Furuno MaxSea Software

No Hurry · 01-27-2006, 12:13 PM

Has anybody had any expeience with this software Furuno is pushing to use with the Navnet system. I'm very interested and have read everything I could find on the internet, but I wanted to hear from someone that had actually used it (or at least seen a demo).

Thanks,
No Hurry

DeadAnt · 01-30-2006, 03:36 PM

The software is quite good and is far more configurable than a normal GPS. The track feature is a beauty in that it records not only your position but also the temp, depth and any othe rinfo you want. By clicking on the track it displays all this information. The personal bathy generator is good but you need ot have a great sounder suitable for the depth you are fishing. Make sure you have a good screen to use it with. I imagine that Furuno will be adding a depth sounder screen shortly but probably via Navnet. A black box sounder would really make it a great product.
Cheers
DeadAnt

originalsin · 01-30-2006, 04:15 PM

I would like to know the same thing concerning the GP7000F unit. Is the MaxSea software the CPU system that I would use to transfer data to my unit or would I use something else?

Wildfish · 01-31-2006, 09:18 AM

Quote:

originalsin - 1/31/2006 5:15 AM

I would like to know the same thing concerning the GP7000F unit. Is the MaxSea software the CPU system that I would use to transfer data to my unit or would I use something else?

MaxSea is a PC based software plotting program and available as stand-alone plotter with GPS and sounder input or as a fully networked "add-on" to NavNet vx2. Regardless you'll still need a PC or laptop to run it. I've played with the stand-alone version and I was very impressed. The user had built up a huge data base of PBG (personal bathy data) and it is viewed in an awsome 3D format. If you have the space it's probably the best fishing tool available IMHO

No Hurry · 01-31-2006, 05:53 PM

Thanks for the responses guys, I plan on using a laptop networked with the Navnet2 system. A specific question I have is regarding the detail received with when using the PBG software. In all of the advertisements it shows the underwater landscape as huge canons and ridges. I want to be able to identify and record wrecks and debris that might not have much relief from the bottom. I will be using the software in less than 300 feet of water and most of the area that I fish is smooth bottom except for wrecks and coral. I'm hoping the sensitivity of the 2D/3D PBG will recognize changes in the lanscape of a few feet. If it will, I'm going to purchase it, but if it only records major changes in the contours of the sea floor I'm not. Do you guys know if it is as sensitive as I hope?

By the way I have a M260 transducer, so I shouldn't have any problems regarding equipment.

Another question I have is will the software record an allow playback of the bottom machine display (Like the high end lowrance machines will do)?

Thanks for the input.

Wildfish · 02-02-2006, 01:14 AM

One good feature of the 3D image is that you can "exaggerate" the bottom profile by simply selecting a different scale in the "up/down" plane. In other word a small bump or drop-off on the ocean floor can be zoomed to really exaggerate its profile.

As for "playback mode" the PBG is a constant update of your bathy data so everytime you go go out it is recording the bathy data and making it more accurate. So using "playback" is as easy as moving your cursor around the chart and seeing all the data, even from your lounge room! Once the data is there it's stored in the MaxSea file on your PC (as 3D bathy data) and so long as you have that view switched on you can view or "playback" as you wish.

DeadAnt · 02-09-2006, 04:29 PM

No hurry,
The PBG works really well as long as the conditions are quite good and should pick up the features you're looking for. It may take a bit of playing with the settings to get it just right though. We recently tried mapping an area that was 1000m deep and had some problems as the swell was reasonably large and we occasionlly lost the bottom.
You will probably want to set which beam is being used to generate the bathy ie 200khz of 50 khz. I thinnk you get better defintion off the narrow beam and will make plotting momre accurate. The other setting is the tide offset. This uses the closest tide station and adjusts the depth accordingly. Over a couple of trips at different tide marks you can gauge whether this is accurate by looking the output.
We use is primarily for looking at significant structures which aren't on the CMap but are on the Bathy's. By using the bathys to navigate you can develop your own 3d images. Coastguard and NOAA also has information in XYZ format which can be imported into the PBG to form a baseline for some area's of the US. Searching through NOAA is no easy task but if you have a particular place in mind it gets easier.
Cheers
DeadAnt

tito1231 · 11-02-2009, 01:25 AM

Im new in forum so....hi from Greece everybody
I have some questions about maxsea
First is about the conection sounder - pc(for pbg) .. nmea out directly to rs232 ?? or i need somekind of adaptor ,multiplexer etc?????
Second anyone use it with raymarine ?? i have the c-80 and dsm300(black box)

cravenMH · 11-03-2009, 04:59 AM

There are two versions of Max Sea software for Furuno's Navnets. One is for the vx2 and another is for Navnet 3d. Make sure you get the right one.