Chartplotter on a Tablet - advice?

[Rockfish]

Purpose built marine GPS Navigation/Chartplotter units are critical safety gear for your boat in today's world. They are expensive because they have many features and are built out of very high grade components and are armored, water and shock proof/resistant and fully adjustable for brightness for use at night or in bright sun. They are built to industry certification standards. The are also designed to be hard wired and fixed mounted so they can't fly around the boat in heavy seas and break or cause injury. My unit also has an external GPS antenna on the roof which increases position accuracy.

Navigation apps on phones and tablets are best suited to augmenting your main marine navigation unit and as back up navigation in the unlikely event of main navigation failure. In my view the apps on phones etc. as your only navigation unit, don't have the robustness and dependability that you would want in the worst circumstances when you may be betting the survival of your crew and your boat on the navigation unit surviving and working correctly.

Even as back up, apps on phones and tablets are not as robust or dependable as purpose built handheld color GPS chartplotters which are also armored and built for durability and industry water and shock proof standards and certifications. I have a Lowrance Expedition c handheld GPS color Chart Plotter with Navionics as back up. It is an older unit but I trust it to keep working in the worst conditions and situations on the ocean more so than I do my Samsung cell phone, even with its bulky water and shock resistant Otter Case armor added on to it to protect it.

 

[Tyler Brinks]

I gave a similar situation much thought and have settled on this set up for this year:
Lowrance/Navionics with overlay as my main screen.
Guiding out of Ukee last summer gave me a VAST appreciation for overlay.
Using the SonarChartLive gives you ridiculous chart accuracy.
Out back, I have the main unit mirrored to a cheap Android 10" tablet on a RAM mount (this set up allows the tablet to control the main unit). Keep the tablet out of direct sun and rain (under my bimini).
My waterproof Android cell works as a back up navigation device if needed. It has the Navionics app too.

My set up has much flexibility, isn't stupidly expensive, and is fairly user friendly.

this is how I have it setup for Navionics SonarChart live. I still run the main maps on my electronics but get the mapping started on my iPad and then put it away. It is recording all day while I am fishing and then once I get back to my home wifi it sends the updated map info to Navionics to add to their data.

 

[Rain City]

What tablet are guys running for this setup? My Lowrance HDS 12 Gen 3 has a wifi link which I can run to my phone. It's pretty cool. I can actually remotely run my plotter from the app. I want to get a tablet that runs apps, has wifi and gps but I dont need tons of memory or cell phone service. Apparently the Fire, well, isn't fire at all. So that's out. Anyone know of one that isn't an expensive Ipad?

 

[Saveth]

I use my 2nd gen nexus7 tablet I got in 2013. If that tablet ever decides to die, Ill use my phone until I find a suitable replacement.

 

[Rain City]

I use my 2nd gen nexus7 tablet I got in 2013. If that tablet ever decides to die, Ill use my phone until I find a suitable replacement.

And you can get Navionics and the Lowrance Link apps?

 

[Saveth]

And you can get Navionics and the Lowrance Link apps?

I've never used the link app but I think I'll give it a shot next time I'm on the water

 

[Ground Tackle]

Purchased last month the Samsung Tab E 9.6 tablet has built in gps and glonass $213 online - check specs very few listed glosnass but this one did got it online from Bestbuy. Loaded the navonics and paid the $29.99 yearly subscription and bought a heavy duty otter style case with a screen protector cost all together under $300 and so far really happy with it. We use it under a hardtop - readable as get enough shade to block direct sun on screen. Still run the lowrance fish finder/plotter but tablet is great. Also hardwired in a usb charging port into dash so we can have tablet useable while charging.

 

[Tyler Brinks]

I've run both the Android and iPhone tablets and both times the app worked the same. Samsung makes a pretty good tablet that won't break the bank. or maybe look for a used ipad. My ipad is probably six years old and still works great for this purpose of taking it on the boat.

 

[bpsuls]

While

Purpose built marine GPS Navigation/Chartplotter units are critical safety gear for your boat in today's world. They are expensive because they have many features and are built out of very high grade components and are armored, water and shock proof/resistant and fully adjustable for brightness for use at night or in bright sun. They are built to industry certification standards. The are also designed to be hard wired and fixed mounted so they can't fly around the boat in heavy seas and break or cause injury. My unit also has an external GPS antenna on the roof which increases position accuracy.

Navigation apps on phones and tablets are best suited to augmenting your main marine navigation unit and as back up navigation in the unlikely event of main navigation failure. In my view the apps on phones etc. as your only navigation unit, don't have the robustness and dependability that you would want in the worst circumstances when you may be betting the survival of your crew and your boat on the navigation unit surviving and working correctly.

Even as back up, apps on phones and tablets are not as robust or dependable as purpose built handheld color GPS chartplotters which are also armored and built for durability and industry water and shock proof standards and certifications. I have a Lowrance Expedition c handheld GPS color Chart Plotter with Navionics as back up. It is an older unit but I trust it to keep working in the worst conditions and situations on the ocean more so than I do my Samsung cell phone, even with its bulky water and shock resistant Otter Case armor added on to it to protect it.

It is true that in general they are more reliable than tablets but considering the massive cost of a branded system like Lowrance they are not as reliable as they should be. Just the other day my MFD was marking us way off the position that we actually were, i knew from common sense it wasn't correct and i even use a Point 1 antenna. Turned it off and back on and resolved itself and hasn't happened since. I have used the Lowrance link app and even just the Navionics with the simple GPS on a Tab E. The cons of the tablets is they are hard to see in the sun, and generally only have a 1Hz GPS which isn't great on step. The 10Hz GPS that is part of the external NMEA antennas are better, but man the touchscreen feedback such as pinching and so on with Lowrance units at least plain sucks compared to a tablet, and the resolution is much poorer compared to tablets. They are definitely more robust though, and i will always have a branded system on my boat but the thought that they are mil-spec quality has certainly not been my experience.

I certainly hope our military has better equipment than this!

 

[Rain City]

Ended up going with the Galaxy S5 10.1
Costco had a great deal which included the keyboard case for free. This will be the computer, the TV and the second plotter for the boat. Now to find mounts.