Sunlight viewable screen for OpenCPN, Uk and Antares charts.

[Crowblack]

Or as near to it as possible ?

Although I've got a dedicated plotter on board last year started playing with OpenCPN combined with the UK charts from VisitMyHarbour and Antares charts for Scottish anchorages.

Fired it up a couple of times on board and used it in anger creeping into anchorages - was very impressed with how seamlessly the the two sets of charts worked together.

I've upgraded to latest OpenCPN and new Antares charts and if anything although not used on the boat yet seems even better.

Thing is though compared to my dedicated plotter the screen on my laptop is a b****r to see in any kind of bright light - you also have to be more or less in front of it to see it clearly.

So now thinking of replacing my trusty old (5/6 years) Acer with it's 15.6 screen with something a bit newer - can anyone reccomend what sort of screen I should be looking for in the spec of a new laptop so it would more "sunlight viewable".

Don't want a tablet - the chart table on which the lappy sits is just inside the companionway - the boats only 26' so easy to see the screen and manage the boat at the same time.

Is it possible to get a laptop with a screen which is more sunlight viewable or do other things suffer like the evenings DVD or TV watching ?

 

[causeway]

to be comfortably viewable you really need an IPS panel with matt covering. you can buy the anti glare screen protectors, maybe this woulld do?

 

[Merlin38]

I had the same dilemma and found daylight readable PCs too expensive. I have elected to use a Nexus 7inch Android tablet costing about £170 from Google. The UK raster admiralty charts are from gpsnauticalcharts costing about £15 for all UK waters. The Nexus is mounted in the cockpit under the sprayhood and is very good in daylight and quite large enough as it is normally viewed from about 12 inches. The Nexus has inbuilt GPS. My PC, a 5yr old Dell, remains at the nav station down below and is used for planning and backup. Protective cases and 12volt chargers for tablets are about £10 each and electric consumption very low. Hope this helps.