ipad charging

AIDY

AIDY

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do I need anything special to charge the ipad on passage..... can I just use standard ipad lead with USB end and put it in to a USB adaptor in a 12v cig plug.

how long do they hold their charge for running as a chart plotter. with navionics
 
That works in a car so I would expect it to work on a boat with the engine running. My ipad complains about the lead sometimes but still charges. Newer iPads seem to take a long time to charge compared with earlier ones.

I assume a cigarette lighter charger would work equally well on a boat when the engine is not running, which would allow wind or solar charging, but it haven't tested this.
 
For peace of mind buy the apple branded car charger from the I store. The difference in price with cheaper sources is marginal. I find the pad charges from 25 to 100% in around 4 hours from a 12 volt source.
Once charged and running a navigation package with the GPS and AIS active you should get 4 to 5 useful hours. This can be extended by allowing the software to slip into hibernation during less critical periods.
Tbh I'm beginning to question the need for a heavy weight plotter with all their paraphernalia when the pad is so easy to use. All we need is an easy reliable interface with the autopilot.
 
I had great success using a voltaic Fuse 10W solar charger. 12 days autonomy with the iPad plotting 24/7 and also running other apps for weather and logbook. With my iPad 2 I could get 8 hours use by turning the screen brightness down and the Fuse battery could give 2 full charges to the iPad. The fuse needed a good 10 hours of sunlight to get up to full but with a bit of management it worked out nicely.

Bit pricy but very handy when boat power is limited.
Fuse10W-s.jpg

http://www.voltaicsystems.com/fuse10w.shtml
 
A 12v charger for an iPad needs to have an output of at least 2 amps at 5.5v. By no means all plug in chargers manage this, indeed most will only be about 0.5 amps, great for mobile phones but useless for the much higher requirements of an iPad. The charger Nigel recommends has two outlets with a total of 4.2 amps available between the two sockets. I have one and it charges the iPad at the same rate as the 240 volt charger you get with the iPad. Also, you need to use the original iPad lead to charge efficiently as it has some slightly different wiring inside compared to the non Apple leads - anyway, that's what I've found.

As regards using Navonics, the iPad battery will last about 6 - 8 hours if you're lucky. We use Navonics on the basis that we know more or less where we're going and the likely hazards so only turn it on when in the area of hazards we will have to avoid rather than running it all the time.

On the topic of needing to run the engine to charge the iPad, the charger will draw about 1 amp when working, so a reasonably sized battery will be able to cope with the demand without needing to run the engine.
 
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Not necessarily any good if you want to use the GPS, bluetooth, SIM function or Wifi, but a good tip is to put your Apple product into 'Flight Mode' (either from setting - general or (if running IOS 7) swipe up from the bottom of the screen). This charges the battery more than twice as fast than normal. I've charge both my iPad and iPhone via the cable is came with and a car style USB ciggie plug thing, works fine.
 
Like he said with the Powergen charger.
I got one of these this year and it charges ipads etc. and android phones a treat.

I reckon it's the only power supply that can keep my phone running with the screen on without sapping the battery when i'm using navionics.

Incidentally 2A at 5v is about 1A at 12v taken from the battery per hour.
 
Lots of experience has shown us just how good your charging set up needs to be.
1. The cables to the cig socket need to be as fat as possible
2. The lead to the ipad from the cig charger needs to be as short as possible - Amazon and ebay sell really short ones and they charge much faster
3. Leave GPS on but turn off wifi and Bluetooth
4. Keep it out of sunlight - they get very hot when charging in the sun
5. Turn down the screen brightness by just a few percent and it uses way less power than on full brightness
6. Buy a high capacity rechargeable mobile power source. We have one that's about half the size of a brick that cost £25 and charges an ipad fully about 3 times between charges. It means the lead to the ipad can be very short, you haven't got cables going everywhere and you can charge it at the marina - and for normal daily use the ipad will last the best part of a week.
 
charles_reed said:
As Nigel points out - not all usb leads are equal.

Get one guaranteed to charge Samsung/Nokia phones and check that the 12v outlet doesn't conform to the USB 2 power spec of 0.5 amps @ 5.5v. Or it will take eternity to charge...
Click to expand...

+1 on the USB charging cables. Most cables sold are really only fit for data and low rate charging.
It's really worth paying extra for the proper Belkin or Apple cables.
 
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