Expedition Navigation Software 
1 - Carlos
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Offline - Registered: 5/12/2021
- Posts: 19
New Expedition user?
Hi, first time posting here, this looks like a great resource. I am very inclined to purchase Expedition. Boat has a Vulcan B&G plotter with Navionics maps sd card and I currently use PredictWind on an Android tablet, I currently do not have a Windows laptop/tablet. I downloaded the free limited functionality Expedition at home to try a few things, but I have some remaining questions and am wondering if someone could help me out so I understand all the bits and pieces I need to purchase.
- From this forum I learned Expedition does not support Navionics charts. I haven't used CMAP before, but I assume it comes in an sd card which means my future Windows laptop/tablet should have an sd card reader/slot, correct?
- How does the licensing of Expedition work? For example, how much does it cost if I need to change PCs in the future or if I want to upgrade to a new Expedition version?
- The Vulcan is connected to the boat's wifi network and it has NMEA 183 available on TCP port 10110. Can Expedition connect directly to this port or do I need an extra USB style adapter to the nmea2k network?
- I see by the grayed out menu of the "Create currents" that it allows the user to save the results as a grib file. I am curious to know how this tool works. Does it create currents from scratch or can one use a downloaded grib file as a starting point? Is there any documentation or videos showing how to use it? I had a specific use case in mind: For example, the user downloads currents grib and with the help of an overlayed SST image user can manually adjust the grib as to have a better input for weather routing calculation. Can it do that?
Many thanks in advance.
- sparky
- Expert
Online! - From: Cambridge UK
- Registered: 4/27/2018
- Posts: 245
Re: New Expedition user?
I suspect Nick will need to answer some of this... but here are my answers...
For CMaps -- the recommended CMap4D is not on an SDCard but downloaded by the MapManager. You do not need an SDCard reader on the PC.
Expedition can connect directly to the Vulcan NMEA network port. You need to add a NMEA network connection under network connections. Type TCP port 10110 for your device.
- Nick
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- Registered: 9/16/2015
- Posts: 2,965
Re: New Expedition user?
Hello Carlos,
Yes, C-Map 4D is probably the default C-Map option. The charts are downloaded form the internet direct to the PC. There is an option for some areas to have them delivered on SD card, which is then copied to the computer but I have never tried that.
Of course, in many other parts of the world (USA, Australia, NZ etc), the official ENCs and RNCs are supplied.
No cost to change computers etc. We seem to have settled into a small upgrade charge every ten years.
If NMEA 0183 data is available on a Wifi connection, Exp can use that. If you have a NMEA 2000 network on the boat, Expedition can connect directly to that with (eg) an Actisense NGT-1.
The create currents option is really a legacy feature from before current grib data was widely available. I am not sure it really has any practical use for most people now.
We can give you a demo key if you wish.
Regards,
Nick
- Carlos
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- Registered: 5/12/2021
- Posts: 19
Re: New Expedition user?
Ok great, thanks for the replies.
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Thread Starter- Carlos
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Re: New Expedition user?
sparky wrote:
I suspect Nick will need to answer some of this... but here are my answers...
For CMaps -- the recommended CMap4D is not on an SDCard but downloaded by the MapManager. You do not need an SDCard reader on the PC.
Expedition can connect directly to the Vulcan NMEA network port. You need to add a NMEA network connection under network connections. Type TCP port 10110 for your device.
Ok, I could not find Vulcan from the list of Instruments, but I tried a couple and it seems that by selecting "TCP Client", "B&G H3000/H5000 Hydra" and port 10110 did the trick for the data to stream to Expedition successfully.
I now tried to send a mark back to the Vulcan plotter, but after sending it, I could not see anything on the plotter. I looked through the documentation and could not find any guidance. Anyone knows how to get that working? Thanks.
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Thread Starter- Nick
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Re: New Expedition user?
You could just select NMEA 0183 as the instrument type. The Hydra is just NMEA 0183 with some custom B&G extensions and I don't know if the Vulcan supports them.
A lot of plotters don't support the NMEA route & mark sentences. You would need to check in the manual whether it supports RTE and WPL. They are limited in what they can do though.
- Carlos
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- Registered: 5/12/2021
- Posts: 19
Re: New Expedition user?
Thanks Nick.
The Vulcan manual was very short on details, but I went digging through the B&G knowledge base and found that waypoints can be received via NMEA2K, but not 0183.
I am thinking in buying on an USB/NMEA2K adapter. Any products out there there been used successfully with Expedition?
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Thread Starter- Nick
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Re: New Expedition user?
There are two - Actisense NGT-1 and Yacht Devices. Links on the Expedition Instruments web page.
The Actisense is probably the standard solution.
No guarantees it actually supports the data. It seems a little hit and miss and some devices only support data from the same manufacturer. For Zeus, some people have been exporting a GPX files from Exp.
- Carlos
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Re: New Expedition user?
Ok, thanks Nick!
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Thread Starter- Carlos
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Re: New Expedition user?
Ok, I tried to use a wifi based Yacht Devices YDWG. Not yet 100% there, but getting closer. I tried RAW and NMEA183 protocol with different outcomes. Using the RAW protocol (setting to "Yacht Devices") I can send marks to the Vulcan, however, TWS and TWA number boxes are empty on Expedition, other data seems ok. Using NMEA183 protocol, TWS and TWA are coming through with actual values, but sending marks does not work. On both cases, I am using the default settings and version 11.10.10. I would be happy with either protocol working for both features. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?
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Thread Starter