IPAD & Navionics?

[Billeilers]

Navionics on IPad

Next week we will begin bringing our new to us Grand Banks 42 Classic down from Nashville TN to Guntersville AL, where will will likely keep it for the winter. Though suggestions at this great site I located online and ordered some chart books that should be here by weeks end.
I’ve been watching on YouTube the postings of a person who is doing the Loop and recently came down the TN River to the Tenn Tom. His channel today discussed what he has used for navigation, which has been Navionics on a Samsung tablet. He says he purchased an IPAD not knowing it doesn’t have “auto navigate” and it just didn’t work well. Do any of you know if he’s correct about this and have you experienced the same problems with an IPAD? Sine I have one already I would certainly prefer to use what I have, but I don’t suppose $220 is the end of the world if a Samsung will serve me better.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I have been using Navionics on my iPad Air for 2 years. It works great. I don’t know what you mean by auto navigate. It does work with auto route generation. And I can then send the route to my Garmin chart plotter via active captain and the the chart plotter runs the auto pilot

 

[Jayzona]

Next week we will begin bringing our new to us Grand Banks 42 Classic down from Nashville TN to Guntersville AL, where will will likely keep it for the winter. Though suggestions at this great site I located online and ordered some chart books that should be here by weeks end.
I’ve been watching on YouTube the postings of a person who is doing the Loop and recently came down the TN River to the Tenn Tom. His channel today discussed what he has used for navigation, which has been Navionics on a Samsung tablet. He says he purchased an IPAD not knowing it doesn’t have “auto navigate” and it just didn’t work well. Do any of you know if he’s correct about this and have you experienced the same problems with an IPAD? Sine I have one already I would certainly prefer to use what I have, but I don’t suppose $220 is the end of the world if a Samsung will serve me better.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I use a Microsoft Surface Pro with TimeZero navigation software. It comes with a USB satellite puck and it has been flawless.

 

[MVDarlin]

I use Coastal Explorer for planning on a pc that lives on the boat with good results in Mexico. I use an external USB antenna, $18..

 

[amapola]

We use Navionics and AquaMap on an iPad Pro. It works great but we also rely on our Garmin chartplotters for depth, weather, etc.

 

[cbouch]

iPad vs samsung

Navionics works on both a iPad and non-iPad tablets (Samsung) you need to make sure that it is gps enabled as explained in earlier post. The big difference between the two and I think the point of the original post is that an iPad is limited to 100 way points so therefore you might have to break your route into smaller pieces. Samsung does not have this limitation. Both the lack of gps in non cellular models and the 100 way point limitation in apple products was / is a programmer or marketing decision. I use an ipad because I already had some, if I was going to buy another with the primary use navigation it would be the Samsung . Oh ya, at 1/3 the cost..

 

[R. Bush]

Position Accuracy

How accurate are those built-in GPS chips? Even if your iPad/Samsung tablets have a built in chip, would the accuracy not be increased if you connected them to an external optimally positioned unit whose only purpose in life was to provide accurate GPS data?

 

[Parvey]

I’ve used various generations of iPads with Bad Elf and Dual GPS pucks. Worked flawlessly.

—Jim

 

[Alaskaflyer]

IPAD & Navionics?

How accurate are those built-in GPS chips? Even if your iPad/Samsung tablets have a built in chip, would the accuracy not be increased if you connected them to an external optimally positioned unit whose only purpose in life was to provide accurate GPS data?

I found the newer gen ones to be pretty darn accurate so long as they have a good view. When I had my plane I bought a puck for my iPad and compared over several weeks between it and the native GPS using an app with scatter plotting and saw no appreciable difference in the air, on the ground or in my car. That said, the iPad wasn’t in a yacht cabin.

 

[cbouch]

I have an iPad and a garmin 942xs running right next to each other..I have found that the iPad is usually a second or two ahead of the garmin for speed, position and heading updates.

 

[Johnboyrtw]

I bought a Grand Banks 42 in N.C. in May and we brought her back to the Gulf Coast using Aqua Maps. I had Navionics also but I preferred Aqua Maps. Both worked great on our ipads. You can download all the maps you need for your trip to your ipad and it will work fine without any cell or wifi connection. I also have it on my android phone. I have chart plotters on the boat but it is much easier to just use Aqua Maps. Congratulations on your new boat. The GB 42 classic is a great cruising boat. We have a 1996 model with Cat 3208 375hp turbos. We are on the Alabama gulf coast.

 

[PhilInYVR]

As mentioned above, you need an iPad with cellular capability (Apple calls those models ‘WiFi+Cellular’). Any of the newer models with cellular capability come with GPS and GNSS. And as Firehoser75 says, you don’t need a cellular plan unless you want that for other reasons.

You can share your GPS data from your phone to a non-cellular iPad (also mentioned above) but it’s a little more techie to get that to work and to debug it if it stops working, plus you lose some redundancy, so if the price difference to get a WiFi+Cellular version doesn’t cause heartache then it’s easier to use if you get the cellular version.

I use Navionics autorouting all the time to check trip distances and durations while planning a trip. Once I decide where I’m going I’ll adjust parts of the route manually to account for my preferences and to take into account local knowledge gained from charts, cruising guides, etc. But in general I find the autorouting in Navionics to be pretty good in waters near me, but I never assume it is, I always walk through the whole route and confirm/adjust.

I use AquaMaps too, on my phone, for kayaking. I set my ‘boat’ at 3.3 knots and manually create routes since AquaMaps does not seem to have an autorouting function (or maybe I have the cheap version?). And when kayaking I always explore nooks and crannies so I always put in a very twisty manual route and the average trip is 10-20km, so autorouting is not a big miss when planning that way. But for a longer trip in my lobster boat, Navionics autorouting saves a lot of time when checking big-picture routing options. E.g. I can quickly determine getting from my marina to a particular harbour in one of the Gulf Islands is going to take 7.5 hours roughly. That’s a very handy feature.

 

[ScottinMA]

iPad + Navionics

iPad with cellular capability (for gps) no cell plan running Navionics and Netgear M1 hotspot (AT&T sim 100 gigs $55/month) for Wi-Fi to upgrade charts along the way etc. Traveled from Cape Cod to Bar Harbor and back using auto-routing feature on Navionics and totally amazed by it! Still need to verify the route drawn but exceeded my expectations. Have aqua map on tablet too but never used it.

Scott
Andiamo 2004 Mainship 390.

 

[Seevee]

As for the Bad Elf accuracy, yes, it's better, however the specs for the Ipad GPS are + or - 10ft... probably close enough. And there's a "surveyors" Bad Elf that's really accurate... more than we need for a boat.


The one thing that bothers me with the Ipad, is the waypoint limits for autorouting. So a modest run in the ICW or rivers with a lot of turns runs out of waypoints and it pretty short... perhaps as short as 15 miles, which is a pita.



I've thought about the Galaxy but have some questions, especially for you folks that have both:


Will my subscription work on the Galaxy without buying a second subscription? IE: perhaps using the same sign in info... it that possible?

And, does the Galaxy operate somewhat similar to the iPad in transferring documents, copying, saving, etc.

 

[John R M]

To answer your first question, yes. I used Navionics on my PC to build the routes after discovering the waypoint limits on the Ipad version. Simply synching the program copies the routes to the Ipad version, of course after you've signed into your account.

I believe the functionality is the same vis a vis copying, saving, etc. but it's been a while since I used it.

 

[jgwinks]

You need to make sure the tablet has a gps chip. The ipads with cellular capability also include the chips, the wifi only ones don't (at least on the older ones). You can get an external gps device to connect via bluetooth if it doesn't have the gps chip but it is a bit of a hassle and best to avoid when you are buying an ipad for this purpose.

Same thing with most Androids. If it has cellular capability it's really a big cell phone, and cell phones are required to have GPS to interface with the 911 system so most have both functions on the same chip. Can't get one without the other. No need to put cellular service on it unless you also want it to be a phone or stand alone internet device.

 

[Hippocampus]

Just did a transit on our new to us boat and also crew for other folks. A really big advantage of navionics on a iPad is its totally mobile. Yesterday was faced with old RM MFDs. When crewing its everything under the sun. So put the IPad in a lifeproof plug into a dc outlet and good to go. Working off of something your familiar with and simple touch screen controls you know how to work makes a huge difference in your stress level. Then you only need depth, speed through water, radar/AIS on the unfamiliar screens.

 

[jgwinks]

Just did a transit on our new to us boat and also crew for other folks. A really big advantage of navionics on a iPad is its totally mobile. Yesterday was faced with old RM MFDs. When crewing its everything under the sun. So put the IPad in a lifeproof plug into a dc outlet and good to go. Working off of something your familiar with and simple touch screen controls you know how to work makes a huge difference in your stress level. Then you only need depth, speed through water, radar/AIS on the unfamiliar screens.[/QUOTE

I put a SonarPhone sounder in the boat, it puts a fish finder or simple depth meter right on the Navionics screen or their own app on the tablet or phone. That could be portable too. Only needs 12 volt supply and some way of mounting the ducer. I actually ran mine for a while just sitting in 1/2" of water in the bilge. Shot through the hull just fine and worked well. As I recall was only about $150 on Amazon. They have versions that go on a fishing line like a bobber, that would be really portable but you'd have to keep changing the batteries.

 

[jgwinks]

How accurate are those built-in GPS chips? Even if your iPad/Samsung tablets have a built in chip, would the accuracy not be increased if you connected them to an external optimally positioned unit whose only purpose in life was to provide accurate GPS data?

There's no easy way to compare, but I've never seen a detectable position error on my cheap tablet once it's settled in. That's with it out in the open where it can get good signals. If you have to use it under heavy cover, especially in a metal boat, a remote antenna would be better.

 

[Highland Mist]

Same here as localboy. Have been using Bad Elf gps puck with Navionics on my IPAD for years as a backup. Great tracking, good data, simple to use.

 

[DLETF]

iPad for navigation

Our trawler has a Raymarine Axiom Pro MFD with Navionics e-charts for primary navigation and a WiFi iPad with Rose Point Navigation Coastal Explorer (CE) for backup. The iPad is linked a Vesper Marine XB-8000 AIS device for heading information. In reality, I prefer using CE on the iPad to the Navionics on the MFD. ActiveCaptain Community is available on CE.
In addition, CE on my iPhone constitutes another navigation option.

 

[neworleansrich]

My Garmin InReach populates GPS info to my iPad running iNavx as long as the iPad and InReach are synced on Bluetooth.