Furuno NN3D chart update - April 8, 2013

[CarinaPDX]

Furuno just announced updates to the free NOAA charts in the MM3D format, for Furuno NN3D and TzTouch displays (and MaxSea Time Zero). In addition to updating the east coast and west coast vector charts they have added a new vector chart for the US Army Corps of Engineering inland river charts - good news for loopers. They have also updated all of the NOAA raster charts.

While not wishing to dampen the celebration, no word yet on the much-anticipated NN3D update.

Greg

[Paul L]

Is the chart server still dog slow? Last time I tried downloading charts it took forever to do one chart.

[CarinaPDX]

I can't tell. I just started downloading, over a 64kB/s limited connection, so the bottleneck for me is here and not the server. I am getting 64kB/s consistently.

Greg

[Paul L]

It will be one long download at 64KB/s. I'll wait till I have a fast connection before I even try. But the servers are usually so slow that it takes 1/2 a day per package or so.

[CarinaPDX]

The west coast vector chart took 3 1/2 hours @ 64kB/s.

I'll be spending some time at my brother's this week, and will have access to an ungodly fast connection (for his server farm). That should go a tad faster...

Greg

[Paul L]

Greg
How'd you figure out which charts/photos actually had updates vs what was on your system?

[CarinaPDX]

[CarinaPDX]

Aargh! I don't know what just happened but my long response was lost. Trying again...

The FurunoUSA, MapMedia, and MaxSea sites seem to handle the map catalog differently, but none of them suits me. I spent a lot of time chasing down the needed info, and keep it updated in a file which I am attaching here. The file contains a list of all the free data files for FurunoUSA MFDs; if it isn't in the file it isn't currently used. Occasionally there are changes that are more than just version numbers; e.g. US 3D data is now in the NA 3D data files (NA=North American). The only truly weird thing is that the current version 6 of the worldwide tides file is not read properly by the current version of the NN3D firmware (2.07) - so it is available from the FurunoUSA forum with the version 6 data and the version 1 name (internally and externally). This will be fixed in the long-promised NN3D update - no date available.

Please note that the last digit before the extension in the filename is the version number. This is not the same as the advertised version number. The new vector charts are version 7 (7.1) but the filenames indicate version 9. This is also true for the raster charts, but in addition one of the files has a different version number. Pay close attention to the details...

In order to manage your charts, go to the Menu screen, then Chart and Data Catalog. You will find a list of all of the installed the data files. Just compare with my list and delete the old versions, then install the new ones from an SD card. If you have v.2.07 installed you will be able to use up to 32GB SDHC card; otherwise use a 2GB SD card.

I have included an "X" to the right of every data file on the list that is installed in my MFD8. Feel free to change for your system.

Greg

[Paul L]

Greg
Not a lot of content in that first post
It is a pain to figure out what charts need updating. Your list should make things much easier, thanks. To bad they didn't implement an easy way to automate this - it would be simple to do. For me, the bigger problem is the slow servers that take forever to download - at least that was my last experience.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Greg
Not a lot of content in that first post
It is a pain to figure out what charts need updating. Your list should make things much easier, thanks. To bad they didn't implement an easy way to automate this - it would be simple to do. For me, the bigger problem is the slow servers that take forever to download - at least that was my last experience.

I updated charts a few weeks back and saturated my 25mbps home BB.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by DotDun

I updated charts a few weeks back and saturated my 25mbps home BB.

That's good to hear. I won't have a fast connection for another 6 weeks or so, then I'll try it. This was from the mapmedia site, right?

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Paul L

That's good to hear. I won't have a fast connection for another 6 weeks or so, then I'll try it. This was from the mapmedia site, right?

I assume they all come from the same place. I started at:

Products - NavNet 3D : Charts for NavNet 3D

[CarinaPDX]

Actually no. I just tried to start downloading the raster charts using the direct Furuno links and they are still not updated. Go to MapMedia Charts and wrestle with the user interface: the new files are there.

Greg