Android Tablet with GPS as Hand Held Chartplotter

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Joker

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I'm not much up on tablets, but I was thinking of the possibility of using one as a handheld chartplotter, with something like a Navionics app (to make life more complicated, it would be for use in the Baltic).

Anyone any tips?
 
I have a Asus Transformer TF101. It has a keyboard that includes batteries so when connected it extends the battery life to many many hours. It was meant to be better than the TF201 as it has USB on both the keyboard. Even without the keyboard, the battery life is great

I have Navionics for the Europe on the Tablet and it works fine as a plotter. I sail the Med and all the charts seem up to date

I have just downloaded Baltic charts to test, and they all seem there apart from the area around Bornholm for some reason

Hope that this helps

TS
 
I've used an android Motorola Defy as chart plotter with Navionics as it's water proof (but this was open cat sailing offshore)

Be very careful in the Baltic archipelago's using a chart plotter to avoid the many low lying or just submerged rocks, many aren't that accurately placed on charts so you need to be aware of your surroundings and give them good clearance. There are just too many for them to have all been accurately recorded.
 
Guess what? Having spent the morning researching androids, I decide on the Nexus 7, and PC World had it at a good price. Off I go.
I come back, try setting it up, and go to the navionics website. Guess what? The navionics app doesn't work on the Nexus.
Royally p*ssed off.
 
Joker said:
Guess what? Having spent the morning researching androids, I decide on the Nexus 7, and PC World had it at a good price. Off I go.
I come back, try setting it up, and go to the navionics website. Guess what? The navionics app doesn't work on the Nexus.
Royally p*ssed off.
Click to expand...

I wonder why not? The Nexus is a pure Google Android product, so no manufacturers adaptations of Android to cock things up.

I wonder if it's because it has the latest incarnation of Android - Jelly Bean? Apparently, Jelly Bean is the first Android update that won't do Flash, so it's obviously fundamentally different to the previous ones - like Ice Cream Sandwich.
 
Joker said:
I know some people have hacked it, but I don't know enough about it to follow what they did.
I found a free player of flv files, which works well enough.
Click to expand...

Looks like there are different Navionics Apps for handsets and tablets:

http://androidforums.com/nexus-7/616066-navionics-marine-charts-nexus-7-a.html

Could this be why Apple can charge much more for their kit?

I'm very tempted to buy SWMBO a Nexus 7 for Xmas but, if the store is complicated and iffy, it might be extra money, and a smaller storage iPad mini.
 
tudorsailor said:
I have just downloaded Baltic charts to test, and they all seem there apart from the area around Bornholm for some reason
Click to expand...
Navionics Europe does not include Denmark, any of it. Denmark aren't signed up to whatever everyone else is. You have to buy it separately at quite a price .. Ho hum ...
 
Now I feel guilty!

Navionics works fine on my HTC phone and my Asus TF101 tablet

I now see that there are some threads regarding problems with the Nexus 7.

I see on the Navionics site that there are two versions of the Europe charts, normal and HD. I wonder if the HD would work with the NExus 7, but you only have 15 minutes to find out if you have wasted more money.

If you do get Navionics to woek, let us know.

Sorry?!

TS
 
Neil_Y said:
I've used an android Motorola Defy as chart plotter with Navionics as it's water proof (but this was open cat sailing offshore)

Be very careful in the Baltic archipelago's using a chart plotter to avoid the many low lying or just submerged rocks, many aren't that accurately placed on charts so you need to be aware of your surroundings and give them good clearance. There are just too many for them to have all been accurately recorded.
Click to expand...

I know that :mad: Swedish survey ships work in pairs with a chain stretched between them. Not everywhere cos its expensive and difficult so channels only.
 
tudorsailor said:
Now I feel guilty!

Navionics works fine on my HTC phone and my Asus TF101 tablet

I now see that there are some threads regarding problems with the Nexus 7.

I see on the Navionics site that there are two versions of the Europe charts, normal and HD. I wonder if the HD would work with the NExus 7, but you only have 15 minutes to find out if you have wasted more money.

If you do get Navionics to woek, let us know.

Sorry?!

TS
Click to expand...

It looks like HD works on tablets, and non-HD works on phones. There seems to be some confusion over whether the Nexus 7 is a phone or a tablet. It ought to be quite easy for Google to tell users which category the Nexus 7 falls into - given that developers are able to differentiate between types, it would seem that it ought to be a fundamental part of the specification.

Looks like there is some work to be done on the fundamentals of Android?
 
Something needs to be done somewhere. It's an absurd situation when a programme written for a specific operating system can't run on that system. Okay, OSs get upgraded, but we're not that far ahead.
 
first solid argument I have seen for an IPad. Its clear that the navionics software works on some android but not all. which ones are OK and which not?
 
The problem is the way in which Navionics are writing/publishing the programs. As far as something being a phone or a tablet is concerned, on an Android device this can be changed as the device holds a string which contains the device model and the OS release. When Google Play is used to buy or downlaod a program it looks at the device and OS version string and compares it to a compatibility list that is totally down to the application author.

The Nexus 7 uses the very latest version of Android (4.2.x) and I am assuming that Navionics haven't yet added compatibility for either the device, Android 4.2 or both. It's quite easy to spoof a different model so that Google Play thinks your Nexus 7 is something else that is compatible, not so easy to spoof the OS level.
 
Joker said:
Something needs to be done somewhere. It's an absurd situation when a programme written for a specific operating system can't run on that system. Okay, OSs get upgraded, but we're not that far ahead.
Click to expand...

Well I have a nexus 7 3g enroute so I hope something can be sorted.
 
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