Windows 10 tablet for OPEN CPN

[jcchev]

I have Open CPN on my home PC but want to use it on the boat. I'm thinking I will obtain a Windows 10 tablet and would greatly appreciate recommendations on a good tablet to use.

[ChrisseH]

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1. Expensive, but durable and works well also in brite sunlight. My unit has the built-in GPS and the 3G module which makes it easy to use OpenCPN and download GRIB files. If price is an obstacle buy a second hand unit.

[AedanC]

We use a cheap Linx 12x64 Win 10 tablet on board. It’s held to the nav station bulkhead by Velcro has has worked fine for two seasons there. You can use it on the touch sensitive screen but it’s easier with a mouse.

[Bill O]

We purchased a win 10 2 in 1 tablet at Walmart. Think it's 11.5" screen and they don't sell it any more but here is another one that would probably work similarly. They are much cheaper now then when we purchased it.

We connect it via wifi to our below deck nav. RPi and AP below to run the AP and OCPN in the cockpit. We've used the tablet at least 3 yrs in the cockpit and no problems. Biggest pain w/the win 10 is it wants to update programing and security setting all the time and it bogs down the tablet. We do put it in airplane mode but even if you turn off the updates, it will turn them on again (to help you).

Here's our set up for the nav system and also the autopilot using pypilot.


Bill O.

[AedanC]

We turn updates off by setting the connection to metered in the spring and leave it that way till the season is over. Microsoft can still push critical updates to us but I have never known them do so. The tablet rarely goes online when we are cruising anyway.

[chuckr]

We have two that we got in Turkey and they run great. We use them only for planning and backup. For GPS we have a Hamlet Bluetooth.