Best Handheld Charterplotter

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Sailfree

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Recently approached St Hellier, Jersey with seasick SWMBO in a F6 and using the inshore route at night. Obviously I was almost completely reliant on chartplotter.

Thought its about time I bought a handheld chartplotter as an independant unit for backup.

Is buying an i pad a alternative - where does it get its GPS signal from? Dont think they are waterproof but could put it in a plastic sleeve. I heard one person saying that with Navionics package he was using it more than his on board chartplotter. Prefer to have a simple solution thaty will not tax my limited IT skills.

What do you recommend?
 
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Sailfree said:
Is buying an i pad a alternative - where does it get its GPS signal from?
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Satellites, same as any other.

You do need to buy the one that has a GPS chip in it. This is advertised as being the 3G (ie, mobile phone technology, with a SIM card) version, and this has confused some of the hard of thinking into believing that the positioning is done using the phone network.

Pete
 
I know of someone selling an unused Raymarine RC400 including chart card for £250, posted. I was going to buy it but the timings not right. PM me if you would like his contact details.
 
Navionics on my Android phone is just great - combine it with a waterproof case that hangs round the neck and it makes a good device while doing tricky pilotage. The downside is that the battery life is pretty poor (a few hours) so not a serious option if you regard backup as essential.
 
Garmin Montana

A very pleased user.
Better IP rating than most mobiles.
Very Robust,
Good battery life,
Back up with normal AA cells if required.
Easy to upload and dowload routes or waypints by USB to PC.
A touch screen that works.
Intuitive to use.
We use the rugged marine mount under the spray hood most of the time. Easy to mount and demount without having to reboot or restart. Good compromise screen size for a H/H. Any bigger and my small hands would struggle to hold it.

Use it regularly to rock dodge through the Menai Strait.
 
Thanks PVR,

Please excuse my lack of IT skills but had a cold call from Vodaphone offering me one free with IIRC 4GB of memory @ something like £27 pm for 24 months. I assume the alternative is buy from apple and get a seperate SIM data card.

If I go the I pad route whats the most economical route. For outright purchase are they cheaper abroad?

Seems like my first decision is whether an i pad would do as it has other uses benefits or go for a dedicated handheld chartplotter that Iwould only use max 4wks per yr.
 
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If you are thinking about a backup for your fixed chart plotter, I would suggest that the iPad is a bit fragile to rely on. Personally, I would go for something from Garmin - almost indestructable. Force4 are doing a good deal on a Garmin eTrex with charting for under £200 at the moment (http://www.force4.co.uk/347/Garmin-eTrex-Vista-HCx-Handheld-GPS---FREE-BlueChart.html).

Apart from being almost indestructable, the big advantage of a Garmin hand-held is that it runs off a couple of AA batteries. Keep a pack of Duracells in the locker and you have navigation available on demand for years to come. Things like iPads have built-in rechargeable batteries with relatively low capacity. They also have a fair level of self discharge - leave it unused for a couple of weeks and you could easily find that it only has a run-time of two or three hours with no option to swap batteries when it runs flat.
 
I would say your best option currently is to get a Google Nexus7 tablet for £159. This is an amazing unit, and very portable with great battery life too. With the Navionics app you can navigate anywhere - there are different apps available for different areas. You can also combine this app with e.g. ScreenFilter which can be used to dim the screen for night time use or there is also Lux which can put a red filter over everything.

http://www.google.com/nexus/#/7
 
maby said:
If you are thinking about a backup for your fixed chart plotter, I would suggest that the iPad is a bit fragile to rely on
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Certainly the iPad is a lot less robust than a dedicated plotter, but I'm not convinced that's a problem for something carried as a backup. Your main plotter is already relatively unlikely to go wrong - in the event that it does, what are the odds that you reach for your iPad and find that is also on the blink?

Pete
 
prv said:
Certainly the iPad is a lot less robust than a dedicated plotter, but I'm not convinced that's a problem for something carried as a backup. Your main plotter is already relatively unlikely to go wrong - in the event that it does, what are the odds that you reach for your iPad and find that is also on the blink?

Pete
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I think a lot depends on the pattern of usage of the iPad and how disciplined the user is. Forgetting questions about its physical robustness, I would be concerned about battery life, particularly if the device is used as a general purpose tablet as well as a backup plotter. I've seen theoretical figures of around 10 hours quoted, but I guess that running the GPS continuously may pull this down. If it is being used as a general purpose device as well as a backup plotter, we should assume that on average it will be around 50% charged at any moment - and sometimes may have just an hour or two of charge left. If those batteries run flat, there is nothing fast you can do about it. A Garmin etrex will run for 12 hours on a pair of AA cells - which have a shelf life of several years. Just one pack of four AA Duracells will give you up to 24 hours navigation for just a few pounds - when the first pair go flat, you just have to swap them out and you are back up and running in a couple of minutes.
 
maby said:
I think a lot depends on the pattern of usage of the iPad and how disciplined the user is. Forgetting questions about its physical robustness, I would be concerned about battery life, particularly if the device is used as a general purpose tablet as well as a backup plotter. I've seen theoretical figures of around 10 hours quoted, but I guess that running the GPS continuously may pull this down. If it is being used as a general purpose device as well as a backup plotter, we should assume that on average it will be around 50% charged at any moment - and sometimes may have just an hour or two of charge left. If those batteries run flat, there is nothing fast you can do about it. A Garmin etrex will run for 12 hours on a pair of AA cells - which have a shelf life of several years. Just one pack of four AA Duracells will give you up to 24 hours navigation for just a few pounds - when the first pair go flat, you just have to swap them out and you are back up and running in a couple of minutes.
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The iPad will run directly from 12v as well as its internal battery.
My vote In this case would be for the iPad.
 
As a last line backup and for dire emergencies, a Garmin handheld is the best choice, IMO.

I have a 12" laptop that would be first line of defence. If the plotter packed in i would use the laptop. It cost just over £100 second hand on Ebay and uses OpenCPN and some downloaded charts. Add a Garmin handheld for GPS and you have a 12" plotter for about £150.

If the laptop then packed in i'd use the Garmin handheld as a lazy way to get a fix for the paper charts.

If we had to abandon to the life raft, the Garmin GPS and a handheld VHF would go with us.

The laptop has other uses onboard. Can check email with it, weather reports and where the nearest good pub is. Could watch a DVD or play some music on it. Many of us have one already, so would only need to download the software and charts, then add the handheld.
 
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PaulGooch said:
...

If we had to abandon to the life raft, the Garmin GPS and a handheld VHF would go with us.
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That is a very good point - I would not give an iPad five minutes in a liferaft or dinghy environment - a handheld radio and GPS could be a real lifesaver.
 
FWIW...

I have all the gizmos including Raymarine chart plotter, iNavex on iPad and Garmin GPS76 CSX. I have the Blue Charts too.

Plan on the iNavex and sail on the Garmin mounted on the binnacle.

Screen is small but it is the dogs B******* at navigation.:D
 
I have a Samsung 10" netbook with Open CPN, downloaded (CM93) charts and a USB GPS as back-up. If you already have a netbook or a laptop you don't need to spend any more than the cost of the USB GPS (£25ish) to have an effective back-up. I also have an old 2xAA battery powered Magellan GPS 300 that's over 20 years old now but still works fine...
 
I've used an Android HTC Desire/Navionics with replaceable battery as a plotter. It's not very satisfactory for the following reasons ....

If you need to take it on deck to identify lights, harbour entrances etc. it needs to be pretty robust. Devices designed for the coffee table tend to have a problem with salt spray, rain and direct sunlight (making them overheat and the screen unreadable).

The battery always runs low at the least opportune moment, just as you need it for pilotage, it has to go below for a re-charge. If it fully shuts down due to a low battery it takes minutes to get it back online again.

They're slippy little bu**ers and love to go bouncing round the cockpit, most likely to happen when attempting to get it in or out of its holder.

By the time you've bought and fitted all the wires, holders and waterproof cases to negate their shortcomings, it looks like a dogs breakfast and you could buy a robust Garmin Handheld outright.

So for me, the Android is now a backup, backup, behind the two chart plotters, OpenCPN on a laptop, my paper charts and a handheld Garmin GPS (no charting facility).
 
maby said:
I think a lot depends on the pattern of usage of the iPad and how disciplined the user is. Forgetting questions about its physical robustness, I would be concerned about battery life, particularly if the device is used as a general purpose tablet as well as a backup plotter. I've seen theoretical figures of around 10 hours quoted, but I guess that running the GPS continuously may pull this down. If it is being used as a general purpose device as well as a backup plotter, we should assume that on average it will be around 50% charged at any moment - and sometimes may have just an hour or two of charge left. If those batteries run flat, there is nothing fast you can do about it. A Garmin etrex will run for 12 hours on a pair of AA cells - which have a shelf life of several years. Just one pack of four AA Duracells will give you up to 24 hours navigation for just a few pounds - when the first pair go flat, you just have to swap them out and you are back up and running in a couple of minutes.
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The iPad figures are for when it is doing stuff so 10 hours is 10 hours. 50% charge actually does mean that you have 5 hours left and this takes a bit of getting used to. Quite often I panic at 50% out of habit but then hours later, sometimes watching video I'm pleasantly surprised.
My Garmin handheld runs on AA batteries and will last for a day but only if I don't use the screen. If I have the screen on all day it's about 4 hours.
 
I bought a Garmin GPS78s with a chart, and find it far to small screen to be any use. Ipad and Navionics is great, have only used it once but good for tidal and wind info. The Garmin cost almost as much as Ipad but I could live without it. I have an old Magellan unit which is really good after at least 10 yrs.
 
flipper said:
I know of someone selling an unused Raymarine RC400 including chart card for £250, posted. I was going to buy it but the timings not right. PM me if you would like his contact details.
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I've got one of these as it came with the boat. They're ok, but I wouldn't buy one over a modern solution. They have two problems. Firstly, battery life is pants. You will get maybe an hour on battery - I use mine hooked up to the 12v socket. Secondly, mine has a bug that causes it to lose fix periodically, requiring a reboot. I've googled it and it doesn't seem like I'm alone in this. No fun if you're going across the SW Sunk, as I was when it happened recently. I think you can do better than one of these.
 
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