Expensive and tired old technology?

[Graham W]

Master & Commander, 1969.

[Michael Rogers]

Thank you, Graham. Trust you to know!!
Michael

[AndyB]

As requested please see in the library section , maintenance & modifications - boat instruments (https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=2710) an article on my boat instruments, how it is setup and what programs I wrote to get it all working. I hope it is not too detailed but conveys what I have been doing.

If there is anyone out there who wants a similar approach or just questions on general setup please do get in touch and I will try and help out.

Best regards
Andy B

[Graham W]

Thank you Andy.  Even if most of us (including me) are not tech-literate, we can all appreciate the stunning clarity and sophistication of what you have on your Kindle screen shots.  The oligopolist chart plotter brands charge ludicrous prices for items that at the margin cost them virtually nothing to push out - chart upgrades in particular.  I think that they’re cutting their own throats in the longer term, particularly if your approach becomes commercially available based on large high definition colour e-ink devices.

Interesting that you helped on Openwind.de.  Well done for furthering the Bluetooth-based cause, which should ultimately produce all the data that you need, transmitted wirelessly and seamlessly to devices of exceptional clarity.  And requiring neither a big battery nor deep pockets.  We’re definitely getting there!

[Graham W]

I’ve just come across another waterproof tablet-based navigation system by Norwegian company Orca https://getorca.com.  I’m not quite so convinced about this one compared to its Belgian competitor Sailproof https://sailproof.shop.

It’s quite a bit more expensive than Sailproof and unless I’m missing something, can’t operate as a normal tablet in its spare time.  Its battery seems to be about 25% smaller.  It relies on NMEA 2000 and wifi rather than Bluetooth to connect to the rest of any network (including transducers).  And although it makes claims about readability, I couldn’t find any information on the technical specification of its screen, which seems to be sourced from Samsung.  If you want to rely on its underlying charting and other software (I’m not sure that there’s any choice in this), then you have to pay a large annual subscription.  And looking at comments on the owners’ club, there seem to be quite significant software glitches.

In short, it doesn’t seem like the oligopolist-killer that Sailproof and a gaggle of Bluetooth-oriented sensor companies (Calypso, Openwind, Echozilla) may one day turn out to be.

[Martijn]

I’ve just come across another waterproof tablet-based navigation system by Norwegian company Orca https://getorca.com.

My brother has one of these, and it's a drama. The connection between the Orca and display/tablet often is lost, syncing routes between the 2 doesn't work and lots of other issues.
He's ditching it in favor of a Garmin, so if anyone has an interest.... 

[Graham W]

Here’s another rugged Android 11 tablet that shares many of the attributes of the Sailproof 10 but at significantly less than half the price https://www.amazon.co.uk/OUKITEL-RT1-10000mAh-Octa-Core-1920x1200-Black/dp/B09LC65BX6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa.  It’s IP68 waterproof, has a large battery, a 10” screen, GPS and Bluetooth and appears to be well protected from drops and knocks.

Sounds too good to be true?  For our purposes, it probably is, as although screen resolution is similar to that of the Sailproof, the Oukitel’s sunlight readability is probably insufficient - 350 nits vs the Sailproof’s 1,000 nits.  It might be suitable for use at a below decks chart station but probably not in the cockpit.

[Graham W]

Scrolling down the Amazon page for the Oukitel RT1, I noticed that there’s a much newer model, the RT2.  This has twice the battery capacity and memory of the RT1 and runs Android 12 but appears to be in all other respects the same.  It is still only half the price of the Sailproof but would probably still suffer from the same sunlight readability issues as the RT1.  See https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BFX2X7TS/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0.