Navigation, North up vs. Course up

I've always used North up because all I have to do is move right, left, or oops, turn around. I spent some time on the water with a guy who is supposed to really know Humminbird products.

He thought Course up was the way to go. His thinking is, where you are going is always in front of you. My problem is I'm mainly a crappie fisherman, he is a bass fisherman. I'm trying to get to a dot that once I start heading to it on course up keeps continually changing.

Is Course up the way to go and I just need to keep working at it until I get it figured out or is North up better for a crappie fisherman. I understand there will be times when one or the other will work better. But overall, which way do most of you feel is best for getting on a waypoint.

I don't ever use north up. Seems crazy to me. Who cares which way is north when you are on the lake fishing? I want to see where I'm going when I'm running across the lake toward a creek 5 miles away or toward a waypoint I want to fish. I used to use course up but now HB has an orientation called heads up which is what I use now. Not sure if they just renamed course up to heads up or what. May have something to do with the new Heading Sensor GPS antennae. Not sure.

I like heading up.

Course up for me. Less confusing imo

I prefer North up

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Originally Posted by Bronson

He thought Course up was the way to go. His thinking is, where you are going is always in front of you. .

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This is actually heading up. Course up is when you are in navigation mode.

In the HB chartplotter units....

Any boat speed less than 0.6mph....the GPS antenna cannot verify movement...this is why the icon on the chart view changes to a round circle (donut)...the antenna is waiting for new information from the satillites to know which way the boat moved...

As long as the boat is moving faster than 0.6mph, the GPS antenna has enough refreshed new information from the satillites to show the icon as a "boat shape" and pointing in the direction of the "Course" (direction of travel)...

The "Course Up" setting (in this scenario of speeds greater than 0.6mph) will keep the top of the chart map related to the "Course" (direction of travel toward the top of the display)...

If the boat's travel speed drops below 0.6mph...the GPS antenna no longer has enough new info to discern movement....the boat icon will change to the donut ...and the chart map will spin to orient North (of the chart map) ...to the top of the display...

This is because the HB chart view will always default the chart map (spin the chart)...to North at the top of the display any time the GPS antenna does not detect movement...(regardless of the "Chart Orientation" setting used)...

Therefore setting the unit to "North Up" is beneficial for some fishing methods that need the boat movement to be less than 0.6mph (spider riggin)..

In this scenario (of boat movement less than 0.6mph) ...with the unit set to "North Up" ...the chart map will not "spin" to it's default "North at the top of the display"....because North on the chart map is "pinned" to the top of the display..

Even if boat is traveling in another direction (other than North on the water)....North on the chart map is stilled "pinned" to the top of the display...

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"Course Up" and "Head Up" are great for boat speeds above 0.6mph as both those settings will keep "what's in front of you" to the top of the display...(and each works the same ...except when an AS GPS HS antenna is attached)...

The "North Up" setting can be beneficial when boats speeds drop below 0.6mph to keep the chart map from spinning around ...every time the boat movement drops below 0.6mph...

Rickie

I have always preferred course up. It makes it a lot easier to zero in on a waypoint. But like Rickie said you have to increase speed a little to be accurate. 3MPH has always worked great for me.

Course up for me!!

Course of course.

I have Lowrance and wasn't thinking about how H'birds work. If I have mine set to course up and am navigating to a waypoint then as long as I stay on course then waypoint is at top of screen. If I veer off course the screen doesn't rotate. Similar to north up.

When on heading up the screen rotates as I change direction so what's in front of me is at top of screen.

I hate a map that is constantly spinning with every bobble of the boat. North up for me.

North up for me as well.

course up is easer. once you line up on wpt you get better visual on land bearings. I spend 320 days a year on a tug inland and offshore. 95% of capt`s I work with use course up. The only time we use N up is when crossing extreme current or heavy wind where the boat is being set. A heavy set will make relative and true course look as if your going to the big tree in front of you, but your true motion is taking you to the red house to starboard, it takes a few to get use to when that happens. It`s much easer to relate to the object on the plotter being of stb and when you look to stb and see it.

"Course Up" for me

I prefer to orientate my map to direction of travel. I just got a unit with a chartplotter, now I have to change or verify that setting. Great question.
Thanks,

Question if the OP doesn't mind. My Humminbirf 899 gives me three options; North-Up, Head-Up, and Course-Up.
What's the difference?

North-up is self explanatory. Head-up is your current heading, regardless of your course. If you even have a course (when moving, you always have a heading, but not necessarily a course). Course-up is predefined to a set course/waypoint, regardless of the boat's current heading. An instance of a swinging chart while underway is in the head-up mode. Hope this makes sense.

Think of the “Heading” as the direction the boat is pointing while the “Course” is the direction that the boat is actually moving in. These will normally be the same unless there is some external force acting upon the boat (wind, current, waves). Example: if your boat were drifting sideways it would be pointed (heading) in one direction but moving (course) in another direction. Unless you have a heading device (AS-GPS-HS) I would not recommend using this setting.

Thanks Tracker123 and HumminbirdGreg. Excellent information. Sounds like Course-up is what I want.

I'm a north up kinda guy. I want to be able to look at my map and find the spots out of the wind, into the wind, more sunshine, less sunshine. All that twirling around makes me dizzy.....

north for me

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Originally Posted by filletfetish

I'm a north up kinda guy. I want to be able to look at my map and find the spots out of the wind, into the wind, more sunshine, less sunshine. All that twirling around makes me dizzy.....

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x2:)