How far are we away from 100% iPad / PC navigation?

[sinbad7]

r

As I mentioned in an earlier thread,I like to have access to BOTH worlds,all my old Windows based nav paraphanelia located safely on my laptop below,linked over LAN to my Galaxy 10.1 tab in the cockpit where I can have full control of my favourite OpenCPN nav software and others using TeamViewer. Alternatively,I also have several good nav apps on my droid which all accept standard. kap charts I can download from my laptop as and when needed.

To keep the tab safe,you can either get the special,finger sensitive,transparent wallets,or
keep it safe in a transparent,waterproof box,using a bluetooth mouse in a plastic bag.

I have also paired my tab with my smartphone using an app which allows me to receive and send SMS messages over the GSM network.

Nothing is perfect,but as an experienced sailor you also use your immagination!!!

Tore

[endoftheroad]

I'd like my ipad to send me an email to my phone to let me know if my boat is taking on water while at her mooring. Or a picture of an intruder.

[bstreep]

Why would you need a plastic bag or a mouse in a bag?

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by endoftheroad

I'd like my ipad to send me an email to my phone to let me know if my boat is taking on water while at her mooring. Or a picture of an intruder.

The former is reasonably easy to do. There are modules available for just this purpose. It is not as silly as it sounds for piece of mind in the marina. The photo is also possible, but more difficult
Of more interest to me is an SMS if the boat drags. I have not used it yet, but most tablets, smartphones will do this now and the software only costs a couple of dollars. The only drawback is you need to leave your phone on the yacht and most of the time I am away I want it with me.

[rabbi]

Our setup on a Lagoon 410 for a 1 year trip in the Med ad Caribbean:
A 15inch touchscreen computer Asus ET1602 loaded with OpenCPN, CM93 charts, satphone software, grib viewers, etc at the nav station. It has never seen any salt or spray and has worked flawlessly. Eats about 1.5-2 Amps, under 1 Amp if the screen is switched off.

Because of a near-miss lightning strike that blew out our old radome we had a brand new Raymarine C90w MFD cartplotter / radar. Eats about 1.5 Amp if radar is switched completely off.
I would have moved the later one out to the helm but had no good place to mount it permanently and did not like the removable bracket mount (someone could "find" a new chartplotter in 20sec).

Both are fully integrated with the NMEA instruments and AIS.

It turns out that we used the c90w only when in need for radar during the atlantic crossing for squall monitoring.
For everything else the PC wins every time. The touchscreen is not a good choice but the mouse makes things so much easier than the chartplotter.

Starting the chartplotter takes quite long. Every time it eats lots of juice to warm up the radar even though we don't want to use radar. You can't easily switch off the screen to reduce it's power consumption (which is the main draw). You can't put it to sleep and wake it up when needed.
The PC is different: You fire it up and put it to sleep within 5 seconds. You can switch off the monitor to reduce power consumption and turn it on only when needed.

As a helm solution we had a waterproof Android phone (Motorola Defy) loaded with Navionics charts and GPS essentials. Honestly that one was the one we used most. It was basically always on, as the power consumption was not even clearly measureable. Maybe 200mA.


All had the same position accuracy and little difference in details. The CM93 had a bit less detail but the Navionics charts placed two caribbean bays wrong, we were sailing over land on both devices.

In addition we had a number of GPS devices integrated in other mobiles and the satphones, an additional netbook with GPS mouse, etc. So plenty of backups, plus a little solar emergency charger which could charge any of them. So very little chance that we could fail completely.

Unless GPS was shut down. Then I would just point to the west and hope for the best.

Paper charts were only present in terms of large scale charts to visualize passage progress. We had a few sheets of paper with GPS waypoints like entrances to ports we could approach for shelter along the coastlines, or other noteworthy areas. Just in case our charting failed but GPS was still there.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by bstreep

Why would you need a plastic bag or a mouse in a bag?

Not every tablet is an iPad. Google for "outdoor tablet" and you will find a number of reasonably waterproof tablets.

[Heritage]

[QUOTE=Annie in WA;1121067] Do you attach it to the pedestal somehow or put it on a cockpit seat and pick it up to check it out? Do you enclose it in a waterproof protection cover (which one?) in the cockpit, then put it in a shock-proof cover when you have it down below?

Annie
Check out http://www.rammount.com/NewProducts/.../Default.aspx:)

[simonpickard]

Hiya,

Just wanted to post this regarding waterproofing iDevices. Seems very cool..

Liquipel 2.0 nanocoating debuts with improved water protection, matches IPX7 and beyond (video)

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

The two companies that should be worried are Raymarine and Garmin. They have both been superseded by PCs. iPads are Ok but without the mouse they are pretty useless.
See how fast you can plot a course, adjust a route, etc on OpenCpn on a PC and then try it on IPad, or chart plotter. PC wins hands down.

Companies facing bankruptcy due to bad products can remain in business for years... FLIR has just bought Raymarine so with its injection of cash Raymarine might survive for ages...
Commercial reality wil head for the PCs And Androids.... Not necessarily iPads. Android can change, iPad is set in its ways of refusing third party software, peripherals etc like a mouse.

IPads battery life means one could do the whole Atlantic without recharging if necessary!

I any event we are looking forward to an exciting future! The next ten years will shake the industry out into some wonderful, cheaper, more safer, more accurate products, easy to use and that let us explore more areas acurately and safely.

Viva Progress!

But regular marine MFD's are nothing but computers anyway. I think these days they are a terrific value; in fact I can't quite imagine how they are making money.

I just bought (pre-ordered) a B&G Zeus T8 MFD and it was only just over $2000. That's, what? A computer, with a ruggedized daylight visible 8" touchscreen ($$$). Hard drive. Stabilized power supply which takes 9v -- 36v. A bunch of ports including ethernet, N2K, USB. A set of NMEA0183 ports with multiplexing/bridging capability. And very cool, very expensive to develop software that does all kinds of things, chart plotting, radar, graphing, pilot control, instruments, etc., etc., etc. All in a beautiful, IP-whatever waterproof, cast aluminum case ($$$).

Is that expensive compared to a $500 IPad? Not at all, for what you get. I bet the margins are actually much thinner than on the commodity IPad. And if you don't want to pay that much, there is the slightly less functional and slightly smaller Simrad NSS7 which you could have gotten for under $1000 before New Year's (and probably will be on sale again in the Spring). To my mind, that is an unbelievable value.

If you don't want a boat network with instruments etc. (say you have simple standalone wind, depth, and speed), if you don't have radar, and all you need is a chart plotter, then the IPad works ok, although I don't like INavX nearly as much as Mark does. But it is a delicate domestic commodity appliance not too well adapted to outdoor much less marine environments. It wouldn't be that hard to make something like the IPad but in a rugged, waterproof case. And with a high-NIT, daylight visible screen. And with a touchscreen that works when wet. With some extra keys to make is more usable. But what would that device cost? By the time you do all of that to it, it's going to cost about the same as a regular marine MFD.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

One of the advantages of devices like the iPad is total independence.
It has its own GPS, battery supply, and maps.
Loading the maps is no great problem. A couple of hours at an Internet cafe will see the whole the Europe downloaled for about $70. After this you don't need any further Internet, or phone connection.

+1

Which makes it an awesome backup device, no question about that. I've had an IPad with INavX for this purpose for a couple of years already. As old school as I am concerning navigation (never go anywhere without paper charts of the area, and still know my chartwork), I have nevertheless become quite dependent on chart plotting and would not want to navigate a tricky or unfamiliar area without it. Feels great to have that totally independent backup in case everything else goes t*ts up.

[Annie in WA]

So, I'm getting used to my new Ipad in preparation for using it as navigation on the boat. I happened to notice that my ipad is magnetic on the left-hand side with the screen facing me. None of the other edges are magnetic. I don't know if this would be an issue using it or mounting it next to the cockpit compass but I thought I would bring it up. Has anyone else noticed this?

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Annie in WA

So, I'm getting used to my new Ipad in preparation for using it as navigation on the boat. I happened to notice that my ipad is magnetic on the left-hand side with the screen facing me. None of the other edges are magnetic. I don't know if this would be an issue using it or mounting it next to the cockpit compass but I thought I would bring it up. Has anyone else noticed this?

Magnets near magnetic compasses are bad.

One of my colleagues had a student who could not get the same reading from an hand bearing compass as others. He had a magnetic clip-ons for sunglasses.

I sail one boat on which the chartplotter is beside a compass. Fortunately there are twin steering stations.

[endoftheroad]

The magnet in the speaker in your ipad is bad for the compass.
Try putting a device such as a handheld vhf near the compass and you will see.

[Tar34]

Actually there are a series of magnets along one side of the iPad. These are used to secure an iPad cover. I imagine mounted close enough to a compass could affect it's accuracy. Simple enough to determine how much though.

[jackdale]

Any ferrous metal will affect a compass. Some items labeled stainless steel, such as a multitool, actually are ferrous. DC current can also be a problem.