Tablet based electronics - Page 2

beamishken · 12 February 2020, 22:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Last Tango

Never used them on their own. Used in conjunction with Open CPN and Navionics on the Lawrance all well adequate for point to point navigation or "marina hoping".

There was, at last count, over 500 anchorages/harbours covered in detail with Antares and in reality most locations you might head for on the west of Scotland is likely to be covered. In terms of operating in a small area, it's relative, I would rarely do more than 150mls in a day but even at that we've been to every populated island off the west coast of Scotland except Barra and visiting places like Loch Teacuis and the head of Loch Hourn was a lot easier with Antares.
As I said, I wouldn't advocate using a tablet or laptop as a substitute for a plotter but there is no technical reason that a plotter couldn't run third-party charts as well eg. inland lochs. (Navionic's Loch Lomond is very basic and I don't think the Garmin recognises it at all.)
For some reason they allow additional charts to be loaded on handheld plotters but not fixed ones so this isn't a technical issue.

Ok I misunderstood, thought you meant using antares only
We have toured with another boat who had antares & a raymarine we had garmin & it didnt make much difference to be honest I couldnt see that the antares gave him much advantage over the detail we had.
I guess the first manufacturer who makes a plotter compatible with any chart format & able to switch from one to another will be on a winner

HDAV · 16 February 2020, 21:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fender

I currently use Navionics gold and thinks its great software - and as pointed out already in this thread, tablets etc in sunlight are next to useless

Soon they won’t be....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Last Tango

Not an advocate of tablets either. Personally I don't like touch screens.

While I agree to an extent it is inevitable........ you may not like streaming music and prefer cds too

Water is the biggest issue with touch screens as they get confused but different tech will likely solve that.

Garmin et al will have to get on board or be usurped or they aren’t bothered about the leisure market and won’t care they loose out on it....

Fender · 17 February 2020, 12:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by HDAV

Soon they won’t be....

Why is that?

HDAV · 17 February 2020, 18:01

OLED displays work well in sunlight much better than traditional lcd panels....

Last Tango · 18 February 2020, 21:00

One of the other issues I had with the "Laptop" solution that would also roll over to tablets is the limited internal battery capacity meant it had to be charged during use and connecting it compromised the waterproof integrity. I had sort of got round this with sealant but it wasn't pretty.
Any "cross-over solution" would have to incorporate a waterproof charging connector.

craig_c · 18 February 2020, 21:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Last Tango

One of the other issues I had with the "Laptop" solution that would also roll over to tablets is the limited internal battery capacity meant it had to be charged during use and connecting it compromised the waterproof integrity. I had sort of got round this with sealant but it wasn't pretty.
Any "cross-over solution" would have to incorporate a waterproof charging connector.

I think these things are great back ups and I do have similar on my phone and always take my ipad just incase also but I cant be bothered with more batteries and notifications.

In my opinion a decent old plotter will be far more reliable than something that's not nailed down. There are Raytheon plotters that are 20 years old and still work perfectly. I opened one up last week and there was not a single bit of corrosion or any issues with it. How many laptops are 20 years old. laptops are for ebay and ribnet, not navigating in the fog.

HDAV · 19 February 2020, 14:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Last Tango

Any "cross-over solution" would have to incorporate a waterproof charging connector.

Wireless inductive charging has taken care of the issues already

Callum B · 24 February 2020, 19:36

Hi gav,
Ive swallowed 2 gps nav systems, neither lasted more than 3 years....so i cheaped out on the raster charts and software from "visit my harbour"..... its not as fully functional as a gps plotter, but i find it more than adequate for my needs. I have it on my android phone, and tablet...... and its cheap as chips.....i think about £30 for the whole of the uk.
The software is called "marine navigator"....

Callum B · 24 February 2020, 19:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gav03830

I'm new to the forum, had loads of questions and have managed to find most of the answers already, so many thanks.

I bought a rib the tail end of last year, and whilst I'm already thinking of going a bit bigger, I'm looking at mods I'd like as I'll probably keep the boat for this season at least.

I've been looking into just this subject over the past couple of days. My boat has a Mariner 60 EFI with just the basic RPM and trim gauges. I was looking at having more engine info, either fed into the fitted Garmin 451s or standalone gauges but was put off with the cost of both. I've just bought a vessel view mobile so I can get the engine data to my phone. But now I'm thinking i could use a tablet on board for Navionics charts and engine data, keeping the Garmin as a depth sounder and back up plotter. I have the same software on phone and tablet so have an extra back up. My phone and old phone are both IP68 rate(I've tested this) so apart from screen not working quite so well when damp water should not been an issue. As for screen brightness, whilst I agree that mobile devices might not be as bright as that of a plotter, I use both my phone and plotter for Skydemon navigation when I'm flying in an open cockpit(my other hobby) and have never had a problem with brightness.

Sorry.....my reply was posted at the end of the thread!!.... still got the "L" plates on...

Gav03830 · 24 February 2020, 20:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Callum B

Sorry.....my reply was posted at the end of the thread!!.... still got the "L" plates on...

Hi Callum. I've already got the Garmin plotter so anything I buy is an extra. I'll need to use the phone for engine data so I can keep running my Navionics to see how that goes.

I use Furuno and JRC ECDIS in my day job and to be honest, I find the clarity of the Navionics mapping to be far better, even when using on a 6" phone screen. I'm pretty much decided that I want to go up to a 6m(ish) boat so no point spending a fortune on this one.