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MapSend BlueNav Europe - Do not buy!


Ed2002

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For all sailors/boaters who are interested in the new MapSend BlueNav Chart Kit with uploadable marine charts for Europe I will tell shortly why i would NOT buy this Software as it is released now.

 

The MapSend BlueNav Kit Europe consists of one CD (containing all 191 Navionics Gold small Charts covering the European and mediteranean coast)and one SD Card (32 MB); the charts can be loaded only to this Card after getting an unlock Code from the Vendor or Magellan. You can switch charts, but only one chart can be loaded.

Price is about 260 Euros.

 

After checking this Software there are some (i think very substantial) limitations:

1) There are Naval Charts for regions not covered by the default european basemap (land or marine); this regions are very important for

sailors/boaters because they include big parts of the Mediteranean Sea(Aegaeis, Adriatic Sea..)

If you load a chart e.g.from the turkish coast, you get very faulty and undetailed coast lines until the zoom level of 700 m, and this is a serious limitation for practical use of this software for yachting! If you zoom out from 0.25nm/700m level you are suddenly 5 nm at the

sea or on land at the next zoom level of 1.4km!,this makes it almost useless for

approaching / leaving a coast or harbour. It seems to be the situation of using detailed maps without a corresponding basemap.

This Problem can only be solved by adding a special Basemap to the package including more detailed coastline for these regions or using the WorldWide BaseMap.

Unfortunately the WorldWide BaseMap seems to be uncompatible with Blue Nav,loading a WorldWide Map makes the SD Card unusable for uploading other marine charts!

 

2) Concerning the PC Software: There is no "Gps Protocol" or "GPS log" function (as available in Mapsend Streets or the WorldWide BaseMap), and

there is no possibility to load down tracks from the GPSR.

So it is not possible to connect the Meridian to the Laptop and see the trackline on the screen! I think this is an other severe limitation of this charts for practical navigation. The missing possibility of downloading tracks makes it even impossible to analyze tracks offline on the Computer screen.

 

3) A number of charts are defective,(at least 10 in Norway and 1 in Greece) giving a error message "Severe Error- Data Error".

I heard from my Vendor, there will be a replacement CD in 1 month.I do hope so!

 

Conclusion: The problems mentioned above are severe limitations for practical use of these marine maps. Until this problems are solved /

corrected i think it is not worth the money.

 

HTH Ed Maurer

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After exchanging some mails with magellan support (thanks to John Kingston!)and my Vendor and testing the software for some days longer i want to give this update:

 

1) -the basemap problem in regions not covered by the default basemap: here i came to a at least partial solution:

- I had the map detail set to "low" for use with MapSend Streets,and at this zoom level the detailed map comes in at 700m; if you go to "highest" you get the detailed map at 3km (which means about 9km across the screen), so the problem with the basemap is solved at least

partially;even at the non basemap-covered regions i think this is acceptable;if you zoom out further, you get the mentioned "jump" of the

coastline up to 12 km.

So with this map system you fare best with map detail "highest".

 

-Unfortunately the WorldWide BaseMap and BlueNav work with different file formats and will not be compatible, the GPS does not have enough

processor power to deal with both at the same time correctly.

 

- 2) The missing GPS-Log function and the missing posibility to download tracks:

In the first answer from Magellan just confirmed that this is not possible,i did not yet get a definitive answer if this will be possible or is intended.I hope i can tell you about this soon!

 

- 3) Concerning the defective maps: the corrected BlueNav Version is 1.00E and should be out soon, so be sure to get this version if you

want to get it.

 

In Conclusion: 1)the missing basemap problem can be circumvented by setting map detail to highest at least partially;2)GPS log and track download are impossible, and there is no message if it is possible in the future; if this is important to you have to use other(non uploadable)maps or the WorldWideBaseMap as a partial substitute

3)the corrected Version 1.00E will be out soon.

 

HTH Ed

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