PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
It's surprising how small the dealer margin is on electronics, mostly because the big online sellers discount everything so much, giving nearly all of their trade discounts away.
Displaying Android-hosted charts on Axiom plotter
- Thread starter whaup
- Start date
It's surprising how small the dealer margin is on electronics, mostly because the big online sellers discount everything so much, giving nearly all of their trade discounts away.
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
My MFD has a WXGA IPS display, with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. It is far from clunky or laggy, but yes it wasn't cheap.
I have had a few Samsung tablets, the current one is not, as you infer, a "cheap" one. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08FCNHP4C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
It's a nice little tablet, at a very reasonable price and does a decent enough job of what i purchased it for. It connects to my onboard router and displays data from a Pi4, it can act as a stand alone plotter using the Garmin app', it can mirror the Garmin MFD, but here it can clearly be seen to start slowing down. If i wanted to i could obviously use it for the internet, email and a ton of other app's, but that's not what i bought it for. Whilst it can show all of the data from my N2K network by mirroring the MFD, it cannot do so in stand alone plotter mode (still a very handy backup plotter though.
The MFD obviously makes a great plotter, the charts include a ton of additional information. It shows tides, tidal streams, all of the data from my N2K network, it will control the autopilot, display AIS and initiate a DSC VHF call to a target at the touch of a "button", it will display radar and/or overlay it over the charts, it will display down view, side view and forward scan sonar, it has wifi, can output its display over HDMI, will connect to and control Fusion audio systems, can display engine data, will control digital switching systems, it will connect directly to NMEA0183, N2K and J1939, it will update itself and any other Garmin equipment on the N2K network, over wifi, etc, etc
What is the ram on say a 12" axiom, or cpu? Why do they hide that information ? is it still pretty poor? I would expect at least 1920x1080 for a £2000 axiom, yet it only manages half of that.
Thats just my dark ages opinion
I do think a modern high end plotter is really nice. The software is really comming along with integration and ability, its just the hardware that seems a little behind and overpriced
The current Axiom Plus 9 has a WXGA IPS display, with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, the 12" model has a WXGA IPS display, with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels
Your statement "A display of 800x480 on a 7 &9" axiom is dark ages stuff" relates to the oldest, smallest and lowest price Axioms, the 7", for instance, costs less than £700, about the same price as i once paid for a top of the range Samsung Tab Pro, that did no more than the £200 one i now have.
The tablet and the MFD both have their place and i have uses for both on my boat. For an extra £200 i can (and do) have the plotter at the helm and a 10" display below decks (or under the sprayhood if i'm taking shelter). In the past, i would have had to have paid for a second plotter to be fitted below decks. Garmin** have put wifi in my MFD, written the software to allow the MFD to communicate with the £200 tablet, written an app' for the tablet (which they give away for free) and allow me to use the charts i bought for my plotter on the tablet. That's all free of charge and i can put them all on two Android or iOS devices, still for free. I'm pretty happy with that
**Raymarine and Simrad/B&G also offer similar apps and chart deals.
whaup
Active Member
Thanks. I was aware that the charts couldn't be loaded onto the Axiom but was hoping it might have the capability to mirror the tablet screen. TBH, I'm not really surprised that it doesn't but hey, worth asking, I think!
Yes, my preference was for raster charts, though you may be right about the screen issue. I haven't used electronic charts enough to form a proper view, yet- the chartplotter on my current boat was pretty old and had a small screen, so we just used to it monitor our location. It was MUCH easier to read in daylight than any tablet or phone that I have used, though. It died last winter, so I've replaced it with a small Active-tab and VMH/Antares charts, as those seem to have the best underlying data for my expected sailing area.
My major concern is detail & updates, a secondary one is inconsistent presentation. I like the fact that the VMH/Antares charts are similar to my paper ones. A secondary concern is that I don't want to invest a lot of time & effort in setting up and using electronic charts, only to find that I need to repeat it in a few years because the technology and interfaces have moved on. I spend enough time learning & relearning how to use IT at work without wasting boating time on it.
Do the lighthouse charts have detailed, recent survey data for the West Coast of Scotland? I'm more concerned about data than presentation, which seems to be their main marketing point.
I'm intrigued by PaulRainbow's comment about the additional information displayable on an MFD, as this is something I've no experience of: is this much use? What does it offer over the "traditional" row of instruments over the hatch?
Boathook
Well-Known Member
My mfd is a few years old being a raymarine eS one. It works very well as a plotter, can show all the instrument data, set waypoints etc for the autopilot, show radar (if I get a newer version of radar) and with the correct connections basically control the boat from lights to engine management. What it cant seem to do is make the tea but no doubt someone on here will disagree and design the interface. It was a lot of money but will hopefully last quite a few years. I am getting tempted to purchase a forward looking sonar which it will quite happily run / control.
Moodysailor
Well-Known Member
We went from a Raymarine C70 to Axiom+ 9", so have some experience of new tech and old. Both were running Navionics charts, but the experience is night & day. The resolution, speed and detail on the Axiom+ are not only better, but much more intuitive - full disclosure, I'm an Android guy (phones, tablets, etc) so that may have something to do with it, but all from setting up the WiFi, custom screens and overlays, to using the "essential functions" is faster, better and easier.
We had a deck saloon so would use the tablet in the cockpit and had the MFD at the lower helm. We did this as this is how the C70 was fitted. In hindsight, I should have put the Axiom+ outside when installing - for pure charting it is easily better than a tablet, and the fact that you can things like split-screen chart view with one simple view for easy pilotage, and one with satellite overlay for identification of visual landmarks is very cool, and surprisingly handy. The anchor alarm feature on the Axiom is also very good.
The other features - well on ours we had AIS, wind, speed & depth instruments so these all fed to it. When you have a course in it will the give you laylines for best VMG. Of course, thanks to NMEA2000 and Android the world is your oyster here - want fuel & water tanks levels, easy. Control lighting, yep too. Stream Spotify from the chartplotter to the radio, just a few clicks away. And tons more....
Edit to add: updating both the firmware on the Axiom, and the charts is also really easy and done by your phone, so getting, and ensuring the latest detail was simple. This is for Navionics, I am not sure of the coverage for lighthouse charts in the areas you want, so a message to Raymarine to confirm their chart sources would be worthwhile before committing. Navionics is always pretty good form what I have seen & heard.
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Hoolie
Well-Known Member
Fairly recently I bought my first MFD - a Raymarine Element 7S that's the entry level in their range. It's fairly self-contained and has wifi, but connects to NMEA 2000 and can display most of the data on the bus. It also drives an optional chirp echo sounder/fish-finder. The display is not only an incredibly bright 1500 nits but is also transflexive ( not mentioned in the sales blurb ) so the brighter the sunlight the more visible is the display.
Cost? Just under £400. Beat that with a cheap tablet!
Cost? Just under £400. Beat that with a cheap tablet!
Wing Mark
Well-Known Member
That seems a pretty good price.
What charts does that include?
What's the annualised cost of keeping the charts current?
I'm not sure I 'get' MFDs, the last boat I sailed on with serious instruments had compass and speed displayed under the gooseneck where everyone could see them. Including people on the boats we overtook!
But at 400 quid it only needs to be a plotter, not a big premium against Onwa.
The big question might be whether madam can get any sense out of it without her specs on.
Hoolie
Well-Known Member
Charts not included at that price, but it's compatible with Navionics low-cost Silver charts.
Wing Mark
Well-Known Member
Thanks!
Rappey
Well-Known Member
Some great information posted. Has been nice reading. ?
