EarthNC

Mac GPS Installation & Use

EarthNC — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:24:40 +0000

Follow these steps to get your Mac set up to use the EarthNC USGlobalsat BU-353 in Google Earth:

1. Download the Mac BU-353 Drive from USGlobalSat

2. Open the mac_os_universal_binary_driver.zip file, this will create a mac_os_universal_binary_driver folder on your desktop

3. Open the mac_os_universal_binary_driver folder and click twice on PL2303_1.2.1.dmg to mount the driver installation

4. Open the PL2303 Driver virtual drive mounted in step 3 and run the PL2303_1.2.1.pgk file it contains. This will open a standard Mac install program and step you through the GPS driver install.

5. Connect the BU-353 USB GPS to your Mac

6. Download gpsdX

7. Open gpdsX.dmg.gz which will create a gpdsX.dmg file on your desktop. Click on this file to mount the install virtual dirve gpsdX. Open this drive and run the gpsdX Install package.

8. Download gps2geX

9. Double click on the gps2geX.tgz file to extract the gps2geX program to your desktop.

To Configure and Use gps2geX:
1. Ensure your BU-353 is plugged into your compter
2. Open the gpsdX Configuration utility in Go – Applications
3. Select dev/tty.usbserial from the drop down list and click on the ‘Select and Start’ button

4. Click on gps2geX on your desktop to run gps2gex
5. Click on ‘Start gps2ge’ after which you should see location text in the status window
6. Click on ‘open KML file’ which will start Google Earth if needed and add a GPS Link into your Temporary Places menu
7. Click on the checkbox beside ‘GPS Link’ in the Google Earth temporary places menu to display your position

8. You can adjust the icon, track color, and follow altitude in the ‘Settings’ menu of gps2geX

Erie Islands, Sandusky Bay Maps, Charts, and Weather

EarthNC — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:48:43 +0000

The Erie Islands and Sandusky are the most active boating area on the Great Lakes and feature the most boats per capita in the USA. This area is rich in history and featured large during the War of 1812 and the naval battles around Put-In-Bay Island. For modern day adventure, Cedar Point Amusement Park offers one of the best collections roller-coasters in the world.

Explore Put-In-Bay, Sandusky Bay, Catawba Island, Kellys Island and the surrounding waters of Lake Erie with our free interactive nautical map. Zoom in and local marine charts showing depths, channels, and other features will load automatically. Click on the ‘View Full Screen’ link for additional options including weather (buoys, airports, marine forecasts) in the ‘Nearby’ menu and a route making tool for drawing and saving your own trip. Use the Map Search bar to find marine businesses, hotels, or other locations.

Tampa Bay Map, Charts, Weather and Tides

EarthNC — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:51:30 +0000

A crossroads of waterways large and small. The greater Tampa Bay area has something to offer every type of boater.

Explore Tampa Bay with our free interactive nautical map. Zoom in and local marine charts showing depths, channels, and other features will load automatically. Click on the ‘View Full Screen’ link for additional options including weather (buoys, airports, marine forecasts) and tide lookup in the ‘Nearby’ menu and a route making tool for drawing and saving your own trip. Use the Map Search bar to find marine businesses, hotels, or other locations.

Chesapeake Bay Map, Charts, Weather, and Tides

EarthNC — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:44:46 +0000

The most prolific boating area on the Central Atlantic Coast, water on Chesapeake Bay ranges from large to small, and shallow to deep.

Explore Chesapeake Bay with our free interactive nautical map. Zoom in and local marine charts showing depths, channels, and other features will load automatically. Click on the ‘View Full Screen’ link for additional options including weather (buoys, airports, marine forecasts) and tide lookup in the ‘Nearby’ menu and a route making tool for drawing and saving your own trip. Use the Map Search bar to find marine businesses, hotels, or other locations.

Introducing the EarthNC Online Chart Viewer

EarthNC — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:48:05 +0000

View any chart in seconds with the new EarthNC Online Chart Viewer!
Combining the power of Google Maps, EarthNC data, and NOAA Raster and Vector charts, the EarthNC chart viewer provides ready access to important boating information. You can view charts in a ’seamless’ mode or select a specific NOAA chart number for a given area.

When using a supported browser (Firefox 3.5, Safari, Chrome), the EarthNC Chart Viewer will request permission to estimate your location to initialize the map view. Changing locations is a simple matter of panning the map or using the built-in map search tool to jump to a different city or zipcode. Map search can also be used to find nearby businesses, restaurants, hotels, or other features.

Try the EarthNC Chart Viewer

Bookmark and share your favorite spots by creating custom ‘Map Links’ or choose the ‘Embed Map’ option to get code to paste the Chart Viewer into your own website or blog.

More than just charts, the EarthNC Chart Viewer includes ‘Nearby’ and ‘Routing’ tools. The Nearby menu will show NOAA Weather Buoy, FAA Airport Weather, Marine Forecasts, and 3 day Tide Predictions near any map location. The Routing tool lets you draw a custom route on top of the map and save it to GPX, Google Earth KML, or PDF format for later use.

We’ll be releasing new features for the chart viewer in the future including a dedicated Mobile version for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, and other operating systems.

Gulf of Mexico Lease Block Charts

EarthNC — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:02:50 +0000

Lease Block charts are a common tool for offshore fishing.

Our new EarthNC Chartviewer features the full set of Gulf Lease Block charts for free online viewing. Here are direct links to each of the charts:

- Chart 1113A – Lease Block for Havana to Tampa Bay
- Chart 1114A – Lease Block for Tampa to Cape San Blas
- Chart 1115A – Lease Block for Cape St George to the Mississippi Passes
- Chart 1116A – Lease Block for the Mississippi River to Galveston
- Chart 1117A – Lease Block Galveston to the Rio Grande

Use our Route Maker tool under ‘Routing’ to generate waypoints you can export to KML, GPX, or a print out.

For offline use with GPS integration, EarthNC offers a full set of lease block charts for Google Earth on our EartNC Raster Southest DVD. Most offline users will also want our EarthNC Plus vector charts and GooPs Pro GPS to Google Earth software. The EarthNC Plus vector charts include charted pipelines and offshore platforms which are also great resources for finding fish.

NOAA Chart Notices

EarthNC — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:31:16 +0000

Quickly find pending NOAA nautical chart changes with the EarthNC NOAA Chart Notices layer. Chart notices include additions, deletions, and changes to NOAA Raster Charts (RNC) since the previous print edition and are organized by Chart Number. The EarthNC Chart Notices layer is updated nightly to reflect the most recent information available from NOAA for the entire Raster Chart catalog.
While NOAA Notices do include changes from Local Notices to Mariners, they are not a substitution for LNMs and should not be treated as an official source for charting and should be used in accordance with the NOAA disclaimer found in the Google Earth file.

Using the Chart Notice Layer

Download the EarthNC Chart Notice Index Map into Google Earth
Find the Chart Desired (by default only harbor and approach chart scales are displayed, enable other scales by checking its visibility box in the Google Earth ‘Places’ menu)
Click on the () icon to see the total number of notices for this chart and to see the ‘View’ links
Click on the ‘Click to View Chart Notices’ link in the chart pop-up window. This will load notices for the selected chart into Google Earth. If saved to ‘My Places’ this overlay will automatically refresh daily. If you need to use the notices without an internet connection, use the ‘download’ link instead – but this link will not refresh.

Legend and Usage Notes
Notices have four principle types:
Change (non-position) – Changes in an object’s label, note, etc… but not to its position

Move – The charted object has moved from a previous location to the one at the location of the chart notice

Addition – A new object that was not previously in the chart

Deletion – The given object has been removed from the chart

2009 ABWA Bowlegs Poker Run

EarthNC — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:31:36 +0000

As part of our new ‘Event Map’ capability, we’ve posted an interactive map for the 2009 ABWA Billy Bowlegs Poker Run to be held May 16th in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The Bowlegs Poker Run is a fun run suitable for any power boat comfortable on coastal, inshore waters.

View the Map

Do you have a boating event you’d like to promote? Contact Us for information on how to get your own featured map.

Tahina Sets Sail with EarthNC Onboard

EarthNC — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:38:38 +0000

Long time EarthNC advocate Frank Taylor sets sail this summer with his wife Karen on a 5 year circumnavigation. As the author for the Google Earth Blog, Frank is of course planning to both use Google Earth extensively during his trip, but also share his trip including maps, photos, videos, and more at his new blog www.TahinaExpedition.com.

EarthNC will be providing US and Bahamas charts for his trip as well as our Premium Weather Service of global ocean weather maps and forecasts for Google Earth. We’ll also be helping Frank with the maps on his blog and hope to meet up with him and Karen during their trip.

Here’s Frank’s 1st draft of the circumnavigation plan:

USS Oriskany and Other 3D Ocean Models

EarthNC — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:27:51 +0000

Quickly following up on their new 3D Ocean Floor in Google Earth 5.0, Google has been populating the ocean with a unique set of 3D models of famous shipwrecks, reefs, and other objects. To tour these models, you can open the 3D Ocean Models Tour.

Near and dear to EarthNC’s heart is the included model for the USS Oriskany Aircraft Carrier that was sunk off the coast of Northwest Florida in May of 2006. We watched the sinking 1st hand from our 28′ Regal cruiser 27 miles offshore from our home port of Fort Walton Beach Florida. Our coverage of the sinking was the first major story of our new boating blog DestinSharks.com and eventually led to the founding of EarthNC two years ago to market Nautical Products for Google Earth.

To commemorate the new 3D Oriskany model, we’ve published our own special Sinking of the USS Oriskany KML file for Google Earth. Our KML includes the embedded video of the sinking, the ‘official’ location of the Oriskany as provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and our boat’s GPS track while filming.

If you plan to visit the USS Oriskany by boat, we recommend you not use the 3D model location as it appears to be off by nearly a mile from the published location. The model is quite realistic, but has a couple of minor errors. The hangar elevators where removed prior to sinking and the large radar dome on the aft island superstructure floated free during the sinking.