Updating data on Raymarine chart plotters just got easier. A recent partnership between Navionics and Raymarine has solved a problem users have encountered when using wireless devices and Wi-Fi-enabled multifunction displays.
Navionics’ contemporary cartography and Raymarine’s latest MFD operating system are designed to harness a Raymarine MFD’s ability to access the Internet via Wi-Fi or a wireless device’s hotspot, as well as the app’s ability to go online (via Wi-Fi or a cellular connection) and download the latest chart updates. Navionics’ new feature, Plotter Sync, allows your phone or tablet — running the Navionics Boating app — to automatically seek out Navionics cartography updates, which it pushes to your MFD via an electronic handshake over the MFD’s Wi-Fi network. Users can also purchase and download new charts via their device and then share this new data with their MFD using Plotter Sync.
Waypoints, routes and sonar logs can easily be shared between your MFD and your phone or tablet, adding serious trip-planning flexibility. For example, users can download cartography or updates to their mobile device at home — over their fast and robust Wi-Fi network — plan a cruise, and then step aboard and quickly share this data with their MFD’s hard drive.
Raymarine’s U.S. marketing manager, Jim McGowan, says Raymarine’s latest MFDs are “smart,” meaning they can determine which pieces of a download they already have and which pieces are needed. Depending on how up-to-date the MFD and other Raymarine systems are, the MFD can download specific pieces of the modular updates in order to use less data.
Navionics president Giuseppe Carnevali says the company offered Plotter Sync to all of the major marine-electronics manufacturers, but only Raymarine has embraced this capability, at least so far, and both he and McGowan are quick to point out that this is by no means an exclusive partnership.
For coastal cruisers, Plotter Sync represents an important missing link between an MFD and the Internet that makes it easier to manage electronic cartography, route planning and software updates.
