OpenCPN w/CM93 charts on a tablet

[bdbcat]

SVMargarita...

Re: cm93 on an Android tablet.

Works fine. If your tablet is primarily a navigation device (not a movie player or gamer toy), then the 32 GB internal RAM will be plenty. External SDCards are quite a bit slower to access than internal memory, and this slower speed will be noticeable if you store charts on the card.

So, I'd recommend the tablet you like best without regard to external SDCard capability, and store the charts internally.

A hint: Samsung make the best tablet display screens, by far. Much brighter than any other devices I have tested. Makes for easier use in the cockpit.

Good luck
Dave

[Wanderlust]

You don't need to copy ALL of the CM93 charts to the tablet. The manual has an explanation of the CM93 file structure. So, once understood, you can select only the parts of the world you want to copy.

On my PC, I have all of Australia and the South Pacific from New Guinea to New Zealand including Fiji. The charts take up a little more than 100MB.

At least this is the way it works on Windows. I am assuming Android version would be the same.

[SVMargarita]

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I feel your pain, brother.

I hate Apple products and use them rarely.

Navionics cartography has, by and large, the same level of detail as the CM93 charts, as Navionics and C-Map were arch-competitors selling into similar markets. In some areas one is better than the other, but in general they are roughly comparable.

Where exactly (besides a few areas around turkey) do navionics charts have more details?

Originally Posted by SVMargarita

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice

Can't you run android apps on ipad now? Maybe you can run opencpn that way??

Otherwise, it's technically possible to recompile opencpn for ipad, but everyone would have to jailbreak the device to install it.

Finally, I don't remember the offset around komodo.. maybe you don't have the best version of cm93 charts. There is a big offset for rodrigues island... unfortunately I never finished my work to integrate cm93 offset corrections into squiddio...

[Hobie_ind]

Have you considered a Windows tablet? I ran Open CPN on a cheap (bought it on sale for just under $300 Cdn) Asus tablet like this one. I liked having the detachable keyboard and it was also great for movies on watch with a microSD card for added memory.

Asus Transformer Book T100HA Review & Rating | PCMag.com

The keyboard did act up a bit after about a year, but I used it without most of the time anyways, so didn't really care.

The only downside was the lack of an integrated GPS, but I already had a Bluetooth puck and our AIS had a wifi connection that the laptop worked well on, so that didn't matter to me.

[SVMargarita]

I purchased a SE Asian package of Navionics charts but I can not speak for other parts of the world. I found the Navionics charts around Indonesia to be disappointing. Considerably less information displayed than the CM93 chart for the same area.

I am a Merchant Marine deck officer. The ECDIS chart plotters I use aboard the ships are of the C-Map variety. The CM93 charts look and feel the same as the high end charts used on an ECDIS. I am not clear of what the exact relationship is between C-Map and CM93 but to me, it's irrelevant.

I don't mean to diss Navionics charts. Many of the cruisers, maybe half of the ones I have spoken to, use Navionics charts and are happy with them. They are just not for me.

The chart plotter supplied with the Navionics charts I purchased does not provide a method of toggling on or off different displayed features. In fairness, this may be a function of the simplistic chart plotter rather than the Navionics charts. However, only a fraction of the information (when compared to CM93) is even displayed in the first place. Looking at one non commercial bay in particular, the soundings and contour lines are grossly inaccurate on the Navionics charts, as if they were just made-up.

An interesting work-around with the Android-iPad-OpenCPN theory but I am afraid that would exceed my computer literacy.

The version of CM93 charts I have was last updated 1/1/2000 and I don't know of a more up-to-date source. Nor do I know of a way to update them. The offset in the Komodo region of Indonesia is widely advertised in the cruising guides and I think I may have been warned about the offset in Noonsight as well. I am not sure if the Navionics charts suffer this same error or not but a Google Earth KAP file quickly illuminates the discrepancies.

[chuckr]

when my dell tablet took a dump I could only find android here and I know a couple of the developers who told me that they have or will soon have an android version up -
I did not go there as I found a tablet that has windows (139t/l and will get another one at that price) and loaded OpenCPN on it and it works great -
check their site and see if the android version is up yet

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

Can't you run android apps on ipad now? Maybe you can run opencpn that way??

Interesting. Can you please show us your how-to instructions?

Gerhard

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by SVMargarita

...

The version of CM93 charts I have was last updated 1/1/2000 and I don't know of a more up-to-date source. Nor do I know of a way to update them. The offset in the Komodo region of Indonesia is widely advertised in the cruising guides and I think I may have been warned about the offset in Noonsight as well. I am not sure if the Navionics charts suffer this same error or not but a Google Earth KAP file quickly illuminates the discrepancies.

Re Komodo offset
Using Google Earth overlay (from GE2KAP in OpenCpn)
The 2012/07 release of CM93 show a large offset (see arrow on pic1)
The latest Navionics charts (from SASplanet) seem however spot on

[seandepagnier]

Hmm, when I flip from cm93 to navionic I do see an offset of about .2 miles in the places I anchored...


I lost my tracks from that area there was a bug at the time.

Still a bug deletes tracks if the system clock is way off which happens whenever I reboot because the computer has no system clock... I now use scripts to get the time from gps.

I sailed and anchored in many places in both komodo and rinja as well as smaller islands with only cm93 charts.

I was even in squall conditions without visibility and don't remember any issue with the chart but I did have a working depth sounder at the time which helped

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by SVMargarita

The version of CM93 charts I have was last updated 1/1/2000 and I don't know of a more up-to-date source. Nor do I know of a way to update them.

The latest version is circa 2005. You just overwrite the files.

In addition to Windows boat PC I also have a 10 inch Pipo Android tablet that has 1920 x 1280 screen resolution and it works fine with OpenCPN, CM93 and GE charts. Some of the tablets have much lower res and would be less usable where detail is important.

These Chinese tablets were readily available in SE when I was there. The charging on many tablets is an issue so make sure you have powerful enough

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

The latest version is circa 2005.

The latest version is dated July 2012....

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by sailorF54

The latest version is dated July 2012....

I stand corrected. Sorry.

[conachair]

Tip if you plan on a laptop down below and use an android tablet..

With both the laptop and tablet (mine's an xperia) on the same wifi network..

Load https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...droid&hl=en_GB of similar onto the tablet.

Install https://filezilla-project.org/ on the laptop.

With sshdroid running, the info at the top of the screen will tell you waht IP address and port it's using, create a new site in filezilla with this..
password is admin
[IMG][/IMG]

Then navigate to the directories..

Copy the navobj.xml files across from the laptop on the right onto the tablet on the left (drag them across) and all the routes/waypoints will be the same on both machines.

Careful in there... you could do a lot of damage messing with other files.