Replace GPS with Tablet + software

[GordMay]

A true sunlight readable display is normally considered to be an LCD with at least 1,000 nits of screen brightness (where one nit is equal to one candela per meter squared; cd/m2), and a contrast ratio greater than 5 to 1.

[s/v Jedi]

Check out YachtDevices they have a wifi bridge as well. Mine burned out in seconds but they sent a new one next day.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Exile

The newer tablets are apparently much better resolution-wise, and therefore easier to see in bright sunlight. No first-hand confirmation but I am contemplating buying a new one (iPad Pro or Android equivalent) mainly for this reason (and the reviews I've read).

Wouldn't hold my breath. One of our Androids is new, and one is almost new. Both are better than the old one, not better enough to change what I said.

Maybe look to buy from someplace like BestBuy, actually go there, ask the clerk to bring it outside for you to test...

-Chris

[Mediator]

Originally Posted by alctel

It works even when it's pouring rain and is visible even in bright sunlight. And I don't have to worry about charging it.

In regards to charging tablets, we have a 12v cigarette outlet in the cockpit that we use to keep the iPad fully charged. We also have portable battery packs that will run the iPad for about 24 hours.

Even if you don’t use a tablet, I would recommend installing a 12v plug in the cockpit. They are so useful for charging phones, handheld VHF, spotlights, etc. Only $10 from Defender

[olaf hart]

We have navionics on our iPads and iPhones, just make sure you have a model with a gps.

Recently I picked up a Lenovo 8” tablet, they don’t have a sim slot but they do have a gps. Cost me $40 on sale, they are around $100 retail.

Loaded it up with navionics, leave it on the boat as a dedicated nav tablet, just needs a USB port to charge it. Works fine.

I also have an old Garmin 551 permanently wired into the boat, it came pre loaded with all the Oz charts. It’s a bit slow but talks to the AIS on NMEA and works fine as a backup.

The newer Garmin units don’t come preloaded any more, so I am hanging on to this one.

[Leo Ticheli]

Originally Posted by Mediator

In regards to charging tablets, we have a 12v cigarette outlet in the cockpit that we use to keep the iPad fully charged. We also have portable battery packs that will run the iPad for about 24 hours.

Even if you don’t use a tablet, I would recommend installing a 12v plug in the cockpit. They are so useful for charging phones, handheld VHF, spotlights, etc. Only $10 from Defender

I changed the single cigarette outlet in the cockpit to a dual outlet with one cigarette and one USB; I also added a dual USB outlet next to the chart table for charging phones, InReach, iPads, radios, and spotlights.

Another advantage of a tablet at the helm is that it can continue to function on its internal battery if you lose power in the boat.

Fair winds,
Leo

[Exile]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

Wouldn't hold my breath. One of our Androids is new, and one is almost new. Both are better than the old one, not better enough to change what I said.

Maybe look to buy from someplace like BestBuy, actually go there, ask the clerk to bring it outside for you to test...

-Chris

Thanks for the heads up and a good suggestion. My ancient iPad2 lives under a dark blue dodger so it's pretty readable & stays dry, but mounting it at the open helm is a different story. I've read that the iPad Pro is significantly improved, but oftentimes the impressive resolution numbers in the specs fail to tell the whole story. And of course the iPad Pro is getting into dedicated plotter territory $$-wise.

I think a big part of the high cost of chartplotters & purpose-built marine waterproof monitors comes from their high nit-count & waterproofing, incl. the connectors & cables. To that end I can see the attraction of sticking with traditional plotters. But the more I school myself up on the capabilities & flexibility of PC-based nav programs, the more I want to have that same resource up at the helm. This thread (and others) has done a good job of presenting the many pros & cons of the various alternatives.

[GordMay]

Apple promises 600 nits of maximum brightness for the iPad Pro screen.
➥ https://www.apple.com/ca/ipad-pro/specs/
According to our lab tests, the iPad Pro averages 484 nits of brightness, which beats scores from both the Surface Pro 6 (408 nits) and Samsung Galaxy Book 2 (350 nits).
➥ https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/la...-2018-129-inch
Neither make for a fully daylight-viewable screen.

[Zoidislander]

I have been using a Lenovo "yoga" 710, with Coastal Explorer, for several years, and love it. I added a Vesper 6000 AIS before we left for Alaska, and they are working great. Not a lot of $$ involved. We have a second tablet as a backup.

[Squanderbucks]

Sitting in your cabin the screens of tablets look so nice and detailed I understand why it is attractive to use one as the primary or only mode of navigation data. I’m not too convinced. I have Garmin chart plotter , pc with Open CPN and tablet as well. Don’t use the tablet on deck but with Active Captain it works pretty good for route planning and the seamlessly transferring to other devices either pc or chartplotter.
Nothing beats a dedicated multifunction device for longevity, durability and ease of use rain or shine.
As far as repaurability they are not really. I don’t know about Simrad or Raymarine or Furano but Garmin doesn’t repair anything anymore. It is either exchanged or you buy a new one at discount.
I run my open cpn on a larger scale as an overall route view and my chartplotter at a closer detailed view and to see depths ( and radar). It also controls the autopilot.
Almost none of this interoperability is available via tablet.
No matter what device you use there will be a time when it quits. If all you have is a tablet you are out of luck.
If I had to pick one item it would definitely be the chartplotter. These are available in a wide variety of price ranges. Even a good used one is better than a tablet by itself in my opinion. And probably cheaper with more functions.

[Old_Geezer]

Someone on this forum developed an app called SailFreeGPS. Haven't tried it on the water but it seems quite functional. Works on Android, free to download and I'm impressed. Quick download, check it out.

[Mediator]

There is one final benefit to using a tablet that has not been mentioned yet - user friendliness. When I have visitors on the boat, they have a much more intuitive sense of how to use the iPad than the chart plotter. Most people are very familiar with pinching and zooming across a tablet screen, while everyone I’ve ever had on my boat has struggled to manipulate the E120. Even I get frustrated with the clunky touch screen and poorly-defined buttons on that unit.

Admittedly, the Raymarine E120 is a very old piece of hardware. Newer MFDs might be easier to use.

[davenrino]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

I can't see our tablets wellenough in bright sunlight to rely on them. And we're even shaded, under a hardtop, so sunlight isn't actually direct. We use them, but only as backups to our real plotter; takes too long sometimes to puzzle out what we're looking at, whereas with the real plotter I can glance and understand.

-Chris

+1 I use Navionics on the tablet which doesn't have a GPS chip so I pair it to my InReach. I tried the WiFi connection to my EchoMap 50 and the position works but no depth info.

[s/v Jedi]

When I read comments like “make sure the tablet has GPS”, it’s clear that some don’t get the full impact of using tablets aboard yet.

No, you do NOT need a GPS chip in the tablet, just wifi will do. The trick is to bridge your NMEA data over to wifi in 2-way, full duplex mode. There are several ways to do this:

- a Vesper AIS can do it as a side job.
- a Yacht Devices wifi bridge does this.
- OpenCPN can do this.
- even my old Furuno Navnet 3D could be tricked to do it so probably many can

Now you get -all- NMEA data on your iPad over wifi, consuming much less power than when using internal GPS. With a good app like iSailor you can see everything incl AIS and even control your autopilot from your Apple Watch !

[fxykty]

On a recent 7 day passage I had 4 GPS/chart systems running, partly to compare and contrast their functionality and usability. Each system was completely independent. Plus our crew had their own navigation apps going as well.

- Raymarine plotter with Navionics chart card. User interface not the best, but otherwise flawless. Never crapped out. Source of truth for all passage stats. Radar display at night. Fixed position at Nav station, but as we’re a cat that isn’t too much of a problem except for close quarters navigation.
- MacBook Pro running OpenCPN with USB GPS stick and raster charts. Used for passage planning and grib viewing (though actually the PredictWind Offshore app has a nicer interface and is happy to import gribs from the file system). Used to interface with the sat phone and send/receive emails. Ran out of power once when forgot to turn on the AC outlets at the panel. OpenCPN crashed twice. Not sure that I could rely on this as a primary navigation system.
- iPad2 running Navionics app on a free trial. Nice interface and easy to use - if the crew wanted anything other than radar or log information they would pick up the iPad. Power hungry with its internal GPS, will try the suggestion to tether to an external GPS to save battery use. Ran flat a couple of times - basically needs near full time 2.4A power connection. Very convenient portability. Navionics+ with its integrations is pretty nice and less costly than iSailor.
- iPhone 7 running iSailor app. This has been my go-to device for the last few years, though I don’t bother to pay for the upgrades for the external interfaces. Small screen but otherwise great. iSailor has a weird quirk that you can’t see across 180 degrees longitude - you have to scroll all the way around the world. Also, tracks only handle 100,000 data points, so effectively means one and a half days per track. App crashed a few times with gap in tracks.

Bottom line for us, chart plotter still necessary, especially for radar and fish finder displays and reliability. All the other devices are less reliable for staying on. Navionics+ a very nice app - not as full featured as some others but so much easier to use. OpenCPN near full featured, but the interface is complicated and not so user friendly. Plug ins difficult to manage. Might try OpenCPN on a NUC and our larger TV monitor. Or maybe Raspberry Pi to avoid Windows.