Reply With Quoteit will work Ok, depends if you want to deal with a tablet at sea. A lot different to dealing with it on the couch, most people don't bother because it just becomes a PITA for anything other than very occasional, casual use.
Just curious if anyone has used an iPad, or even a phone as a plotter?
A few years ago I noticed iPhone GPS positioning was often hundreds of metres off but lately it seems pretty accurate. And the App store has NavLink or SeaNav for US and UK.
Decent plotters seem very expensive when every modern phone has GPS?
it will work Ok, depends if you want to deal with a tablet at sea. A lot different to dealing with it on the couch, most people don't bother because it just becomes a PITA for anything other than very occasional, casual use.
google maps in satellite mode (for the background, rather than street maps) is great. Use it on my android phone all the time.
Been using the iPad as a plotter/GPS for about 5 years, works great, tested them with normal GPS and 40km offshore was within a few meters (not enough to tell the difference on the screens). There are a few different software packages, iNavX or Navionics, (I prefer iNavX as could import/export waypoints) both for around $50 in iTunes, full charts for AUS cost about $70 (xTraverse and now Navionics) so for under $150 have a 10" chart plotter, need to already have the iPad and waterproof case (Lifeproof seems to work the best).
One issue is that they chew through battery when you are using them to navigate. Need to make sure you have a power source to plug your charger into.
Remember to always log on before heading offshore.
My mate runs one with navionics.
two issues that give me the shits are you have to press lots of buttons to navigate through the menus.
And it over heats on the dash and turns off. When this happens you lose all your bread crumb tracks.
I think he is shopppng for a proper plotter as we speak.
Thanks rob
Above post sums it up. Just not made for the job. Need to waterproof, and using them when the weather is shitty and bouncing you around is hard. Hell, I used to run a laptop as one of my plotters, but that was on a 50 footer....
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