GPS and Tablets
I've been doing quite a bit of off-shore sailing this summer, off the Maine coast. It's been an unbelievable summer, weather-wise...great!
Anyways, my business partners have a 38' Cape Dory with a complete nav station in the cabin. The problem is the amount of time they have to move from the top-side cockpit down into the cabin nav station. These guys aren't spring chickens and after 8-10 hours the wear and tear is evident. Soooo, we wee thinking about adding a tablet with GPS and nav charts to keep up on deck as an easy reference.
From what I read, most tablets, like ASUS, Samsung, etc have GPS hardware built in but use a-GPS as a way to quickly establish your location. They use cellular GPS to get a quick fix and then finalize your location once you have the necessary satellites points established. But I've also been told that Tablet GPS uses the cell networks to establish location.....which is problematic out 30-40 miles offshore.
So my questions are-
(1) can we use Tablets "as is" with true GPS capture?
(2) If not, I have a BT-20 "Earthmate" Bluetooth GPS receiver - are there any android apps that will read this? I've asked the manufacturer, DeLorme about this, but perhaps there are DUers who know.
If we can do this, the cost of a tablet plus nav chart sw is a fraction of what a true marine GPS would cost.....granted there are downsides to this, but as a 2nd backup and a tool in the cockpit, it's a pretty slick, lowcost option if we can make it work.
= new reply since forum marked as read
