Screen brightness-MFD vs Tablet

[250224]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

ALGIZ RT8
sihovision SC300A
Rugline mt1
t71
Shandong Senter
kcosit

And at least 10 more products , Android, portable 1000 nits or more

Thank you for taking the time to list these products. Always good to have some pointers when searching for a solution!

Please ignore the (atm) 'hater'. He is not the only listener and while the ALGIZ seem to have 'only' 500 - 600 nits, it may still work well under my sprayhood and 1200 nits may have unwanted side-effects. Last but not least hopefully 'the hater' rethinks his words, it doesn't make for a beneficial discourse.

[sck5]

When they get wet (and both will eventually - you are on a boat) the mfd will turn on just fine. The screen on the pad will be black.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by sck5

When they get wet (and both will eventually - you are on a boat) the mfd will turn on just fine. The screen on the pad will be black.

Thank you, I appreciate the benefits of an MFD.

The MFD is useful for many and I don't advocate use of a tablet for navigation on deck. In fact I don't advocate navigation on deck (as opposed to piloting) but each to his own.

Our vessel is not suitable for an MFD installation on deck so our plotter and electronic charts are below deck. We have instrumentation on deck which helps with piloting and we have for the last 5 years used a tablet on deck to mirror the information from below (it also can control the charting application). The problem has been daylight viewable screens on tablets are not as good as MFD screens, mostly for the power requirement, I think. And to understand that better is why I started this thread. It got hijacked.

Ruggedized touch screen tablets will continue to work when wet and even with gloves, the screens do not go black.

Photo: When cruising we have a dodger and shade awnings, but during racing season they are removed, hence the "sunlight viewability" requirement.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Well interesting enough that problem was easily solved on the One Laptop Per Child program

There were two screens

One col overlaid with a paper white screen

I have one at home that runs Linux

Easily seen in full sun and very low power requirements

Perhaps this s/b forked off to a different discussion, but how practical is it to drive an epaper screen off a pi for Open CPN?

Would the greyscale display be useable with OpenCPN?

I have seen some color e ink displays advertised, never seen one in person.

All of the ones I can find are pretty small.

Has anyone done this?

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

Perhaps this s/b forked off to a different discussion, but how practical is it to drive an epaper screen off a pi for Open CPN?

Would the greyscale display be useable with OpenCPN?

I have seen some color e ink displays advertised, never seen one in person.

All of the ones I can find are pretty small.

Has anyone done this?

These guys, (UAB SailRacer, SailRacer - Tactical app for sailors. Android, iOS, inkDisplay, Watch in Lithuania) have worked on that problem. The owner Ricardas Novosinskas was one person who told me (there have been others) that the API for E-Ink screens on E-Readers does not allow for development of applications like OpenCPN or his own app Sail Racer.

What they have done is produce a screen with E-Ink which displays data from an android tablet but does not run the app. This solves the daylight viewability issue but does not meet the rest of the requirements for navigation. His screens do not use color and the refresh rate is apparently not a problem.

I, for one, look forward to any new developments in this area. They have been slow in coming.

[Bowdrie]

Perhaps not for a lot of users, but an interesting product from a not-well-known company.

https://www.sonimtech.com/wp-content...2921_Final.pdf

[250224]

Fresh from the press: there is a new iPad Pro with "a breathtaking* 1000 nits of full‑screen brightness and 1600 nits of peak brightness". https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/.

With e-ink there are some Onyx products (https://shop.boox.com/collections/all) which (seem to) support Google Play (https://help.boox.com/hc/en-us/artic...gle-Play-Store). The color tablet (https://goodereader.com/blog/product...ase-and-stylus) looks quite nice, but wouldn't be suitable for marine use (Waterproof: No).


*it's Apple, such vocables have to be expected

[mgrouch]

DSLR camera field monitors are very bright and have touchscreens nowadays

Example:

https://feelworld.ltd/products/feelw...CABEgIHavD_BwE

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by blu3534

Fresh from the press: there is a new iPad Pro with "a breathtaking* 1000 nits of full‑screen brightness and 1600 nits of peak brightness". https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/.

With e-ink there are some Onyx products (https://shop.boox.com/collections/all) which (seem to) support Google Play (https://help.boox.com/hc/en-us/artic...gle-Play-Store). The color tablet (https://goodereader.com/blog/product...ase-and-stylus) looks quite nice, but wouldn't be suitable for marine use (Waterproof: No).

*it's Apple, such vocables have to be expected

Thank You blu3534, I appreciate your continued assistance in finding a suitable device for use on deck, Recall that we prefer a 7"-9" rugged battery operated android tablet with screen brightness over 1000Nits.

I am sure that the Apple IPad Pro is a fantastic decvice, almost a laptop computer, but at 12.9" and no evidence of ruggedization I think it would be inconvenient and risky to hand hold it on the deck of a sailboat. My navigator (my wife) already rejected a 10" tablet as too hard to handle while scrambling around on our deck.

The Onyx products are interesting and I've checked on them several times over the last few years but I have not been convinced that I can download or sideload the navigation apps we need, and it is not, of course, a waterproof, rugged device, and I think it requires the stylus to use the touch screen.

So you might be thinking that I am just going to reject everything anyone finds, but the truth is there are very few devices on the market. To use most of them would be like jamming a square peg in a round hole.

I do have one on order, the Tripltek 8 Pro, it's the best I can find and looks pretty good.

And I am very clear why brighter screens are not available on many tablets; it's the electrical power needed to drive them. I knew this when I started the thread. I should not have even asked, but you never know what might be out there in development that someone knows about.

Thanks again for your interest

[250224]

Thanks for your kind words. The iPad is not for me either (just found it somewhat fitting). But I will be *very* interested about how your new Tripltek 8 Pro will work! (I hope it will work out great). This could also be an option for me.

[Pizzazz]

In addition to the iPad Pro and the Tripltek, you may look at some 1,000 nit+ phones, a good list can be found below. You should also note that you do not need that much brightness (and the associated power consumption) to have sunlight readable content. If you configure the colors of your racing/charting app correctly, the display will be quite visible under a broader set of conditions. Contrast is just as important as brightness.

https://www.epey.co.uk/phone/e/YToyO...Ijt9fV9iOjA7=/

[EricR]

I’m pondering this same question of a tablet and screen brightness. I rent sailboats at marinas in SoCal. They don’t usually have any chart system. I’m looking for a mobile solution to bring my own. It’s always a sunny day here and NITS are my biggest concern. Lots of reviews and it’s hard to tell how to judge. What works great in Puget Sound may not manage in Long Beach.

I look forward to a report back on the Tripltek. That seems like a high performing option but pricey. I’m considering the TabActive3 with 750 nits and can be gotten for $225 with some eBay patience. Battery seems small but $225…

My trips are pretty basic and casual so this is a nice to have that I will undoubtably mull over for far too long.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by EricR

I’m pondering this same question of a tablet and screen brightness. I rent sailboats at marinas in SoCal. They don’t usually have any chart system. I’m looking for a mobile solution to bring my own. It’s always a sunny day here and NITS are my biggest concern. Lots of reviews and it’s hard to tell how to judge. What works great in Puget Sound may not manage in Long Beach.

I look forward to a report back on the Tripltek. That seems like a high performing option but pricey. I’m considering the TabActive3 with 750 nits and can be gotten for $225 with some eBay patience. Battery seems small but $225…

My trips are pretty basic and casual so this is a nice to have that I will undoubtably mull over for far too long.

I will report on the TriplTek as soon as it arrives and I get it set up. I also considered the Galaxy Tab Active3. It is only 750Nits but sometimes Nits aren't everything. It's just that racing season is coming and I want to get this issue out of the way.

By the way, the Tab A3 will work fine under a spray dodger or bimini and certainly down below.

[MJH]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Let's change this discussion slightly.

I need to replace the rugged tablet we use on deck, the battery is dying.

The features which are most important to ms are screen brightness, racing software, and of course economics, in a rugged device.

Screen brightness (Sunlight viewable screen) seems like the hardest feature to find; my tablet is 1000Nits and it is unsatisfactory.

Today my neighbor showed me his new Garmin MFD 62cv plotter. I was astonished at the brightness of it's screen, it's viewable in direct sublight, and it's price was only $549! Of course it is unsuitable for me, the software for racing is completely inadequate, there is no "drop protection", the UI is hopeless, and there is no battery and sonar is of no use to us.

But that screen!

So why can't we get a rugged tablet with that screen quality at that price point?

Additional thought:
Maybe it's the power required for a really bright screen? MFD's rely on ship's power. The tablet must run on a battery. Let's see:

The Garmin uses 1.25A at maximum power usage (presumably for maximum screen brightness) which is 15watts. For an hour this is 15000 milliwatts. What tablet has 15,000 mAh battery? None. And looking at the 10" Garmin plotter, the power usage is up to 6.0Amps. That's 72,000mAh, Wow! I get it.

I would say your first problem is hard wiring whatever you settle on so that your not limited by the unit's internal battery. When I got my first GPS, a Garmin 45, I quickly set up a boat battery connection so that I would not have to be concerned about the batteries dying. First things first.

Good Luck.

[bgytr]

I have been using Samsung Galaxy Tab Active series tablets for navigation for a number of years now. Ruggendized, water resistant, swappable batteries. I run Navionics, and Sailgrib WR. Very powerful tool. With wifi onboard, instrument data can be accessed on the tablet. I do tactics and navigation in races on other people's boats, won Annapolis to Newport with it as my primary navigation tool- Saigrib WR is a real bargain for weather routing and navigation. On my own boat, with an old Raymarine ST60 era setup, I got a yakbitz wifi hookup for $69 with shipping from Australia to broadcast the instrument data to my tablet. So i have the capability on my portable ruggedized display to do full blown data display and weather routing wherever I am on the boat, which is really handy when shorthanded or singlehanded cruising.
And for a few hundred bucks for the tablet and less than 200 bucks for the software and yakbitz, I have capability that rivals instrument, computer, and software setups costing an order of magnitude more.