Best tablet for offshore navigation

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by MV Wanderlust

My wife's new iPad 12.9" Pro (2018) model has much improved screen with great daylight visibility.

This is the one if you're looking for "best". Mine has a lightweight tpu case on the back, and is clipped on to the back of the helm console. In a real bash, spray comes over the bow and gets exactly the right angle to come around the side of the sprayhood but under the bimini at a certain angle once in a blue moon, but even when it does it hits the helm console first so only the spray that bounces off the helmsman can hit the iPad. It can cope with a little spray anyway. If we capsize I'm guessing we might have a problem, but I think we'll have bigger ones. It is infinitely better at night than a mfd. In the daytime is about the same brightness but obviously no comparison when it comes to speed, resolution, ease of use etc.

Talking about screens breaking and displays getting wet implies to me that it's not being used as a primary navigation system, just having an iPad lying around in the cockpit somewhere. That's a different situation.

[Auspicious]

We're beating up on tablets a bit, me included. It's worth backing up a step and looking at the bigger picture. In the context of "can you use a tablet for offshore navigation" (yes) the question "what is the best tablet for offshore navigation" is a reasonable question. Is it the best primary navigation? No.

Originally Posted by Snore

Offshore on long passages I turn off the MFDs and plot on paper every 3-4 hours- I can get a location from inReach, my phone (blue toothed to the inReach for messages) or I can turn stuff on.

I don't bother plotting. I just record latitude and longitude in a scratch log at change of watch. With a complete and total electronics failure I can build a DR plot. I don't need a chart, just graph paper. The chances of needing to do that--other than as an exercise--are low. On delivery, we have the electronics on the boat, my go-kit (Win 7 Pro, OpenCPN, GPS, AIS), and my phone (AquaMap). I have long range cellular data on my laptop so once I'm inside the two-bar line (tm) we're connected. My laptop also has Airmail in case we have HF/SSB/Pactor or a sat phone aboard. I have a shortwave receiver for weather fax. I see a lot of Iridium GO! so I have the apps for that on my phone. The chances of losing ship's systems, my laptop, and my phone are pretty small.

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Thread drift, but I always run my plotters offshore.

Me too. The biggest power consumer is the display so dimming that is helpful to power consumption.

My crews sail with me for a variety of reasons but "graduate school for cruising" is a common one. Radar imagery interpretation (thank you US taxpayer) is a frequent request so that is up and running, usually on the 10ish minute periodic scan.

Routing, navigation, and piloting are also of interest and since electronics are ubiquitous that is the focus.

We even have PowerPoint sessions. *grin*


Many people end up with logistics and housekeeping questions as well. I digress.


For laptops, tablets, and phones, keeping them charged reduces power consumption. My particular laptop which powers the cell, GPS, and AIS draws about 1A plugged into 12VDC with full batteries. Most phones and tablets with GPS on draw about 1/2A at 12VDC through a USB converter. Put your phone in airplane mode once you lose cell signal to reduce power consumption. GPS still works on all the devices I have worked with (really old iPhones excepted).

For me, there are too many functions I use regularly that need the laptop. I have to carry a phone. A tablet just doesn't fit much of a role with value-added beyond a larger screen than my phone. I do have an Amazon Fire 8 (a somewhat crippled Android tablet) I use for books and movies. It often doesn't make the cut on trips.

Originally Posted by Dockhead

...and I run the generator once or twice a day to keep the batteries full of the power they need, which however, is a drop in the bucket compared to the refrigeration.

Agreed. Fridge, freezer, autopilot are the big consumers. That isn't to say one should not pay attention to little loads that add up. We should.

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

Talking about screens breaking and displays getting wet implies to me that it's not being used as a primary navigation system, just having an iPad lying around in the cockpit somewhere. That's a different situation.

I agree with your premise but not your conclusion. Tablets are more fragile than MFDs, and there are more failure modes.

[wjfpc1]

Originally Posted by Tornadosailing

No specific recommendations. The Sony tablet I use is out of production, but I can tell you why I chose it, and the same would hold true if I were shopping today.

Waterproof. You're using it on a boat. I usually just wash my tablet with the dishes after it's been out at the helm with the salt spray.

Bright screen. A tablet isn't much good if you can't see it. At the time I bought the Sony it was the brightest screen on the market, barely edging out the iPad. Screen brightness is measure in nits. It can be hard to find the specs, but a daylight readable screen is necessary and without shopping every brand and taking them outside, how else can you know?

Built in GPS. I've always been an android guy, and I was surprised to find out that many iPads don't have built in GPS.

Automatic screen dimming. I recently bought a cheap android tablet as a backup and was surprised to find that it doesn't have automatic screen dimming. I had always taken this for granted, but it's not so.

One thing that's not important is battery life. Using a tablet outdoors means the screen is turned up to full brightness, and using the GPS is always a battery suck. I don't care what tablet you get, none of them have a battery that will survive very long in those conditions. Better get a Scanstrut Rokk USB charge port.

Also, I use a very simple app called Screen Filter. Even with the screen on the lowest setting, I don't know of any tablet that gets dim enough to not kill your night vision. Screen Filter fixes that.

There are many here and other places on the net who will tell you they'd never use a tablet for navigation, but I can tell you the navigation apps such as Navionics are damn good, and use the same cartography that you can buy for your plotter. In fact, my brand new Garmin plotter's "Auto Guidance" feature wanted to run me right across an island in the Florida Keys, but my tablet knew better. No single source is perfect, not even paper charts.

Interested in the model number of the Sony Tablet. Just got a 36 foot boat and do not want to drop a bunch of cash into plotter/gps etc - - - yet.

Any help you can offer is appreciated.

[ChrisJHC]

You’ll find that tablets have moved a long way in the 2 years since that was posted.

I use an iPad and obviously I’m going to recommend that.
If you do go down the iPad path then make sure you get a model with GPS as not all have it. They are more expensive but also allow you to put in a SIM card for local internet.

[Letterkenny]

Originally Posted by wjfpc1

Interested in the model number of the Sony Tablet. Just got a 36 foot boat and do not want to drop a bunch of cash into plotter/gps etc - - - yet.

Any help you can offer is appreciated.

Don’t bother, iPads are the best tablets hands down and what I would get (and am going to get a dedicated boat tablet to supplement the ones I already have) for navigation. I’d also recommend getting the garmin Bluetooth GPS module as it’s a lot more accurate than the internal one, thus, allowing you to forgo the LTE/5G version if you want.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by Letterkenny

Don’t bother, iPads are the best tablets hands down and what I would get (and am going to get a dedicated boat tablet to supplement the ones I already have) for navigation. I’d also recommend getting the garmin Bluetooth GPS module as it’s a lot more accurate than the internal one, thus, allowing you to forgo the LTE/5G version if you want.

Well, we like (love! ) our Android Galaxy TabS6 tablet. And unlike iPads, we can run OpenCPN on it (the best).

But when it comes to Android vs iPad, it's a cultural thing....

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by ChrisJHC

You’ll find that tablets have moved a long way in the 2 years since that was posted.

Many things have not changed. Displays are still not bright enough during the day, or dim enough at night. "Waterproof" is still more marketing hype than truth. Touchscreens are still suboptimal in a seaway. Screens are still fragile. Mounting systems are bulky and fragile.

Portable electronics have a lot of benefits. People who use them for primary navigation don't generally accept the large number of compromises they are making.

Originally Posted by Letterkenny

I’d also recommend getting the garmin Bluetooth GPS module as it’s a lot more accurate than the internal one, thus, allowing you to forgo the LTE/5G version if you want.

I suggest looking at alternatives. A Bad Elf Pro GPS can support up to five devices which on modern boats is appealing. Hard wire it in and don't think about battery life again. Also worth thinking about is a WiFi Gateway like those from Actisense and Digital Yacht that provide the complete NMEA navigation datastream, so AIS, wind speed & direction, depth, autopilot state, STW, SOG, rudder angle, etc. etc. etc. Obviously not redundant but a huge increase in information on distributed electronics.

What's missing in all of this, and off-topic, is a WiFi aggregator. Too many "WiFi-enabled" devices are access points (APs). I delivered one boat that I believe had eight WiFi access points on board. You needed two iPads to fuel the boat. We need a device that can be a WiFi client to multiple APs, aggregate all the data streams, and provide a single AP for access to everything. No more switching APs as well as apps. Bah!

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Many things have not changed. Displays are still not bright enough during the day, or dim enough at night. "Waterproof" is still more marketing hype than truth. Touchscreens are still suboptimal in a seaway. Screens are still fragile. Mounting systems are bulky and fragile.

You missed another important one: All those tablets and phones overheat easily when used in the sun for longer. I really like using my iPad as chart plotter, but it's for the navstation only. In the cockpit only in exceptional cases.

As to the dim-ness at night, I haven't had too many problems with this when I activate the night-mode in the software and turned down the brightness on the screen. Not perfect, but good enough.

[lockie]

I can tell you from experience what NOT to buy: a Galaxy Tab A.
A useless piece of excrement.

Cheers, Graeme

[dreadpiratk]

For what it’s worth I love my Panasonic Toughpad. Water resistant if not waterproof, viewable in direct sunlight, and ruggedized. The thing has taken a beating over the years and still looks new with no case. Prior to buying it we were breaking several cheaper tablets per season. Mine is the FZ-A1 model so old and slow compared to the newer quad core models but it does what I need, runs Navionics and Aquamap. Battery life is a good six hours and recharges in one.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by lockie

I can tell you from experience what NOT to buy: a Galaxy Tab A.
A useless piece of excrement.

??

We've used Tab As for several years, one crapped out early and was replaced under warranty. Otherwise, no particular issues, no shortcomings that we recognized.

??

-Chris

[Shrew]

I use a MFD (Raymarine) as my primary display for GPS, Radar, AIS, Etc.. I use an iPad as a secondary (backup) device for GPS and chartplotting. I'll also use the iPad to see further out, and the MFD for closer scale views.

I'd never use a tablet as a primary device for all of the negatives listed.

[wjfpc1]

Thanks for the comments - all feedback is a gift

I will eventually get a full-blown chart plotter but trying to outfit three boats at the moment (Sea Scouts). Tablet is removable and transferrable from boat to boat (Galveston Bay)

So what I missed (and why I directed to @Tornadosailing) is that I am planning to use with the

Garmin inReach Mini

with

Navionics Pro downloaded.

The Sony tablet is compatible (as are other Android versions) - not sure about the ipad models. Anyone use the Inreach?

Any further thoughts?

Thanks in advance

[sv_pelagia]

I'd reconsider Navionics.

Consider OpenCPN and official NOAA Raster charts (or their ENC vector).

No way of (easily) knowing if Navionics actually up-to-date with official charts.

Not here in Canada, at least:
https://sailing-pelagia.blogspot.com...s-are.html?m=0



Why the InReach? (Android has GPS). Emergency coms (VHF better locally/near-shore). Or tracking (OK, InReach excellent for this).

[h20man]

Another interesting option in Europe is Orca... they are attempting to go worldwide...

Not a great deal of money for what you appear to get. The included tablet is an industrial tablet that they have had adapted for their needs.


Interesting concept.. and claim all maps get updated all the time.. and if you do not renew the subscription.. it lets you keep your charts, but no updates.