Navigation Software for new tablet

Got a new Nexus 7 32gb for Xmas. Any suggestions/recommendations regarding navigation software? Looked at a few potentials but all seem to have their critics. Anyone using a new (2013) Nexus 7 for navigation? From what I can gather, Navionics only supports last years model. There are a few inexpensive apps, but, I'm just a little skeptical about just how accurate they might be.
Thanks for your input.

I use "plan2nav" by Jeppeson on my ver1. Nexus 7 . I'm not sure about the new Nexus. This program syncs with active captain as well.

Mark

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

Although it is not navigation software you might want to load up the free Active Captain Companion. Even it you don't use it actively it does give you access to the Active Captain hazards, bridges, tides, anchorages and marina information offline.

Dave

i have the maxsea app for my ipad. They probably have a android version as well.

I dont navigate with it but i use it frequently for route planning.

I recommend a good tidal chart app as well

Kevin:
I checked their web site and didn't see any reference to either Android or Apple OS. Just windows based. What I'm trying to do is back up my Raymarine system. I have a handheld Garmin, but this Nexus has a much bigger screen and a true built in GPS which I could also attach an external antenna if required. Maybe I have to wait another year or so before a reliable app is developed. Just would be handy to have.

Barpilot said:

Kevin:
I checked their web site and didn't see any reference to either Android or Apple OS. Just windows based. What I'm trying to do is back up my Raymarine system. I have a handheld Garmin, but this Nexus has a much bigger screen and a true built in GPS which I could also attach an external antenna if required. Maybe I have to wait another year or so before a reliable app is developed. Just would be handy to have.

Click to expand...

I got mine at the iTunes App Store. The App was free and for aprox 50 bucks I got North America charts.

The apps are so inexpensive that it's worth having a few to experiment with and then have multiple backups with. I use Plan2Nav on my N7.

I have Marine Navigator. I started with the free or 'Lite' version and upgraded to the reasonably priced full version. uses Noaa charts downloaded from the web. Honestly, its as good or better than any 'recreational' chart plotter. For planning and for active captain access i use 'nuticharts' it is not a plotter but it is a great, fast, Active captain interfaced, planing tool.

the active captain app, companion is a pain in the BUTT to use. don't even waste your time until they get some better quality maps. When you zoom in close enough to see which marker you are clicking on the map gets so blurry you can't see geographical features to help 'index' where you are looking at.

Barpilot said:

Kevin:
I checked their web site and didn't see any reference to either Android or Apple OS. Just windows based.

Click to expand...

Looks like it is an IPad app at this time, see website

MaxSea looks the same as the Nobletec TimeZero app, both use mmd3 charts only.

Barpilot said:

Got a new Nexus 7 32gb for Xmas. Any suggestions/recommendations regarding navigation software? Looked at a few potentials but all seem to have their critics. Anyone using a new (2013) Nexus 7 for navigation? From what I can gather, Navionics only supports last years model. There are a few inexpensive apps, but, I'm just a little skeptical about just how accurate they might be.
Thanks for your input.

Click to expand...

I know that there are people having OpenCPN running on the "Nexus 7"

From the other forum "On my Nexus-7 (2013) I was able to install Debian-Wheezy, XFCE, plus OpenCPN. TurboGPS feeds the Nexus GPS-data to OpenCPN."

Link: Scroll to message #300

For OpenCPN Link: OpenCPN a Chartplotter and GPS Navigation Software.

eseyoung said:

the active captain app, companion is a pain in the BUTT to use. don't even waste your time until they get some better quality maps.

Click to expand...

That misses the point about what the Companion is. The map display is a minor element right now. The major thing is being warned by voice about hazards in your path and having something that keeps all the ActiveCaptain data offline. There are 15,000 people who have installed it. Surely some who have been warned about going aground don't think it's a pain in the butt to use.

There are probably dozens of marine charting and navigation apps, but to keep up with the descriptions and user reviews of marinas, anchorages, hazzards etc along the way the Active Captain Companion ap is first class.

ActiveCaptain said:

That misses the point about what the Companion is. The map display is a minor element right now. The major thing is being warned by voice about hazards in your path and having something that keeps all the ActiveCaptain data offline. There are 15,000 people who have installed it. Surely some who have been warned about going aground don't think it's a pain in the butt to use.

Click to expand...

Agreed. there is much potential and am looking forward to the updates. i am one of the 15000, in fact i have it on 3 devices. I have never used while underway for voice alerts of danger. So if that is the primary purpose then i am not using as you intended.

ActiveCaptain (website) is a great planning tool, which is how i attempted to use companion. Honestly, it is not a good tool for planning or to see what is nearby. Perhaps it would work better (for that purpose) somewhere that 'things' weren't so close together.

I am not trying to offend you in anyway. I am sorry if i did. I am just trying to be honest about the software i use.

eseyoung said:

ActiveCaptain (website) is a great planning tool, which is how i attempted to use companion. Honestly, it is not a good tool for planning or to see what is nearby. Perhaps it would work better (for that purpose) somewhere that 'things' weren't so close together.

I am not trying to offend you in anyway. I am sorry if i did. I am just trying to be honest about the software i use.

Click to expand...

That's fair - it's not good for planning right now. My goal for the first release was to just get it out and working on the 4 platforms. That's pretty much complete with very minor issues. There's a tremendous amount coming next for it.

I'm not offended - I'm from Brooklyn, NY - you've got to try really hard to offend me! I just want to see the app being used for it's intended use - and it's really an app for use while underway.

well, if i am being honest...i don't need another thing to run, watch or play with while underway. MAKE IT DO IT ALL! Cmon' i know you can! LOL @ Being from Brooklyn...i was thinking all that easy Maine coastal living made you soft! In fairness and disclosure i used to work for Bean in Freeport.

ActiveCaptain said:

The apps are so inexpensive that it's worth having a few to experiment with and then have multiple backups with. I use Plan2Nav on my N7.

Click to expand...

Hi, AC, does your app work with Navionics, and for our waters around Australia, or is it mainly North America orientated..? I like the idea of some voice warnings, a la car nav apps…hearing you might be in danger from something like a shallow before you find out you are sounds good to me...

Peter B said:

Hi, AC, does your app work with Navionics, and for our waters around Australia, or is it mainly North America orientated..?

Click to expand...

It's worldwide. It doesn't use nautical charts - it's really for something different.

Re: doing it all...

It just can't. And a chartplotter can't do the things the Companion will do. We're sort of at the point, I think, where we don't need yet another screen showing charts and your position. I think there's a need for additional knowledge and help while underway.

For example:

1. A display showing where your friends are located and where they're moving to shouldn't be cluttering up your navigation screen.

2. A display looking ahead at your next week (or month) of travel can continuously assist you with fuel purchases once it knows how much fuel you carry, how low you're willing to go, and how much you burn. Looking at all the possibilities of pricing will find a variety of ways to save money in major ways.

3. When your route includes a restricted bridge ahead (perhaps many miles ahead), your chartplotter is doing too many other things to maintain an accurate ETA for the bridge based on no wake zones and perhaps even current in the channels.

All of those things are best done on a separate display. I personally think that a phone is the perfect platform for the capability especially since there are voice alerts built in so as to not take your attention until it's really needed.

Those are 3 things. We have 3 pages of planned enhancements like that which we consider companion types of functions that just don't exist on any chartplotter today.

So I could spend time building nautical charts or I could work on adding these functions that just don't exist anywhere else. Given that I honestly think it'll all work better on an additional display, I can't see wasting time on charts. It would also greatly cut the use outside the US (which today is 65% and shrinking every day).

i agree no need for charts. There are plenty of plotters that do that just fine. Maybe a google maps overlay? that would be fine for the purpose.

I don't need to navigate with it, but, when i zoom in on Baltimore, inner harbor, for example, the markers are so close and the maps so bury i literally can't use it because i can't make out geographical feature to help to tell exactly where/what part of the harbor i am looking at.

Now that i have totally hijacked the op's thread. Sorry bout' that.

ActiveCaptain said:

--

Click to expand...

eseyoung said:

i agree no need for charts. There are plenty of plotters that do that just fine. Maybe a google maps overlay? that would be fine for the purpose.

I don't need to navigate with it, but, when i zoom in on Baltimore, inner harbor, for example, the markers are so close and the maps so bury i literally can't use it because i can't make out geographical feature to help to tell exactly where/what part of the harbor i am looking at.

Now that i have totally hijacked the op's thread. Sorry bout' that.

Click to expand...

This is not hijacking a thread, this what i call destroying a thread with advertisements.

ActiveCaptain is NOT Navigation Software............

ActiveCaptain said:

Re: doing it all...

It just can't. And a chartplotter can't do the things the Companion will do. We're sort of at the point, I think, where we don't need yet another screen showing charts and your position. I think there's a need for additional knowledge and help while underway.

For example:

1. A display showing where your friends are located and where they're moving to shouldn't be cluttering up your navigation screen.


All of those things are best done on a separate display. I personally think that a phone is the perfect platform for the capability especially since there are voice alerts built in so as to not take your attention until it's really needed.

Click to expand...

I'm going to disagree on this point. I don't want another device I have to reference for info. A cell phone dangling from the instrument panel and a tablet some how attached to a suction cup on the helm with a way too dim screen just doesn't appeal to me. Why not just incorporate all this info into the plotter as layers that can be turned on and off as needed.
Most plotters already have this in the form of AIS and radar overlay.

Imagine your plotter with the ability to display weather radar data from weather bug oriented at your position, active capt data, and who knows what else as layers. True Internet connectivity is the next big thing for plotters. No more dangling cell phones or hard to read tablets. Maybe they'll sell plotters with dual displays-one computer 2 displays. Aircraft have this.

Barpilot said:

Got a new Nexus 7 32gb for Xmas. Any suggestions/recommendations regarding navigation software? Looked at a few potentials but all seem to have their critics. Anyone using a new (2013) Nexus 7 for navigation? From what I can gather, Navionics only supports last years model. There are a few inexpensive apps, but, I'm just a little skeptical about just how accurate they might be.
Thanks for your input.

Click to expand...

We've been experimenting with Jeppeson's plan2nav, which uses C-Map vector charts. Free app, cheap charts, so far works well. And as others have said, Active Captain integrates in a way that makes all that info available offline.

We also started experimenting with MX mariner, which uses NOAA raster charts here in the US. Cheap app, free charts, so far works well... and I e-mailed with the developer a few months ago about more frequent in-app chart updates (incorporating Notices to Mariners) and that's something he said he was working on.

(I also e-mailed with the Marine Navigator app developer about the same issue; his recommendation was just to use LNMs... which sort-of wasn't my point.)

Some have mentioned MaxSea on the iPad. Last I contacted MaxSea in France, they had no Android option... and a quick check on the Play store just now didn't turn one up. If they get a round tuit, that would certainly be a good choice for us, given that our plotter uses the MaxSea engine, and given that we also have Time Zero on both boat laptop and home desktop computer mostly for planning purposes. Add a GPS source, E Voila! Yet another backup...

The Nobeltec Time Zero thing is probably bound to be MaxSea. Also not on the Play store (at least that I can find). Probably reinforces that there's no Android version of MaxSea available. (Yet?)

Other useful apps have been about radar (Radar Now) and other weather (Marine Weather by Bluefin), tides, local weather (local TV stations) as well as Weather Underground, Accuweather, Weather Channel, etc.

-Chris

timjet said:

I'm going to disagree on this point. I don't want another device I have to reference for info.

Click to expand...

Everything available in the Companion is available to any chartplotter application or hardware. Even the server-assisted parts will have API's allowing all of the functionality to be anywhere.

But I doubt you'll see many of the companion functions in many chartplotters. Some things like point-of-interest markers should be in chartplotters because you navigate to them. Showing where your friends are located will probably end up in some chartplotters too. But other capabilities take too much processing.

The typical helm today doesn't have a single display. But most of the displays are showing pretty much the same thing once they're showing more than just instrument data. I think there's a need to have an electronic assistant next to you at the helm providing many of the things that a real assistant would provide if they were constantly looking ahead for you. There are some incredible advantages this can provide. Give it through 2014 to unfold - I'd love to have this exact same conversation at the end of next year.

timjet said:

... Why not just incorporate all this info into the plotter as layers that can be turned on and off as needed.
Most plotters already have this in the form of AIS and radar overlay.

Imagine your plotter with the ability to display weather radar data from weather bug oriented at your position, active capt data, and who knows what else as layers. True Internet connectivity is the next big thing for plotters. No more dangling cell phones or hard to read tablets. Maybe they'll sell plotters with dual displays-one computer 2 displays. Aircraft have this.

Click to expand...

I tend to agree that's a likely path going forward. A difficulty is backwards compatibility.

When we got our fairly new plotter (and it's already almost obsolete, of course) we gained the ability to overlay AIS and weather. Nice. But in order to overlay radar, we'd have had to replace a perfectly functioning -- but older -- radar. Big bucks.

And then along comes wireless and so forth. Yes, I can get lots of stuff off the 'net... but can't easily get most of it to that existing plotter...

And I can't see folks replacing pretty good stuff every 2 years or so...

Which means I think that there's a niche for acquiring and displaying stuff by other means -- devices or whatever -- for part of the market, even if folks buying new equipment today aren't almost necessarily forced to deal with it as best they can.

-Chris

ranger42c said:

We also started experimenting with MX mariner...

Some have mentioned MaxSea on the iPad...

The Nobeltec Time Zero thing is probably bound to be MaxSea...

Click to expand...

I should have added info about this. I'm in direct contact with all of the companies.

MX Mariner works well under Android today and provides charts for US/UK/NZ/Brazil. The missing charts for this audience is probably the Caribbean and Canada along with the inland rivers of the US. They've promised ActiveCaptain support and I've had numerous discussions with the developer over the last 3 years.

MaxSea/Nobeltec's iPad app is pretty much the same software. Both applications under Windows support ActiveCaptain today. Today their iOS apps only support the iPad and there is no Android support.

Jeppesen Plan2Nav is available for Android today with worldwide chart support. It's the app that I use on my Android devices for navigation and it has ActiveCaptain support today.

The absolute best way to get support for a capability or platform like Android is to get a bunch of people together and have them individually write to the developer and tell them what they want. This is a small market. Getting 50 emails makes a big difference. Almost all of these developers are not in boats (there are exceptions) and don't use any of this stuff for real themselves. They don't really know what's needed and rely on feedback from you.

The real reason there is much less Android support than iOS is that Android users purchase many fewer apps than iOS users (this is well known in all application areas). And purchase is the wrong word because free apps are downloaded much less under Android too. I have 3 apps in both Google Play and the iTunes store. Although there are more Android devices than iOS devices today, iOS downloads happen 300% - 500% more than Android downloads for my own apps. Few vertical market Android developers make a good income. I'm working with multiple single-guy iOS app developers who bring in $10,000 - $20,000 per month in iOS sales. THAT is the reason there are fewer Android apps for boating - it's very hard and rare to make money developing for Android. So if you have Android devices, start downloading the apps you like and buy them. And get every other boater with Android devices to do the same. Android owners slit their own throats by not paying for quality apps.

I don't have an i-pad, but this is the OS's I found on their site that they support.

Basics
What are the operating systems compatible with MaxSea TimeZero?
MaxSea TimeZero is compatible with Windows 8 (only version 2), Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista certified computers.

I'm also pretty sure I'm going to be kicking myself in the rear for ever starting this thread.

I am very pleased with the Active Captain Companion. It is a great compliment to
My Chart plotter. Chart plotter is for operational now use and the AC assists with looking a little ahead of the picture.

This is exactly my thoughts, downloaded for iPhone, but held off on iPad:

eseyoung said:

Agreed. there is much potential and am looking forward to the updates. i am one of the 15000, in fact i have it on 3 devices. I have never used while underway for voice alerts of danger. So if that is the primary purpose then i am not using as you intended.

ActiveCaptain (website) is a great planning tool, which is how i attempted to use companion. Honestly, it is not a good tool for planning or to see what is nearby. Perhaps it would work better (for that purpose) somewhere that 'things' weren't so close together.

I am not trying to offend you in anyway. I am sorry if i did. I am just trying to be honest about the software i use.

Click to expand...

I use Nuti-charts and Active Captain Companion as back-up to my Garmin 3210. I also have a few different tide apps also. There is a ton of APPS out there. I cruise the ICW but my tablet apps are for back-up. I still use paper charts also; contrary to what has been in the boating rags lately.

Chris