PC & AIS

We have an AIS transponder on board. Have problems with my RayMarine PC software where it does not talk well directly with the AIS box. RayMarine tells me the software was meant to read images from a display and not interpret the AIS data directly to the PC.
SO, Were transmitting our MMSI and ships data. With my laptop plugged in, I can see any nearby vessels on a list (spread sheet), not any plotter or chart graphics. From this list, I can reason threats.
Not a woo during the day but at night off shore, I want to ensure everybody is on a same page. So far, all has been cool this way.
One night last year a VHF call came in from a research boat 10 miles away and ask if I could give a wide pass. He saw me on his AIS coming his way. That was easy and was happy things worked so well. Gave him 2 miles and he was happy. Another good AIS story.

I'm still happy with my 10KW Pathfinder & RL80 displays. I went with the HSB2 I/O and have all DSM, charts and radar functions on two 17" displays. The E120s are still to expensive to go for yet though they would fix most of my problems.

I'm looking for a cheap charting/PC system that can show AIS data against a chart or plotter screen.

Been experimenting with the freebees that are not free. Send money to a foreign site to enable the full function.

Anybody out there using an AIS transponder straight to a PC and offers plotter or chart overlays?

Would luv to hear from you.
Thx,
rc

Old RL80 (Pathfinder) was not designed to handle any AIS info.

Thx,
rc

I'm still HSB2 & SeaTalk 1, there is nothing to network from.

I'm also still a caveman on my own boat with poor budget & vision. While relaxing, I do not want to squint down to a little tablet when I have two 17" displays next to me to read things from.

Thx for your thoughts.

Comar CSB200.

I found it on the web. I have not tried it yet. After trying a few freebees before this one, I lost patience and posted this thread.
Have you or anybody tried it yet?

I did try the OpenCPN charting program Sunday on my old GoBook.
Surprisingly, it started working pretty fair. After downloading some newer ECNs and fine tuning some chart display setups, it got better than fair.
Seems stable with not much system memory or disk paging room. Latest Norton AV did not have any problems.

Unless someone points out another product, I will be loading and installing this on my ships Nav computer next weekend. Hopefully it plays well with RNS.
I will be using it next to RNS until I figure out the future of my limited HSB2 stuff.

I am shopping for one or two E120s (cheap). Next step for me on our S GA (cheap) budget.