Furuno Ecdis importing ENC

Honest Question: Do you like navigating on paperless ships ?

I am not usually a betting man, but I’d wager that you love sailing on paperless ships. It makes the navigation so much easier.

More than navigation, it makes the tedious process of correction of paper charts less cumbersome.

I am big fan of ECDIS and I believe that our Industry need to expediate in producing more advanced navigation data.

By more advanced data I mean, where all the correction to the ENCs would be possible with just one click. The navigators will then concentrate more on something that they are suppose to do: NAVIGATION.

But while we wait for the advanced data amagement for ECDIS, we must know the present ECDIS procedures.

Right now the process involves more than few clicks,instead it is a process.

I have earlier written about importing ENCs for JRC ECDIS. And I wanted to cover more makes of the ECDIS.

So in this post I will cover the process of ordering ENCs  using Chartco and then installing it on Furuno ECDIS.

Let us start !!!

Step 1:  Know what ENCs you require for your Voyage

The first step is to shortlist the ENCs that you would require for your next voyage.

Let us assume that right now the ship is at Jubail. The next voyage is to Singapore. And we need to check & order the ENCs for this voyage.

For this open the Chartco, passage manager and click on the Start-Main menu.

Chartco Start menu

Choose “Routes and Passages” options from the menu items.

Routes and passages in chartco options

Input the “From” and “To” ports and click on “Calculate Route/Distance”.

route entry chartco

This would give you the route for the voyage (in our example route from Jubail to Singapore).

select route on Chartco

Now from the right panel, tick the ENCs starting with “Berthing”, then “Harbour” and then moving upwards.

If you select all the ENCs together or if you start from “overview” and move downwards, it would be difficult to identify large scale ENCs. In this case there would be chances of missing to order ENCs.

Now say I select “Berthing” and then “Harbour”. Now I can see ENCs which are on my voyage.

The cells (ENCs) which we already have, will be shaded as green. So we do not need to order these ENCs.

Select ENC in Chartco

The cells (ENCs) which we do not have will be shaded red and these are the one that we need to order.

Once we have identified the ENCs that are on our voyage and shaded red, select the ENCs by single click on it. The selcted ENC will have the yellow border.

Now we need to add these ENCs to the basket. To do that either

  • right click, choose “add to basket” and then “Highlighted products”. Or
  • Just click on the “Add selected products to basket”

Add ENC to Basket in Chartco

Follow same procedure with all th ENCs you require by clicking on “Approach”, “Coastal”, “General” and “Overview” ENCs.

ENC scale information in Chartco

Once you have added all the required ENCs to the basket, the summary of ENCs added to the basket will show at the bottom of the screen.

Select all the ENCs in the basket and click on “Create order”.

ENC basket order summary in Chartco

This will open up a pop up. You can either click on “Export” or just “Ok”. Clicking on export will save the order file at a location choosen by you. Clicking on “Ok” will also save the order in chartco.

create ENC order in Chartco

Let us say we click on Export. It will prompt us for a location to save the files. We can save these files in a folder on desktop.

We have now created an order or ENCs from the chartco.

Step 2: Send the ENC request to your ENC provider

Once you have selected the ENCs required for your voyage, you can request those ENCs from your ENC provider.

To do that, just email the order files saved from the Chartco.  Follow your company procedures of sending these file. Let us say you can send request the ENCs directly from the supplier.

Then send a request for ENCs to the supplier by email and the request files as attachment.

email to ENC provider

If it is not weekend, you should receive the email containing ENC permit for the requested ENCs.

email from ENC Provider

Step 3: Import the ENCs to the ECDIS

Now you have received what you wanted. The permit file for the required ENCs.

The next step is to import this into your Furuno ecdis. To do that first extract the zip file received from the ENC provider.

Copy the permit folder into a USB flash drive.

Go to ECDIS and insert the USB flash drive in the ECDIS USB slot.

Furuno ECDIS USB Slot for ENC

 

Now on Furuno ECDIS,  click the “Chart” tab. Now click on the “Chart” tab. Then go to “Licences” on the left menu bar.

Furuno ECDIS click on Chart & License option

This will open the License status of all the ENCs installed in the ECDIS.

Click on “Install License”

Install ENC License on Furuno ECDIS

 

Choose the path to the USB and then to the “permit.txt” file.

permit.txt file for ECDIS ENC

This would install the ENC permit into the ECDIS.

Installed ENC permit on Furuno ECDIS

You have now installed the ENCs into your ECDIS successfully. But that alone is not enough. You need to follow the next steps too.

Step 4: Update the permit in Chartco

We have loaded new ENCs in the ECDIS. We need to update the new ENCs in the Chartco inventory. This is important as chartco inventory of ENCs need to match with actual ENCs we have in the ECDIS.

To do that, insert the same USB drive containing permit file in the chartco computer.

Go to ENC outfit through Home -> ENC -> Outfit.

To update the permits in the chartco, click on the “Import from permit” tab at the bottom right of the screen.

Import ENC permit to Chartco

Specify the permit folder (in the USB drive) and import the file into the chartco.

Import ENC from permit into Chartco

This will import the ENCs into the chartco and the inventory of ENCs is updated in the chartco.

Cells imported into chartco

Step 5: Check the status of the Cells

Now that we have installed the new ENCs into your Furuno ECDIS, we need to check the correction status of the cells.

For that while being in the “Chart” mode, click on the “Cell Status” option on left menu bar.

cell status in Furuno ECDIS

This will show the status of each cells. The status can be viewed as text and also by color coding in the displayed world map.

status of ENCs on Furuno ECDIS

If all the ENCs are up to date and are coloured green, that is good. If not we must follow the next steps to update the ENCs with all the valid corrections.

Even if the ENCs are updated, it is recommended to follow the next steps.

Step 6: Load the latest base cell DVD

Now that ENCs are installed in the ECDIS, we need to apply the latest base cell DVD that ship has.

To do that, insert the DVD into the DVD drive of the ECDIS.

Click Auto-Load and choose the DVD location from DVD drive.

It will update the base cells of the new ENCs to the week of the DVD.

Step 7: Collect the corrections from the Chartco

The base DVD that we applied to the ECDIS also comes with the corrections. But usually the base DVD will not be of the latest week.

For example the base DVD on board could be of week 06/2017 where as the latest week may be 17/2017.

When we applied the base DVD 06/2017 to ECDIS, we have

  • Corrected the newly installed ENCs upto week 06/2017, and
  • updated the new edition of any base cells of newly installed ENCs

We now have to correct these ENCs to the latest week, 17/2017. And by correcting I mean,

  • Weekly corrections upto week 17/2017, and
  • Update the base cell of any of these ENCs, which has the new edition issued after week 06/2017

If any of the base cell has a new edition, a message will be displyed after importing permit into the Chartco (As per step 4).

Base cell pop up in chartco

If you do not have the recommended disk, you need to download the base cells. I will come to that in a few minutes.

For now, let us collect the corrections from chartco. To do that,

Go to Home -> ENC -> choose “Corrections” option from the right menu bar.

This will show you the pending corrections for the ENCs. From the bottom of the screen, click “Collect and transfer to ECDIS”.

collect correction from chartco to transfer to ECDIS

Now if there are any ENCs that has new editions, it will show you a pop up for that.

accept cells pop up on Chartco

Once you click OK, it will take you to the notice area. This notice area will show you the detail of the ENCs for which new edition (new base cell) is released.

Accept new edition in chartco

Now you will see “Accept” tab at the bottom of this notice area. Accepting this tab means that

  • we are telling chartco that ECDIS is already updated with latest base cells of these ENCs,
  • if not, we can choose to accept and then download the base cells for these ENCs

Even when you click on “accept”, it will give you a warning pop up.

accept new edition in chartco

When you click “Ok”, it will give you an option to download the base cells.

If the chartco computer is connected to the internet, it will download the base cells right away.

But if this process is through the email client like “Outlook”, clicking on download will send the request for base cells through email.

For this make sure that before you click on “Download”, the email client (for example outlook) is open on chartco computer.

In this case you need to wait for the email from the chartco server containing the requested base cells.

email with base cell data for chartco

Once you have received the email, click on the “check for new update” from the home screen of chartco. This will get the chartco to import the base cells from the email.

Now you have the base cells and few corrections that need to be transferred to the ECDIS.

And since now you have downloaded the required ENCs base cells, you can again click on “Collect and transfer to ECDIS” from the corrections tab on chartco.

Choose the location (USB drive) of saving these corrections and then click “Write to Media”.

apply correction to ECDIS

Once you have saved it to the USB drive, the corrections are ready to be applied to the ECDIS.

Step 8: Apply the corrections and base cells to the ECDIS

We are now into the final step. We need to apply the collected base cells and corrections to the ECDIS.

To do that, connect the USB drive to the ECDIS.

Go to Chart -> Auto Load

Point it to the USB drive and then click OK. All the base cells and corrections in the USB will be applied to the ECDIS.

Conclusion

I agree that getting new ENCs into the ECDIS and then correcting these should not be a tedious process. It should just happen in few clicks.

As the technology is reaching on the ship, that would be reality soon. But till then we must know the exact procedure of receiving new ENCs and updating these to latest corrections.

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Capt Rajeev Jassal

About Capt Rajeev Jassal

Capt. Rajeev Jassal has sailed for over 24 years mainly on crude oil, product and chemical tankers. He holds MBA in shipping & Logistics degree from London. He has done extensive research on quantitatively measuring Safety culture onboard and safety climate ashore which he believes is the most important element for safer shipping.

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16 Comments

Jie
Jie
6 years before

Really excellent sir, I am a cadet . I never see my officer request cell permit for JRC ECDIS but he just insert usb flash to ECDIS then go chart portfolio,click “CHART” then C-MAP Ed. 3 then “UPDATE CHART”,after click “PRESS CREATE CHART UPDATE ORDER TO SEND VIA E-MAIL”and select“Zone 0”to create the file and send it to UPDATES@C-MAP.NO.The procedure looks like totally different with yours. Kindly advise,Sir. Thank you

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
6 years before

Jie, this post on Chartco with Furuno ECDIS. Looks like your ship has JRC ECDIS and C-Map for which this post will not be applicable.

Ramachandran Madhaiyan
Ramachandran Madhaiyan
6 years before

Dear sir could you explain the same procedure for MARIS ecdis with MBA (master bridge assistant ) software since iam a new officer

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
6 years before

I will try to get my hands on MARIS ECDIS with MBA software..

Razvan
Razvan
6 years before

Thank you Captain for your hard work and good explanations. Hope to see more. This is what seamen need, cooperation and learning easy to understand. Best wishes!

Michael
Michael
6 years before

Sir your blog is so informative that learned so much. In my case we have a Maris Ecdis installed onboard and Cmap provider, I appreciate very much if you can also discuss or send me an email regarding the step by step to ordering and correcting charts on Maris ECDIS.

IGOR
IGOR
6 years before

Dear sir, thank you for your good explanation. Can you provide us with some instructions regarding navigational planning steps on FURUNO ECDIS. Kind regards

Aleksander
Aleksander
6 years before

Sir, your article is marvelous. In the era where each equipment on bridge has a strange and hard-to-read manual, I find your guides extremely useful. Making such comprehensive guide must be difficult and time consuming, and so I am truly grateful that you took your time to share your vast knowledge with me and other seafarers. Best Regards.

Casmudi
Casmudi
6 years before

Dear Captain, this article is good, your explanation is very clear, i like it, so i excited to learn what is modern navigation equipment, i am radio officer before and finished joint on board ship 2001. Best/regards.

Samy elgendy
Samy elgendy
5 years before

Realy it is very useful and I follow this procedure to update furuno ecdis with navtor permit but when I updated i get this message on ecdis ( Install_permits: try again later (must receive sync). What can i do to update this week also i made again sync for navtor and still have the same with ecdis

JItender
JItender
5 years before

Dear Capt Rajeev. It is very nice to see you are sharing even the minute information and sharing your good knowledge which I think is extremely beneficial to juniors who are not taught well in institutes and by their superiors on board. You are doing a very good job. Best regards Capt Jitender

Subramani
Subramani
5 years before

Great article sir. Topic: Updating BASE DVD You mentioned Step 1: update permit Step 2 : update Base DVD Step 3 : update to the latest week ( did you mean every weekly correction week 7/17, 8/17, 9/17, 10/17, and so on till week 17/2017 ???? ) I think you can load the latest weekly correction directly after the base DVD of week 6/2017. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you sir

kulunu rewatha sathkumara
kulunu rewatha sathkumara
3 years before

I am using navtor service... as per the explain abive procedure i have import the licenses... but sime of my charts still showing permit available chart not installed... i have done auto import... but still same situation... what could be the reasone sir...?

Mel
Mel
3 years before

I've been a follower to your page sir and you never fail to amaze me on how you share all these amazing informations that can be easily understood . Thank You sir .

Phyo Htun
Phyo Htun
2 years before

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledges.

George Cherian
George Cherian
2 years before

Very informative sir!! But how do i know my charts are updated to present week?? As enc status report before and after up date shows up to date. Incase I want to show a psc inspector on the ecdis what week it is updated to. How do i do that??

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