Anyone using iNavX for iPad?

[RHarriss]

Tutorial for iNavX

i-Marine Apps: iNavX Tutorial

I've switched away from it, and back to iSailor using vector charts. Primary nav is with OpenCpn on a nice little PC laptop with a touchscreen that we picked up last year. Everything is connected to a Nexus instrument server through a vYacht wifi/ethernet access point. We have a couple of iPads and iPhones, and some Android tablets receiving instrument data, including AIS info, via wifi.

Found that iNavX was trickier to use than iSailor, though both function just fine. I still pay for the xTraverse account, using iNavX as the #2 backup.

We're also using RaceQs for track recording during racing.

[DGH]

Originally Posted by Acadia426

Is anyone using the app, iNavX for iPad as a backup for navigation? If so, have you found a tutorial on how to learn it?

I have it and find it not very good to use. Quite laborious compared with other programs. It does have some integration with other programs which are also painful to use imo.
Suggest you just stick to Navionics.

[RickG]

I was originally attracted to iNavX for the lower cost electronic Explorer Charts for the Bahamas - $69 vs. $199 for the C-Map SD card.. We have not gone to the Bahamas yet, but iNavX works fine with the Raster charts. We are upgrading our electronics now and need to decide whether we want to buy the Explorer Charts for iNavX or the new chartplotter. It will likely come down to whatever my lady prefers.

Cheers, RickG

[grecko]

I have Navionics on my iPad and it is my primary GPS.

[tstano]

The iNavX charts on my iPad don’t change as you scroll to the edge of any chart, nor will it zoom in or out to the next chart without having to preselect a chart change. Also while underway I cannot find how to get the charts to display “course up” position. Heading south is always upside down. My Garmin BlueChart makes these changes easily.

[Acadia426]

Originally Posted by tstano

The iNavX charts on my iPad don’t change as you scroll to the edge of any chart, nor will it zoom in or out to the next chart without having to preselect a chart change. Also while underway I cannot find how to get the charts to display “course up” position. Heading south is always upside down. My Garmin BlueChart makes these changes easily.

Tstano,

Since the charts do not change, automatically, how do you do your initial charting, picking up where you left off on one chart, and then resume on the next? This, of course, is easy on paper charts.

[Acadia426]

Originally Posted by grecko

I have Navionics on my iPad and it is my primary GPS.

Hi Grecko,

So, in your boat's cockpit, you have your iPad next to you?

I asked an earlier question to someone else. How do you make the changes from one iNavX chart to the next when voyaging?

[Acadia426]

Does anyone have this issue with iNavX?

Once a chart is downloaded, to the iPad, it may or may not appear in the list of downloaded charts when it's called-up for use?

[Acadia426]

Originally Posted by ftaute

A bit off topic here, but hopefully some will find this useful.
I have been using navionics on iPad as backup for my plotter which also runs Navionics charts. Then I installed a new AIS system that is capable of providing data over WiFi, and I wanted a way to view AIS targets on the iPad too, and had no luck with Navionics.
Finally found iNavX as a way to do that and have been quite happy with it. Having said that, it does take some technical finagling to get that all set up! Sometimes it will show targets at longer range than I can see on the plotter (Simrad NSS Evo2) which is still a mystery I need to unravel.

Hi ftaute, how did you get AIS to work on iNavX, please?

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by tstano

The iNavX charts on my iPad don’t change as you scroll to the edge of any chart, nor will it zoom in or out to the next chart without having to preselect a chart change. Also while underway I cannot find how to get the charts to display “course up” position. Heading south is always upside down. My Garmin BlueChart makes these changes easily.

What charts are you using? If you are using the free NOAA charts then they should. Did you download the entire East set?

[softgoodsint]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Why anyone would use Navonix charts is a mystery to me.
...

We will have to agree to disagree - I been using Navionix on my iPad2 for a few years now and am very happy with it for North America - the Atlantic, Pacific and the Gulf.
I initially did a comparison that included iNavX, admittedly not particularly exhaustive, but concluded Navionix was the easiest to use (aka quickest to learn) when installed on standalone on an IPAD, eg. not interfaced to any on board chart plotter or other equipment, but well suited to a small S/V (on a budget) it fit the bill nicely, and a skipper can also conveniently view the charts on a laptop for trip planning, and review, without needing to establish an account (at https://www.navionics.com/usa/).
I felt it did an excellent job in a straight through transit through the shallows of the Hawk channel to Key West on a motor-less 28' Morgan when tides and winds could have easily put us in the crusty. I'm (obviously) a fan of Navionix.

[tstano]

Originally Posted by hpeer

What charts are you using? If you are using the free NOAA charts then they should. Did you download the entire East set?

Yes I downloaded the East Coast. Is there a tutorial on this, the ones for waypoints and route making were helpful.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by softgoodsint

We will have to agree to disagree - I been using Navionix on my iPad2 for a few years now and am very happy with it for North America - the Atlantic, Pacific and the Gulf.
I initially did a comparison that included iNavX, admittedly not particularly exhaustive, but concluded Navionix was the easiest to use (aka quickest to learn) when installed on standalone on an IPAD, eg. not interfaced to any on board chart plotter or other equipment, but well suited to a small S/V (on a budget) it fit the bill nicely, and a skipper can also conveniently view the charts on a laptop for trip planning, and review, without needing to establish an account (at https://www.navionics.com/usa/).
I felt it did an excellent job in a straight through transit through the shallows of the Hawk channel to Key West on a motor-less 28' Morgan when tides and winds could have easily put us in the crusty. I'm (obviously) a fan of Navionix.

They can be good in various places. And if they suit your cruising ground fine.

I have had very different experiences.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by tstano

Yes I downloaded the East Coast. Is there a tutorial on this, the ones for waypoints and route making were helpful.

No tutorial, it should just work....on the NOAA raster charts.

Not all chart suppliers charts work exactly the same way.

My suggestion, for lack of anything insightful to say, would be to delete all the NOAA charts and do a bulk download overnight. Maybe if they came in piecemeal it mucked something up.

[hpeer]

OK m going waaaay out on a limb to say this, it will sound naughty, condescending etc. I stink at being PC so here goes.

This has nothing to do with the iNavEx or other hardware provider issue, this is a hydrographic data presentation and human recognition issue.

I think that most folks don’t really understand how to read a chart. Especially a traditional PAPER chart, which is all a raster chart is. There is a lot of info there, in fact they are the source data for the various vector charts. The formats have been refined over many decades and much thought has gone into the charts presentation format to make the data easily accessible. There is tremendous value simply in having a single consistent format.

I’ve just been REreading Nigel Calders excellent book “How to Read a Nautical Chart” and it struck me how much I learned from him. Some stuff directly, and a lot indirectly by viewing his side by side comparisons.

Once you get familiar with using government raster charts, the plain old paper charts, and see just how much data goes into one, how much THOUGHT goes into the consistent presentation of the data, the vector charts pale. I know they look snazzy, but they just are not as good.

I’ll give a nod to Navions for the future be sonar view. But they get a demerit for using it in areas of shifting bottom thereby providing potentially false data. Elsewhere on this forum you will find folks noting Navionics has “routes” shown where reefs exist, a couple of clever fellows have trusted that data and lost boats.

I’ve no doubt the newer vector chart sets are adequate for most folks, few will get in trouble with them. I’m not one of those guys.

Edward Tuftee has written and published about the graphical representation of data. And I am personally influenced by his arguments and methods, which I see well applied by these venerable organizations. He makes an excellent case for why Power Point is a snazzy, good looking, popular piece of software that is actually terrible at presenting data....compared to other means. The initial reaction is good but it has no depth, shallow. But you need to read the books or attend a seminar to get the background to this seemingly outrageous claim.

In short I HIGHLY recommend Calders book to anyone who goes on be water and is even remotely serious about being in charge of a boat. It’s a good read for anyone interested in cartography and it’s history.

2¢.