NOORDERSOFT
Frequently asked questions about PC-Navigo
The functions of PC-Navigo:
Is PC-Navigo suitable to replace other navigation software?
What is the difference between a voyage planner and a navigation chart?
Does PC-Navigo take things like current, lock delays and dense traffic into consideration?
Where do the data in PC-Navigo come from?
How frequently are the PC-Navigo data updated?
How do Notices to Skippers and stoppages get into the computer?
How can PC-Navigo calculate different time schedules for commercial barges and leisure boats?
Does PC-Navigo Europe contain the same detail as the versions for one specific country?
Solutions for bugs and flaws in PC-Navigo:
I don't seem to be able to receive dedicated "Notices to Skippers" with a route I have uploaded.
The dongle (copy protection key) flashes and PC-Navigo doesn't work. What is wrong?
Can I use different versions of PC-Navigo on the same computer?
PC-Navigo and other nautical software:
Tips and tricks for the use of PC-Navigo:
(Please consult the tips and tricks of the makers and other users of PC-Navigo)
Is PC-Navigo suitable to replace other navigation software?
Yes! Since the publication of the ENC chart viewer in PC-Navigo it is: PC-Navigowas originally developed as a voyage planner, designed to calculate the shortest or fastest connection between two or more points along the waterways. It presents the distance that is to be covered and the time it will take to travel this distance. All details along the route can be represented by PC-Navigo.
To allow the use of REAL nautical charts, the ENC viewer in PC-Navigo has been developed: the same voyage planner, but equipped with a built in chart viewer that reads Inland ECDIS nautical charts (ENC's), the highest standard of vector based navigation charts in the world. The ENC-module used to be an extension to the "ordinary" PC-Navigo but it is now available in all PC-Navigo versions. If the zoom factor exceeds a certain value, the chart image is automatically replaced by the detailed ENC. See also the page with an explanation of the difference between VP and ENC.
As a voyage planner, PC-Navigo may best be compared with a car navigation system like TomTom: a route from origin to destination is calculated, and while underway, the computer keeps checking whether or not one should amend the route. The practice is of course much more complicated on the water than on the road: the dimensions of the boat play an important role, and so do locks and bridges that need to be operated. All these matters are taken into account by PC-Navigo, even current velocities, lock cycle times and other possible delays.
As a chart viewer, PC-Navigo shows you the detailed charts of the stretch of river or canal you're in, allowing you to "see your boat move through the Electronic Navigation Chart by means of your GPS position.
What is the difference between a voyage planner and a navigation chart?
In short: a voyage planner presents relatively rude data, but over a very long distance; a nautical chart program provides data of a very limited area, but in extremely large detail. For more on this difference, click here.
Does PC-Navigo take things like current, lock delays and dense traffic into consideration?
Yes it does. The progress of a boat is calculated based on : cruising speed, possible speed limits in parts of the route, effects of current direction and current velocity, lock cycle times, average delays at locks, operating schedules of locks and bridges (if they need to be opened: if a boat can pass under a closed bridge, operation is NOT considered). Traffic density and the effects of extreme flows in rivers (both above and below average) can be set by the user.
Where do the data in PC-Navigo come from?
There are 40 different waterway authority bodies in Europe, providing us with data. These are usually enhanced and completed by means of our own reconnaissance, of data from books, guides, atlasses and pictures, areal photography, and observations of the many thousands of users that navigate with our software. Since a few years the Electronic Nautical Charts have been added to our sources. In those areas where these ENC's are available for free, their data content is copied into PC-Navigo in total.
Every area of which NO data are available, is filled in by means of areal photography and satellite pictures, from which a minimal data set is derived; local investigation of dimensions and other relevant basic data completes this way of data collection.
The Electronic Nautical Chart files that have been incorporated in PC-Navigo ENCsince 2007 are made available by the waterway authorities because of a directive which is published by the European Union, obliging the member states to provide these files for all waterways of Class IV or higher. In the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Czechia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Rumania these ENC files are available free of charges; in some other countries (e.g. Germany) they can be bought. NoorderSoft corrects, updates and completes this coverage by adding all the waterways that were not included in the official data. No ENC exist so far in France and the UK.
How frequently are the PC-Navigo data updated?
The data files of NoorderSoft are revised at least once every year and made available to users in a version and data update. The files are kept up to date by NoorderSoft on a DAILY basis, amongst others by meticulous checks of all notices and messages distributed by the various waterway authorities all over Europe.
How do Notices to Skippers and stoppages get into the computer?
The so called dynamic data (obstructions, stoppages, urgent notices) are assembled daily. To make them available to PC-Navigo users, a (free) connection to our servers sends these data in encoded form to the local program: a simple click on <Options> and <Download obstructions> updates the computer so that it can take all stoppages into account.
The other notices and messages - the less urgent ones- can be imported via the same server, based on a ready voyage plan: such a plan is used as a selection tool, to select just those messages that have an impact on the planned route, leaving out all the many other messages about other (irrelevant) regions. This service is available for all countries that publish their notices and messages in the european standard for these services.
How can PC-Navigo calculate different time schedules for commercial barges and leisure boats?
The operating schedules in PC-Navigo contain both the hours for commercial craft and for leisure boaters. If a user identifies a boat as leisure boat, these schedules are checked for only those hours during which leisure boats are let through. Thus a calculation of possible delays can be made for every lock and bridge on the route.
Does PC-Navigo Europe contain the same detail as the versions for one specific country?
Yes, the amount of detail in the data sets is the same, regardless of the version and coverage. The larger versions (in particular Greater Europe) may take a bit more time to process some of the queries. The only difference in data density is between PC-Navigo VP and PC-Navigo ENC: the latter contains the extremely detailed Electronic Nautical Charts.
How often are the noticies and stoppages updated?
The message services of all European waterway authorities are browsed daily by NoorderSoft. If one or more of these messages contain stoppages or obstructions, these are put on the servers immediately. The other messages are checked for announced changes in the infrastructure (new bridges, modified operating schedules etc.) and used to keep the basic data accurate.
Some authorities publish notices daily (Netherlands, UK, France) others weekly (Belgium), some monthly.
Traditionally NoorderSoft allows users to extend to versions with a larger coverage for the price difference between te two versions. If a user has a version for France and wants to extend it to Europe, the price difference of 250 euros is what he pays. To extend an (older) VP version to a current standard version including the ENC viewer (part of the standard version as off 2010), the price difference is 95 euros ABOVE the update rate.
I don't seem to be able to receive dedicated "Notices to Skippers" with a route I have uploaded.
As of 21-9 a new server was installed to broadcast the dedicated notices to skippers. The old server broke down, so it was replaced and relocated to Ray-sur-Saône. To receive the dedicated notices to skippers your computer must send the voyage plan to a different server address: 212.234.125.53: 9081.
If your want to modify these settings automatically, you may download and execute a little patch program from www.noordersoft.com/patch1-2009.exe. After you've done this, the settings of your programm will correspond to the new server and the service will work normally.
Stoppages can be received without any problem: these come from another server.
As descibed in the manual the ENC charts do not appear immediately. Only when one has zoomed in pretty far, the chart "switches" to the ENC. This must prevent the overload of your computer when many ENC files have to be read all at once (one cell may be as large as 5 Mb.
If you own an ENC-version and you zoom in into an area where ENC coverage is available (for example the Scheldt estuary) you will see grey squares appearing in the overview chart. These squares indicate the ENC coverage. Zooming in even more leads to the switching of your screen to the ENC detailed chart, in which you can see depth areas, buoys, beacons and traffic signs, amongst other things.
But even as the ENC has become visible, not all of its details are: the charts are scale dependant: the further you zoom in, the more details come in sight. If you want to switch this scale dependancy off, you may do so in the ENC-SETTINGS menu.
If no chart is visible even after zooming in very far, this can have several causes:
The dongle (copy protection key) flashes and PC-Navigo doesn't work. What is wrong?
If the dongle and its drivers are installed properly, the "led" (the little green light) in the tip of the dongle must be on. If the dongle light flashes, it means the drivers are not correctly installed. PC-Navigo will not start up. To repair this, you click on <START> and than on <PROGRAMS>. You search for <PC-NAVIGO 2010> (or <PC-NAVIGO 2009 or 2008> if you have a previous version) and click on it. One of the options is <Install or repair dongle drivers>. You take the dongle out of its connector and click on this option; after the installation process, you re-insert the dongle and you check if the "led" is now lit continuously. If so, the problem is solved and you can use PC-Navigo again.
You can also perform this correction directly by downloading the necessary driver from our web site with the link www.noordersoft.com/instdrv.exe (or in case of a 64 bits operating system: www.noordersoft.com/instdrv64.exe). Execute the downloaded file or save it somewhere and doubleclick on the file name. If the problem remains after you have executed this action, you may want to contact our help desk
If the dongle light isn't lit at all, you click on <START> and than on <PROGRAMS>. You search for <PC-NAVIGO 2010> or <PC-NAVIGO 2009 or 2008> and click on it. One of the options is <Dongle info and update>. If you click on this with the dongle in its connection, you can see if the dongle is recognised by the computer. If this is NOT the case, there's another failure. You can then try to download and execute the driver installation file as described above. If this does NOT solve the problem you'll have to contact our helpdesk.
To allow the GPS to communicate with PC-Navigo the GPS signals must be fed into the program according to a certain protocol. To make things work correctly, the GPS must first of all be CONNECTED to one of the usb ports of the computer; second, the GPS must be WORKING and BROADCASTING (which will often take a few minutes after the GPS was switched on) and it must be able to RECEIVE SATELLITE SIGNALS (which may NOT be the case if it's used indoors!). Check these three things first.
The GPS signal must be tuned and matched with the receiving computer: the signal must be received via the right com port and in the right baud rate. And the stop bits, data bits and parity must be matched. By using the AUTOMATIC CONNECTION TO GPS function in PC-Navigo, the tuning process is correctly carried out and registered. As soon as the connection is established, you can see "raw data" pass through the GPS data field.
If this doesn't happen; you may need to check if your GPS broadcasts the correct NMEA rule: this must be set at "RMC" (see the manual of your GPS receiver).
Can I use different versions of PC-Navigo on the same computer?
No, the various versions of PC-Navigo need different dongles and to avoid conflicts, more than one version shouldn't be installed on a computer. It wouldn't be usefull either, since two versions (e.g. Germany and France) already cost more than the combined version of Western Europe. If you want to enlarge the coverage, the solution will be to replace your existing coverage by a larger one.
Is PC-Navigo always free of errors?
Of course not: PC-Navigo contains 2,5 million data, all collected from many different sources. Making mistakes is human. And NoorderSoft relies on many specialists and experts in many different countries. So bugs and errors in the data are inevitable.
Apart from this chance of errors, there's another reason for users of PC-Navigo to be alert: the market for software like PC-Navigo is very small, so extensive testing and checking will always be more limited than, let's say, in Microsoft's new operating systems. We simply cannot open "a can of engineers" to exclude all possible bugs and mistakes. PC-Navigo as "tailot-made software" is therefore more vulnerable than programs with a much larger market.
This being said, we still strive for an optimum in the reliability of the software and the data it contains. We therefore invite you to make all found bugs, errors or mistakes known via feedback@noordersoft.com, so that we can make sure the bug or error is dealt with.
If your version contains bugs and errors that have been reported to us already, you can check if your "version build" is older than the version build of the last patch (repair program). You find the version build in the menu "Help", submenu "Info": at the bottom of the text box you see the version and build number (e.g. 2009.x.1.0 or 2009.x.1.1 etcetera). If this number is older than the build number of the last patch version on the help desk page, you can download the right patch and repair your software yourself.
How to download and install this patch is explained on the helpdesk-page. You will also find a list of the bugs and errors that were reported and fixed since the first publication of version 2009. Some of these you can even fix without the patch.
Is PC-Navigo compatible with other nautical programs?
Not with all of those. PC-Navigo uses its own data format and calculation algorithms. The exchange of these data with other programs requires a standard and compatibility of the data. Most nautical programs work with a less sophisticated data model and with raster chart data. PC-Navigo uses all agreed standards for River Information Services in Europe, including the vector chart based Inland ECDIS standard for the nautical charts. PC-Navigo can also exchange Notices to Skippers and other River Information Services with the authorities.
Many software programs for navigation used in commercial shipping use these standards too. In some of these programs a PC-Navigo voyage planning module has been incorporated, while others (Tempomate Fuel Saver, Radar Pilot 720 Integrated Navigation Chart and Radar, BICS and IVS90) exchange data in agreed protocols. The introduction of River Information Services will enhance these possibilities in the coming years.
Often the hardware will cause problems, though: in most computers a GPS signal - for example - can only be used by one application at the time. To split this signal, extra software such as a "virtuaplex splitter" is needed to share one signal.
Tips and tricks for the use of PC-Navigo: