The World's Worst Pirates

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Steve Pope

Yeah it is difficult to find a reasonably priced screen that is rugged enough to run in the cockpit, and be daylight viewable.

Well, no, I don't agree. Phiggins has shown you can do the whole set up with a ruggedized, low power, daylight readable trans-reflective screen for few hundred dollars, including the external gear. Additionally, there is the option I pointed out using a ruggedized laptop, and RAM mount, or you could extend its functionality and run a slaved monitor to the cockpit as described here.

But as for an off the shelf solution, I think you're right. Few things on a boat are cheap.

[Steve Pope]

Thanks Maren, I hadn't heard of the XO before, but then I'm not all that computer literate. I currently use a Lowrance H2Oc but would like something a little larger, and to use a slave screen at the tiller.

[bitman]

for displays just google for the ICE (car pc) they have all kind of low power pc boxes and touch displays readable in direct sunlight. look here MP3Car.com - Powered by vBulletin for some ideas.

[Curmudgeon]

Well I compromised my principles and bought a Garmin 545. I was afraid of problems with the touch screen. I also bought a "lite" Shipmodul multiplexer so that the Garmin can talk to my PC.

What sold me was the availabilty of chips for the Carribean, which NOAA doesn't have. I dream of the Grenadines, although I'll probably not much past Martha's Vinyard.

That was 1000 bucks (U.S.) with shipping for the two products. But I won't badmouth Garmin. At least their products are easy to use.

So I now have triple redundancy. Actually quadruple, since I have a cheap plastic sextant, although I can barely shoot the sun at noon. Oh what the hell. If the visibility is good, you can be ten miles off and still find Shangri La (or Block Island).

[Unicorn Dreams]

I'm playing with SeaClear right now on my laptop, I've gone with a wireless mouse, laptop stays in the cabin, lid closed and a HDMI cable going to the bulkhead mounted 37" flat screen HDTV. So far it beats the hell out of those little GPS screens that everybody uses.
At 12' away, the TV screen is still huge to use for navigating, still playing with the setup, but like it so far...

[Curmudgeon]

37 inch flat screen? I have a Samsung 50 inch in my living room ashore and my wife complains that it is too big.

But I see that you have a pilothouse. I have a 30 ft. cutter with a small cockpit.

[sundown]

If you watch on eBay HammerHead tablet computers come up for sale. They are a 'ruggedized' military grade computer that supposedly can be run over by a truck, dropped from a ridiculous height onto concrete, and submerged in water. They run standard windows operating system so programs like Nobel Tek, and Sea Clear can be run on them using the free Noaa charts.
I have found that the best model Hammerhead are the RT800, XRT and to a lessor degree the HH3 (These models all have colour screens).
The biggest issue I have with these tablets is that they have propriatary batteries and they are expensive. I power mine by simply using a universal 12volt power supply and pluging it into a cigarette lighter on the steering pedistal. Supposidly a PCMCIA GPS card will work in the hammerhead but I have not tried it - I simply use a USB Microsoft reciever that I had from MS Streets and Trips.
I would expect that one could put an XRT plotter unit together for under $400 (I have not been watching the price of Hammerheads for almost a year but that should be ball park) and that will give you a 6 X 8 inch colour plotter that you can move from the wheelhouse to the cockpit by smply pluging in a cigarette plug. The MS GPS should not cost anymore than $50
I am reasonably happy with the operation of my unit (though I have to shift it around sometimes because of sun glare ) but it is no big deal.

[David M]

There are waterproof/water resistant daylight monitors. No they are not cheap because they are not mass produced and they do have additional manufacturing costs. With these screens though you could leave your laptop inside the boat and save yourself the cost of a ruggedized laptop. I'm not talking about the VGA or XGA monitors made by Furuno or Raymarine...which are extremely expensive. You can also get them powered by 12 volts.

[CharlieCobra]

I've two of the older Toughbooks that work just fine. My only complaint is screen brightness at night.

[Dune]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

I also want is something that will work if the PC crashes, including the appropriate cartography.

My sextant has NEVER crashed, and I have never crashed while using my sextant. (knocking on wood)

[Microship]

I'm focusing the big bucks on the one thing that really HAS to be harsh-environment capable (the monitor) and using Mac Mini and embedded Linux boxes in a console. Way cheaper than the integrated chartplotters, though I'll pick a small one up as a turn-key backup.

For some reason, none of the cheapies happen to be N2K. Even though the CANbus hardware layer is trivial, this is now part of the huge price differential that the chartplotter players charge because, well, because they can.

Steve

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by sundown

I am reasonably happy with the operation of my unit (though I have to shift it around sometimes because of sun glare ) but it is no big deal.

Hello Sundown,

Very interested in the Hammerhead but wanted to clarify. Are the screens bright enough to read in daylight? I could deal with angling it to clear the glare as long as it was reasonably visible at some angle.

Thanks
Skip

[David M]

Originally Posted by Dune

My sextant has NEVER crashed, and I have never crashed while using my sextant. (knocking on wood)

Mine always seemed to crash when the clouds were out.

[ViribusUnitis]

Question

I've never had a boat with a chart plotter.

What all would you like to put together in a unit?

AIS, GPS, chart plotter, Radar, anything else?

[lorenzo b]

I'm just installing a Raymarine E120 system on my boat with integrated radar, AIS, autopilot etc. and for 300 bucks I get the whole Eastern seaboard on a chip. I spent that much on a bracket to hold my alternator. A coil of rope costs that much. Some one is supposed to put this fabulous product together and pass it out for free?