TZ Touch 3 & Satellite Imagery

[capdave]

I'm in the South Pacific now where the charts have multiple deficiencies in many locations, and most people supplement them with satellite imagery. The typical setup I see is people use OpenCPN on a laptop or Android tablet with MBTiles from Google Earth and other satellite imagery sources. These are used standalone and also overlaid on purchased charts on the device. I've seen this setup on multiple other boats now.

I have a pair of TZT12F MFDs on my boat, with a variety of purchased charts. But the purchased satellite imagery just doesn't work at all. The images are very low resolution, or fuzzy, or otherwise useless. Why is this so?? How do I get useful satellite imagery into my MFDs??

It seems really silly to have 2 X $3,000 plotters that can't do what a $300 Android tablet can do.

 

[Johnny Electron]

Have you tried loading some of the free high resolution sat photos that are available in some areas? Below around Hawaii for example. What comes with the navigation charts are normal medium to low resolution.

While the machines are subject to using MapMedia files there are some better options depending on the in question. Newer systems like XL have moved into more integrated mapping (TZMaps) that is easier to ensure integrity. Laying sat photos on terrain requires some invisible terrain 3D files and in the multilayer charting can be more complex than what one might think. For MM3 type mapping systems there are some areas more limited than others and if wanting TZMap type options the machines can be setup with something like iBoat and integrated in the system.

There have been threads about MM3 and the newer TZMaps. We are not going to rehash all that again. TZT2 and TZT3 don't have the horsepower or memory to manage the new TZ Maps. It just wasn't possible to do. It is possible to use I-boat or run TZT3/TZTXL mixed systems depending on the need.