Advice sought on choice of PDA/software

Gin

Gin

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I have gps plotting but there is no chart display and before I go the whole hog and upgrade I reckon it would be a good idea to see how it all works with a gps onboard-PDA and a chart cartridge.

So the questions are in the first instance:-
Do I look for the very latest handheld PDA or would an older and therefore cheaper model do? Which one is considered the best
What chart software gives the best presenatation of coloured large scale charting and tidal info. Also as these cartridges seem expensive, compared to a paper chart with free Notice to Mariners updates, how often are they updated and at what additional cost?
 
I'm fairly sure you will have to pay in the region of £90 for an updated cartridge. The problem is that as soon as a update is made to a chart that your cartridge covers, your cartridge is out of date, so it's up to you how long you run with it. I use an old laptop purchased on ebay for £60, also got an adapter for about £10 to plug into my cigar lighter type socket. Bought a USB GPS for about £20. For less than £100 I have a chart plotter, in colour, with a 15inch screen. I use Seaclear software. which is free. You make your own charts from the Admiralty or Imray charts for the area you want, so if there's an update, you can change yours straight away. Have a look at www.sping.com/seaclear
 
If you have a laptop and link your GPS, I would recommend Maptech as the charts are the same in display as Admiralty and relatively cheap and do all the things you are looking for. I also believe they can be used on PDA devices. The web page can be found here
 
I have a Navman PiN570 PDA, which was sold basically as a car sat-nav. I assume that there are plenty of these on e-bay. I use it to run Ozi-explorerCE with a library of scanned and Maptech charts. I also have tidal software in it. It works very well, but with the following reservations:-
a) the internal battery runs down fairly quickly, so it is best plugged into the boat's supply if you want to run it for any length of time. (This also happens if it is left unused for 2 or 3 weeks, and you then have to re-install your software ).
b)it has no protection whatsoever from water, with memory card slots, unsealed buttons etc. so use in the cockpit needs great care.
If I were buying again, I would lean towards a purpose-made handheld gps although these are, of course considerably pricier, esp. as charts may have to be purchased.
 
Thanks to you all for the input.

Given that I'm very long sighted( as opposed to short-sighted!) the larger screen of a laptop/tablet is appealing but I do wish to experiment in the cockpit so I really need something thats is small and pocketable- even if it means wearing glasses to use it- so I must stick with the PDA type of thing during the research stage before a full upgrade, if indeed I decide to do that.

However, you guys have come up with three different suggestions for softwware upon which I shall research further and a source of PDA's- so ,once again thanks very much for your time.
 
I have done the ebay Compaq Ipaq with a Navman sleeve, cheap as chips now, bought Maptech charts and ported them to the Ipaq, dead easy and works nicely.
Stu
 
Damn- bit the bullet after Skipper_Stu,s.posting and a pda is due to arrive this morning.
Now have to figure out how to transfer software from CD(e/g/ Maptech) to pda- I may have jumped too soon!!
 
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