Cheap navigation.

[BAtoo]

If you go the notebook route you can buy a larger battery for many (7200AH vs 2400AH on some of the cheapies) for £50 ish; which will extend your battery life somewhat - but not to that of a tablet.

The Nexus7 newbie from Google looks tempting, has built in GPS....https://play.google.com/

 

[Nicholas123]

Seems to me that if you are going to go down this electronic navigation route you might just as well get as big a screen as possible & that means a laptop of some sort.Also I imagine they are more versatile.So.....I shall try to buy a cheap gps for the trip shortly when I bring the boat back from Belgium & buy a laptop at my leisure to fiddle about with electronic charts & all that stuff.
I have made a note of the laptops & peripherals I think they are called to add on & would welcome any more recommendations,all the best Nicholas.

 

[nevis]

Thanks for your advice gents,this ai'nt a simple subject & I am still prevaricating......torn between buying a laptop that would then use to much power by the sounds of it or buying one of those iPad "android" things,whatever they are

DONT get a laptop they are too power hungry,i use a net book and can use it all day,by closing the lid when not looking at it to save power.i also use an i phone with Navionics installed.

 

[SteveSarabande]

I have a dell mini 9 netbook, no hard drive (sd card), no fan, battery lasts for ages

 

[sailorgirl]

If you are planning to navigate outside of the UK & English Channel then a laptop is the way to go. We purchased a new one earlier this year after our 2001 boat Toshiba Satellite failed on us - or rather my newish HP Netbook got pressed into service and I got a new ultrabook It uses about 2.3 amps when charging (ie when its been run on its internal battery without ships power for any period) and about 1.5amps in normal use (ie when connected to the ships supply).

Here are a few tips from my PC savy skipper:

Look at netbooks that have fewer included "peripherals" (eg DVD/CD player etc)- research their power requirements before purchasing as some seem to consume huge amounts. Our new netbook uses approx 50% of its predecessor.

Turn off everything you don't need at sea eg wifi, bluetooth, anti-virus, sound card, security, any automatic software updaters, screensaver set to black, lower screen resolution, lower brightness etc etc. That way you minimise its power requirements. You can easily adjust these again if you need to connect to the internet to update software.

Keep the internal battery in it to avoid spikes etc around the boat and ensure you have ferrite on both sides of the 12 volt charger. You can buy extra ones in Maplin

Velcro works well to fix it into place - ours lives on a shelf above the chart table where its also fairly well protected. I lift it down when passage planning

A USB 2.0 hub keeps cables tidily tucked away - mouse, serial to NEMA converter etc

The laptop 12v charger also offers the ability to charge phones & iPods when it is connected.

Hope these are useful

S

 

[ffiill]

I got a gps plug and play receiver for £20-better pick up than my Garmin;my dedicated lap top an old IBM thinkpad cost about £50;Charger about £15 ;set of admiralty derived UK charts £30;all of US waters including Pacific Islands and US Caribbean islands £ zero.
South Pacific Ocean excluding French Polynesia but including NZ and Tasman Sea £zero;Brazil if you need it £zero;NZ annual tidal data £zero(www.linz.govt.nz)
Sailing Directions (Admiralty Pilots)for anywhere -NGA £zero;World Wind Vectors- NGA £zero)Tidal Prediction Programme World Tides valid for another 30 years £ zero(www.mdr.co.nz)

 

[Nicholas123]

I just bought a Garmin Etrex on Ebay to get my boat back from Belgium in a few weeks time because I can't afford to frig about much longer.......
Thanks for all your valuable advice,I shall no doubt return to this subject later.