ask.