Using a tablet as a boats system backbone

[cj88]

Originally Posted by Bill O

As suggested by Reefmagnet, take a look at the Raspberry Pi. We have set up our pi for the full navigation system on our boat as well as the autopilot brains. We do use a tablet in the cockpit that has all the data/info relayed from the nav. station and also can control the autopilot.
Here's a couple of write ups we have on the Rpi nav system and the autopilot setup. They work great.


Bill O.

Those are a couple of great writeups, any progress with the radar?

[Snore]

SeaTech is right. Here is a link to apps that Vesper works with https://www2.vespermarine.com/third-party-apps. I use iNavx most of the time and switch to Navionics for the sonarchart in areas where the government charts lack good data

[lewiso0]

Originally Posted by Snore

The only way to answer this is “it depends”. First check the new iPads, 99% sure the wifi only ones have GPS. Second, if you go the Vesper Xb-8000 route, it will feed lat/lon via WiFi.

BUT, if you are doing serious crossings, get a basic MFD. Can you go open ocean without a MFD? Sure, I am about to do a delivery using a chart and GPS location. It is a lot more work, but it can be done.

If you go iPad, have a backup device. You can pickup an older MacBook with a SSdrive cheap and they are fairly robust.

If you are do8ng mostly bay and near-coastal sailing, then go for it!

I’m 99% sure wifi only iPads don’t have built in gps

[leftbrainstuff]

Originally Posted by anddy103

Hi guys I was looking for the best option for navigation this made me fall into a rabbit hole. It is a low cost boat and I was looking at a tablet with Navionics. It is a good solution but has anyone seen a system that uses a tablet as the backbone or getting rid of the need for a multi function display.

I am kind of surprised there is nothing out where you could use the GPS off the tablet and add all of the sensors (auto pilot, wind sensor, depth sensor, even radar, electrical) to link directly to the tablet.

A GPS in a tablet is not the same as a navigation system GPS. That tablet GPS will be configured to rely on a data connection and it's location accuracy is somewhat variable. They usually take some time to get a position fix and they often cache a previous location.

We have tablets as backups (phones too) and they work reasonably well. Better than the standards would suggest.

There are plenty of OpenCpn based solutions using RaspberryPi, NUC boxes and repurposed laptops with usb connected sensors. I personally don't like wifi (non hardwired) solutions but I get the ease of installation they offer.

Where the dedicated navigation systems outperform tablets is when integrated with an autopilot or high bandwith / high rate sensors like radar and sonar. When you also integrate a high rate compass, inertial accelerometer then automated heading control is very precise.

Using your tablet standalone, with a GPS calibration app, is a good commodity navigation option. But I wouldn't integrate a tablet as they are not designed to run multiple background and foreground tasks in parallel.

You also need to regularly calibrate the internal accelerometers. So hard fixing a tablet will prohibit this. They are cheap and often suffer noticeable drift. Try using Google Skymap without calibration...

[Dave9111]

If you have the cash, just go buy everything new and be happy, but keep in mind that in 5 years the new Garmin or Raymarine will likely be unsupported and obsolete.


Tablets:
There are several grades of tablets available.
1. consumer
2. commercial
3. industrial


The consumer stuff you buy at Best Buy and Costco and Apple.
If you get them wet they die. Apple stuff is incredibly overpriced IMO and its not durable in weather.

The commercial and industrial devices are not sold in big box stores. You probably can't afford them new. But they show up on Ebay frequently and sometimes in quantity. These are the units that are used in warehouses to pull stock and they live in holders mounted on fork trucks. They ride around in pickup trucks and vans and direct UPS and FEDEX where to drop packages. They are used to at lumberyards to verify load checkouts. The batteries last in excess of an 8 hour shift. Most are sunlight visible and water proof or at least water resistant. They are really tough and can generally survive a drop from 5-6 feet.



I use a Sony and a Samsung Active water proof tablet for my boat.

Each cost about $250 used. New units are near or over $1000.

Both tablets run Android 4.4+.



My tablet lives in a ram mount mounted to the rail above the compass but under a bimini.



The basic Navionics software is $22 or so for all of North America. However their are even cheaper solutions like CPN for tablets (I haven't used it yet) and MX Mariner (good, I have it as well). There are a number of Android solutions to show gauges on your tablet. But it takes some work to make it all work together. If you have the time and not the money, you still have a lot of options. For depth, check out the Garmin Wifish. It is a fishfinder/depth gauge that runs via wifi and can talk to your tablet. And its not that expensive. I think that there are some radar solutions now as well that work with Android tablets. Whats not to like. Plus they are inexpensive enough and small enough that you can carry more than one.

[vaporware]

Originally Posted by lewiso0

I’m 99% sure wifi only iPads don’t have built in gps

The WiFi iPads do not have GPS.



See https://www.apple.com/ipad-9.7/specs/ and https://www.lifewire.com/ipad-gps-information-1683262


Many WiFi Android tablets have GPS.

[letsgetsailing3]

I believe only the cellular-capable ipads have a GPS chip, but you can easily add an external GPS to any ipad for $100 or less.

[svmobert]

For current generation..

iPad Mini 4
iPad 9.7"

Wi-Fi + Cellular models Only
Assisted GPS and GLONASS

For iPad pro 11" and 12.9"

Wi-Fi + Cellular models Only
GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and QZSS

If you were buying new, cellular add on is $130 for all of the models except the 12.9" pro which is $150 add on.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by leftbrainstuff

That tablet GPS will be configured to rely on a data connection and it's location accuracy is somewhat variable. They usually take some time to get a position fix and they often cache a previous location.

FWIW, that's not our experience. Three tablets and two phones, internal GPS on all, standalone (i.e., no network connectivity) fixes seem to be as accurate as our three fixed GPS units. At least accurate enough that I can't see any difference.

Might be important where "feet" matter, but I can't tell that.

No obvious time lag obtaining fixes with any of those portables. All Android, in this case... but I'd guess GPS-enabled iThings are about the same.

Late thought: I have seen times when one or the other device shows our track across land, or some such. With both raster and vector charts, three/four different apps (including plotter). Seems to be able to happen on our fixed plotter and any of our portable devices, linked more to zoom level (at the time) than to the accuracy of the GPS fix.

-Chris

[Bentwings]

When I bought my boat late last summer I got the Navionics app and paid the fee. I practiced some and prepared a trip to bring the boat up river to its new home.

I used my iPad Air 2 . It seemed to work very well. I even made a short trip from the marina where I purchased the boat. I was pretty confident it would work fine.

However I’m a notorious redundancy person. I have alternate plans and often incorporate duplicate functions for show stopping actions on my Streetrods and personal cars. It’s been said I need a trailer to carry my spare parts. LOL

So I purchased a copy of the upper Miss. river maps. I waded through them and marked the pages I’d need should Navionics fail.

Guess what. It was a rainy cold day for the trip and about 4 miles into the trip the IPad signed off, a victim of the cold weather. Fortunately I had the paper maps and a course planed. As long as we stayed in the channel we were ok.

It was quite a trick to follow the maps at night using a flashlight, using a spotlight to find river markers and drive the boat after the starboard motor quit just after the iPad.

I have to admit I was a real rookie as this was my first twin motor boat. I learned a lot on this trip that I’ll never forget. Docking in close quarters at night
In a relatively strong current would have been worthy of a viral YouTube. LOL

I
I’m currently looking at chart plotters now.

[dalbright1963]

I have been using a cellular-capable iPad 2, with iNavX and Navionics charts, in conjunction with a Brookhouse linux multiplexer for NMEA. The iPad 2 is in a Lifeproof case and mounted at the helm's NavPod with a spring-loaded RAM mount. It works like a champ until there is spray or rain touching the iPad screen, as it interprets water as a fingertip and the screen gets manipulated like ghosts in a machine.

The solution was a gallon-sized freezer bag - not to make it water-resistant (it already was) but to shield the digitizer. Depending on your nav software, you should be able to pull in any NMEA data within the capability of the software. We made the trip from the Gulf Coast to NC, offshore and ICW with great success, using this system.

Since we have an older iPad 2 and since app development leverages the capabilities of newer software (plus the Garmin takeover), the latest version of iNavX and Navionics requires iOS 10. So, I have to buy another tablet to keep this setup. Bummer because the iPad 2 is still going strong, after all of that time in the elements. Plan is to add the Furuno First Watch radar and keep the iPad 2 with its current charts and software as a backup for nav and radar.

[dalbright1963]

Sorry - my phone corrected my text to linux. It should read iMux.

[Bentwings]

I’ll have to try the bag idea. It gets wet here.

[Mainstreet]

I used two iPads An IPad Pro and a standard sized one both were 2014 vintage. The
Pro was Cel equipped the standard one only wifi.i loaded both with iNavX and Navionics but also used a “Bad Elf” gps in conjunction with both. When I was sailing the Abacos I used Explorer charts with the system. Very satisfied with the rig. I had an up to date E80 chart plotter aboard linked to a Garmin autopilot. I used that system only to set waypoints to sail to. All other navigation was on IPad. Very satisfied with the results. Because we were sailing a Center cockpit with a hardtop (see my icon) we had no issues with water intrusion.

[Dadrock33]

Thought I remembered someone stating that Samsung laptops all had internal GPS ..... true? Don’t know really so thought I’d ask. Are there any 2 in 1s that have an internal GPS?