Tablets for cruising

[Panope]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Is there no app for Android that uses Navionics or Garmin charts?

I just got a Nexus 7 (android) and put Navionics on it. For $15 I got all of US and Canada. They even included all of the sea of Cortez and Baja.

I downloaded the entire circumference of the North American continent (including the NW passage) and the entire eastern half of the states (so I can check out the river system). All of this data consumed only about 5 gigs of memory.

GPS (real, not cell network based) is internal and works good even in my metal roofed pilot house (near a window).

Very happy so far.

Steve

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Panope

I just got a Nexus 7 (android) and put Navionics on it. For $15 I got all of US and Canada. They even included all of the sea of Cortez and Baja.

I downloaded the entire circumference of the North American continent (including the NW passage) and the entire eastern half of the states (so I can check out the river system). All of this data consumed only about 5 gigs of memory.

GPS (real, not cell network based) is internal and works good even in my metal roofed pilot house (near a window).

Very happy so far.

Steve

So that must be true for the Samsung Galaxy too. Does Navonics show the complete North and South Pacific?

[Panope]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

So that must be true for the Samsung Galaxy too. Does Navonics show the complete North and South Pacific?

The basic download (base-map) includes the whole world. I guess this would be acceptable for open ocean as there is little need for accurate detail of plain old water.

The package they sell for Africa and Asia ($39) includes most of the Islands of the South Pacific. Hawaii area is covered by the U.S. package.

Steve

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Panope

The basic download (base-map) includes the whole world. I guess this would be acceptable for open ocean as there is little need for accurate detail of plain old water.

The package they sell for Africa and Asia ($39) includes most of the Islands of the South Pacific. Hawaii area is covered by the U.S. package.

Steve

Cool Steve...Thanx. One thing I can't seem to obtain from anyone is the amp draw (average) on a Tablet. Do you know? My plane is to get one of the weather resistant covers for the Tablet I get and have it under the hard dodger in fair to good weather. I would make a fold down carrier for it that swung down from the roof of the dodger.

[Panope]

OK. I just hopped out of bed with this tablet and plugged it into Panope's inverter (boat is in my driveway). I saw about 6 tenths of an amp draw weather the tablet was in sleep mode or ON with the anchor alarm running (power hog) and full screen brightness. The tablets battery was half charged so I assume that once charged the power draw in sleep mode will be next to nothing and when powerd up will be something less than 1/2 amp.

Also, the wall wart charger device says output is 5.2 volts and 1.35 amps. The math works out to be about a half an amp at 12 volts. Nice when reality matches theory.

Steve

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Cool Steve...Thanx. One thing I can't seem to obtain from anyone is the amp draw (average) on a Tablet. Do you know? My plane is to get one of the weather resistant covers for the Tablet I get and have it under the hard dodger in fair to good weather. I would make a fold down carrier for it that swung down from the roof of the dodger.

My waterproof sony xperia pulls under half an amp when fully charged. It's completely transformed computer use onboard. Longer term plan is to have it talking to a Raspberry Pi running Opencpn.

Sent from my SGP312 using Tapatalk

[StuM]

Originally Posted by gcaskew

Moist tablets don't have true GPS, only the ones that have 3/4G ability with a wireless carrier.

On the contrary, just about every Android tablet has "true" GPS.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by conachair

My waterproof sony xperia pulls under half an amp when fully charged. It's completely transformed computer use onboard. Longer term plan is to have it talking to a Raspberry Pi running Opencpn.

Sent from my SGP312 using Tapatalk

Is this the same one?
http://www.biztechmagazine.com/artic...android-tablet
Sony Xperia Tablet Z SGP311U1 - tablet - Android 4.1 16 GB - - SGP311U1/B - Tablets - CDW.com

[conachair]

S

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Is this the same one?
Sony Xperia Tablet Z SGP311U1 - tablet - Android 4.1 16 GB - - SGP311U1/B - Tablets - CDW.com

That's the one, though I went for 32Gb. Was about 400ukp in Hong Kong last summer. Android 4.3 now. With wifi now and again and everything in Dropbox or Google drive it's not quite so important anymore for many things what machine you use.

Edit. Might even be a fraction under 0.5A, I'll check when I get back onboard. Great camera for a tablet as well.

Sent from my SGP312 using Tapatalk

[chuckr]

we are in the med now after crossing over last may -- be back in the usa to visit family in a few weeks and want to pick up a tablet to use as a back up for our chartplotter - currently we use a acer laptop with opencpn on it and an external gps
we also use our laptop with airmail for gribs wx - and internet for other wx

so our requirement would be a tablet that we can keep at the helm that has an input for an external gps and will handle opencpn -- without being constantly plugged in to a power supply

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by chuckr

we are in the med now after crossing over last may -- be back in the usa to visit family in a few weeks and want to pick up a tablet to use as a back up for our chartplotter - currently we use a acer laptop with opencpn on it and an external gps
we also use our laptop with airmail for gribs wx - and internet for other wx

so our requirement would be a tablet that we can keep at the helm that has an input for an external gps and will handle opencpn -- without being constantly plugged in to a power supply

Your requirements are incompatible with a tablet. They fit better with a PC. OpenCPN is a PC program, made to run on some tablets but that doesn't make it optimal.

If you're willing to use different software and internal GPS, then a tablet becomes the best choice.

[svseachange]

We have a ASUS Transformer T100A with Windows 8.1. It's a tablet but also a laptop. Battery life and power consumption is tablet-like and functionality is PC-like. The trick is to get a 12V adapter from PWR+.

We also have an iPad and two Samsung 7s but the Transformer is the allrounder. Runs Open CPN snd zyGrib. Best of both worlds.

But I do not use it at the tiller... prefer a deficated, foolproof, weatherproof Garmin chartplotter.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by shanedennis

We have a ASUS Transformer T100A with Windows 8.1. It's a tablet but also a laptop. Battery life and power consumption is tablet-like and functionality is PC-like. The trick is to get a 12V adapter from PWR+.

We also have an iPad and two Samsung 7s but the Transformer is the allrounder. Runs Open CPN snd zyGrib. Best of both worlds.

But I do not use it at the tiller... prefer a deficated, foolproof, weatherproof Garmin chartplotter.

What, exactly is the draw of the ASUA?

[Fouz]

Originally Posted by chuckr

we are in the med now after crossing over last may -- be back in the usa to visit family in a few weeks and want to pick up a tablet to use as a back up for our chartplotter - currently we use a acer laptop with opencpn on it and an external gps
we also use our laptop with airmail for gribs wx - and internet for other wx

so our requirement would be a tablet that we can keep at the helm that has an input for an external gps and will handle opencpn -- without being constantly plugged in to a power supply

You can get a tablet that has full windows 8 and do what you want. There are a lot to choose from.

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

What, exactly is the draw of the ASUA?

I am not exactly sure, but it rarely seems to use more than 1 A. The USB charger is rated at 2A max. Non ASUS USB chargers do not work (I tried several).

The battery life is up to 12 hours.

Compared to my laptop power usage is negligible and battery life is very long. I only plug it in when I suspect my solar is generaring excess power.