Replace GPS with Tablet + software

[s/v Jedi]

The manufacturers have chosen Ethernet and it’s wireless sibling wifi. On Jedi I have everything on wifi and Ethernet. Today I dodged coral heads by tapping a button on my iPad (dodge autopilot function in iSailor app). If I would have spent more $$$ for an iWatch, I could have controlled my autopilot from my wrist... insane

Originally Posted by Alita49DS

I wonder whether the potential game changer in all of this is not USB-C.

It radically simplifies transferring data, including video. For example from an Android phone to a screen. Or a PC to a second screen.

How long will it be before such as AIS and radar, perhaps even instruments, migrate to a thin, light, but lightening fast cable? One also capable of substantial power delivery.

Even Apple, usually years behind the technological curve, are migrating to USB-C with their latest devices.

Dream world where we get rid of proprietary, over priced connectors in exchange for a genuinely Universal Serial Bus. Universal in that just about anything can link up and exchange data complete with an integrated power backbone.

[fritzdfk]

I have an Android tablet that I mostly use as backup to a Garmin unit. I see many people mention Navionics but I have found the charts on C Map Embark to be more detailed. I have done many side by side comparisons of various locations and C Map wins. I am in Alaska.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

Good points, useful info... but it also seems to be comparing a 12-year-old thing to a new thing, and comparing a Garmin (versus almost anything else) to a new thing.

For instance, although I dunno so much about worldwide charts... adding regions and updated NOAA charts for here in the U.S. on our system is free to me... and both NOAA raster and vector charts are available (free).

I can transfer data (waypoints and such) from other devices or systems to our 10-year-old MFD (which originally came on the market in approx 2006 I think) using SD cards; newer versions of the MFD do wireless, and I think USB. (I can attach a USB keyboard to our MFD, so I assume newer versions maybe do more with a USB interface.)

Support for our MFD is still easily and quickly available, both through direct tech support and through forum.

-Chris

Chris -- you probably mentioned this already, but which brand of MFD do you guys use? Yes, I agree my chartplotter experience is quite limited brand-wise & age-wise, and so should be discounted accordingly. I also think it's fair to say that Garmin is more proprietary than others. My plotters sync with each other but are not MFDs, for example, which I don't think Garmin even made back then.

I initially chose Garmin on account of using their small 276/376 units on dirt bikes for years and putting them through hell. Couldn't believe how robust they were, surviving nonstop vibration, weather extremes, and more crashes than I like to admit. I still use my old 376c on the bikes and as a backup on the boat.

Another variable for people pondering the myriad of available choices is whether they have open/unprotected cockpits like most sailboats, incl. mine, and whether they prefer having a plotter of whatever type at the helm, i.e. directly on the binnacle in immediate reach. If so, then a single MFD at the helm with a PC & large monitor down below might be a good solution, with tablets/phones serving as backups. Best of all worlds perhaps, along with achieving the goal (if desired) of plenty of standalone redundancy.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Exile

Chris -- you probably mentioned this already, but which brand of MFD do you guys use?

Ours is a Furuno NavNET 3D 12" MFD. It's long in the tooth by now, but at the time it seemed to be best in class if the wallet could stand the $$$. I treated myself.

Dunno what might be best in class, today, haven't kept up... and haven't really found anything our old (by now) MFD won't do, that I would actually want to do... maybe aside from WiFi sharing that seems to be available on the newer versions.

-Chris

[Alita49DS]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

The manufacturers have chosen Ethernet and it’s wireless sibling wifi. On Jedi I have everything on wifi and Ethernet. Today I dodged coral heads by tapping a button on my iPad (dodge autopilot function in iSailor app). If I would have spent more $$$ for an iWatch, I could have controlled my autopilot from my wrist... insane

I am a great fan of the iSailor charts. However, how did you get the WiFi GPS and AIS data into the iPad?

My Garmin MFD outputs a WiFi signal but all I can do is use the Garmin app on the Apple tablet. I would much prefer to have the data fed into iSailor.

What I am not prepared to do is spend money and copious quantities of time on some separate piece of WiFi kit when the Garmin is already be sending out sentences and it cannot be beyond the wit of a programmer at Wartslia to write an interface.

[barnakiel]

BTW gps-able tablets here start at about USD 100 per unit.


Tablets without gps onboard will read gps via the wifi net too.



b.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Alita49DS

I am a great fan of the iSailor charts. However, how did you get the WiFi GPS and AIS data into the iPad?

My Garmin MFD outputs a WiFi signal but all I can do is use the Garmin app on the Apple tablet. I would much prefer to have the data fed into iSailor.

What I am not prepared to do is spend money and copious quantities of time on some separate piece of WiFi kit when the Garmin is already be sending out sentences and it cannot be beyond the wit of a programmer at Wartslia to write an interface.

The plotter does not send your nmea data over wifi. I think the app is more of mirror display. You need a NMEA wifi bridge. I use a Vesper AIS that can do it but there are also cheap gadgets like the Yacht Devices wifi bridge and more expensive ones like from Simrad etc.

[Pizzazz]

Best bet to get NMEA 0183 data to the tablet is via a serial to Ethernet converter ($20 on Amazon) that you plug into your WiFi router. This way you do not have multiple WiFi nets to connect to. On my boat, I have a WiFi network that connects the TV, tablet, phone, chartplotter and the Ethernet to serial converter. I am thinking of adding a second converter for the Pactor modem, so that I can access HF Winlink from the berth (too lazy to sit at the chartplotter table).

All of this gets much harder if you only have a NMEA 2K network.

USR-TCP232-302 Tiny Size Serial RS232 to Ethernet TCP IP Server Module Ethernet Converter Support DHCP/DNS https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GPGPEBM..._rgulDbTE6A1SR

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

Best bet to get NMEA 0183 data to the tablet is via a serial to Ethernet converter ($20 on Amazon) that you plug into your WiFi router. This way you do not have multiple WiFi nets to connect to. On my boat, I have a WiFi network that connects the TV, tablet, phone, chartplotter and the Ethernet to serial converter. I am thinking of adding a second converter for the Pactor modem, so that I can access HF Winlink from the berth (too lazy to sit at the chartplotter table).

All of this gets much harder if you only have a NMEA 2K network.

USR-TCP232-302 Tiny Size Serial RS232 to Ethernet TCP IP Server Module Ethernet Converter Support DHCP/DNS https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GPGPEBM..._rgulDbTE6A1SR

So how do you get a NMEA 0183 stream fast enough to hold all the data? When I was in Panama, with more than 300 AIS targets, my stream was well over 115k2 at times while the fastest 0183 port was only 38k4.
The advantage of a NMEA 2000 converter is that it can handle all the data, converts it back and forth to the 0183 sentences etc. Both the Vesper AIS and the Yacht Devices wifi bridge can attach to your boat’s wifi router in client mode so that you get it all on one network / access point. I wish they did wired Ethernet as well though...

[barnakiel]

To convert nmea data


I use a plain s/h wifi router (USD 1.00 at salvation army's)


The router needs to have a USB port and be able to run OpenWRT.


I plug a serial to usb converter into the router and connect our nmea data to the serial end.


All regular free APPs can read this stream (TCP) . NavCharts APPP does, qtvlm does, OpenCPN does, and my own AIS radar and Collision Avoidance APP also does.


Some proprietary APPs will read only data from their own wifi hardware. This is how they believe they make more money. Stupid in my eye but smart move according to their accountant.


So the spectrum of nmea to wifi bridges is huge from free home built units to $$ proprietary units.


AIS nmea overload : at 100+ ships there is still no overload, but I noticed my AIS App does slow down (possibly only because our tablet is old and has relatively slow one core proc).



Cheers,
b.

[moseriw]

Replace Chart Plotter at any time a big YES. Buy 2 or 3 2in1 Tablets and seal one water and airtight for security reasons.

BUT it is NOT a good Idea to replace GPS! Mobile GPS is homing in on the positions of the radio senders too and gives a terrible accurate position. As long as you are in reach of them.

Best way is to have two alternate GPS Systems on board.
I have one fully independend and very old Furuno GPS Navigator
AND A New VesperMarine 8000 AIS with WLAN and connected the Navbusses to it.
Best thing I ever had.


The WLAN is solved with a TP-Link MR3020 which connects to my mobile hotspot.
And of Course the 2in1 Tablet connects to the MR3020 as does the AIS-WLAN and everything is fine.

[Safari38LH]

Navigating is to important to rely on something that could easily break or get ruined by water. Yes, I use a iPad for some stuff, but would never give up my stand alone chart plotters, one at the Nav and another at the helm. BTW, Navionics is terrible in the Bahamas as they do not have Explorer data, which is the Bahamas standard. Navionics has also tried to take me over land in the Canadian Maritimes - luckily I have eyes. My overall confidence level with them is about 50%.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Hahser

My GPS has packed up and I remember I had a crew member who brought along a laptop loaded with Navionics software.

It struck me that rather than replace the GPS I could by a tablet.

I note there are brackets and waterproof casings so it could be mounted easily in the right place.

The Navionics was better than my (rather old) Garmin - which was unrepairable.

Cost of replacement about 800 euro cost of Tablet system about 400.
Anyone comment on doing it this way?

Thanks
Hahser

The answer depends on your use. If you are a day sailor, short distance cruiser your plan is probably OK.

We are full time cruisers, live aboard. We have several GPS devices including one in the IPAD with Navionics and one in the Simrad chart plotter. We consider both essential. If either failed, it would mean fixin’ it now. Three times last season the boat bower quit. The IPAD made things safe while we sorted out the problem. The chart plotter is used constantly under way to run the autopilot and for the pilot to know what’s happening. Without its GPS there is no autopilot. The IPAD can be used independently for planning without bothering the Simrad.

We also have a primary AIS Watchmate 850 and secondary as part of the Standard Horizon 2200. Each has its own GPS. There are a couple more GPS devices on odd electronics. I could network some of the device signals but I prefer keeping them independent.

[mhsprang]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

So how do you get a NMEA 0183 stream fast enough to hold all the data? When I was in Panama, with more than 300 AIS targets, my stream was well over 115k2 at times while the fastest 0183 port was only 38k4.
The advantage of a NMEA 2000 converter is that it can handle all the data, converts it back and forth to the 0183 sentences etc. Both the Vesper AIS and the Yacht Devices wifi bridge can attach to your boat’s wifi router in client mode so that you get it all on one network / access point. I wish they did wired Ethernet as well though...

A MiniPlex-3E-N2K would do that job just fine. 4 x NMEA 0183 in, 2 x NMEA 0183 out, NMEA 2000 in/out and an Ethernet port to connect to an existing router. The device also converts back and forth between 0182 and 2000. The Ethernet port talks 0183.
ShipModul Marine Electronics

[moseriw]

So What?


https://www.coastwatersports.co.uk/a...s-p-14099.html

This and a tablet is about 270 USD. A good plotter 1200++