ipad gps navigation

THECUSCUS · Jan 31, 2014

I use the Navtronics app along with ActiveCaptain to get info on marinas and anchorages. And use isailgps app for real nautical charts. You can make waypoints and routes with overlays. Very easy to use both.

Sailm8 · Jan 31, 2014

There are 100's of posts and debates on this topic. Use the search function "ipad for navigation".

Chris Patterson · Jan 31, 2014

For what you are doing, Navionics on that pad will probably perform very well.

You will see shortly how the floodgates have been opened concerning the ipad debate, which reaches a crescendo only equaling anchoring techniques.

I sailed a lake with number two Catalina, and never once turned on the radio, or depth. Or opened a chart, despite it being 540 miles of shoreline. But I can see the pad being a source of entertainment, and for basic day time navigating a small boat in inland waters.

Bill1565 · Jan 31, 2014

willsnow said:
does anybody use an ipad for navigation? and by that, i mean as a back-up to real charts... i received an ipad for christmas and initially wasnt sure exactly what i would use it for. well after a little research, i figured out that mine is gps-enabled and there are several marine navigation apps for it... from some of the reviews, it sounds like i can basically turn it into a chart-plotter. plus, i can download movies onto it and watch them at anchor and i can keep it charged with a simple car charger for any apple device. im thinking of building a mount for it on the companionway bulkhead that would be usable from the settee for route planning and swivel into view of the cockpit for following those routes. anyway, do any of you use this for navigation? if so, which app do you run and what do you think of it? ive been reading a lot of reviews, and im thinking of the navionics marine app, it seems to have better inland lake coverage which is where i live and currently sail

We use an IPad running Navionics as our primary nav tool. Have a small screen raymarine on when we are moving, but it is small, dark and cumbersome compared to the IPad. Yes, we have a backup Garmin hh plotter and further back paper charts, but it is the IPad that gets us from here to there. Be sure your mount swivels and tilts to control glare.

fox islander · Jan 31, 2014

...we use iNavX with UltiMateGPS. Works very well for us. It was intended to be our backup, but has become our primary nav tool. Get a high quality hard case for the iPad.

Ward H · Jan 31, 2014

willsnow said:
does anybody use an ipad for navigation?
i received an ipad for christmas and initially wasnt sure exactly what i would use it for.

A popular topic. I tried several of the navigation apps and have settled on Navionics USA. I mostly day sail but I like to track where I have sailed and see the distance and speed data at the end of the day. Garmin Blue Chart does not do that as well. This season I am going to try Skipper as it seems to track more data.

Weather Apps are also very useful and plentiful.

You already know you can use the iPad to watch movies and listen to music. Another use is to use it for all your boat manuals, logs, notes, etc.
I use Evernote on my iPad. Evernote is a note keeping app in which you can create notebooks and notes inside of those notebooks. Every manual or instruction sheet for everything to do with my boat is kept in EN in PDF format. I use Evernote to keep logs of my sails and send the tracking data from Navionics to EN to use as part of the log.
I keep all my To Do list in Evernote and make notes of what tools and supplies I need on a trip to work on the boat. Before I leave the boat I make a note for my next visit to help remember things I need, measurements, photos to record what I did.

I use Evernote on the iPad to organize articles on how to do things. Rope splicing articles and my OutBoard Manual came in real handy on the boat last year. Instead of keeping all these things in binders I just put them on the iPad.

I also use the iPad as a Kindle Reader. I get my Good Old Boat, Practical Sailor and Boat US mags in electronic form and send them to the Kindle Reader on the iPad. No more paper copies.

Any order confirmations or receipts I receive by e-mail I mail to my Evernote account and organize for boat and not boat receipts.

Evernote has a great search feature. Put in a search word and it will search every PDF, Note, Word Doc or practically anything else in EN.

Can you tell I like Evernote? Yep I am a big fan. It is free to download and use but the free version keeps your stuff on their server and it downloads when you open the note. For $45 a yr everything downloads to your device so you don't need cellular or wifi to use it.
EN will synch with several things like you home computer and phone so they all have your notes on them.

So, don't just look at the iPad as a navigation tool, which it does real well, but also as a document organizer so you can get rid of all the paper docs on the boat.

Have fun with it.

usual disclaimer, not associated with EN, just a happy user.

Brian D · Jan 31, 2014

Is your iPad a stand alone version or does it have WIFI and/or Cell service. Wondering if it is worth the trouble if the GPS in the unit is not a real GPS but AGPS which needs WIFI or Cell Service to determine its location.

I don't think Apple devices have real GPS receivers. I know my Blackberry does. I can turn it on, in a plane, at 30,000 ft, put it near the window and get a fix. My Garmin can do the same thing, but my iPhone 3GS cannot do that. So I do not believe as much as everyone says it does, that Apple devices do not have real GPS receivers.

dandrews · Jan 31, 2014

Brian, not so sure I agree with you on iPad and gps. My iPad has gps, even with no wifi or cell service I get a very accurate fix. There are iPads that don't have true gps receivers, but there are models that do.

Don

Kestle · Jan 31, 2014

Ward H said:
A popular topic. I tried several of the navigation apps and have settled on Navionics USA. I mostly day sail but I like to track where I have sailed and see the distance and speed data at the end of the day. Garmin Blue Chart does not do that as well. This season I am going to try Skipper as it seems to track more data. Weather Apps are also very useful and plentiful. You already know you can use the iPad to watch movies and listen to music. Another use is to use it for all your boat manuals, logs, notes, etc. I use Evernote on my iPad. Evernote is a note keeping app in which you can create notebooks and notes inside of those notebooks. Every manual or instruction sheet for everything to do with my boat is kept in EN in PDF format. I use Evernote to keep logs of my sails and send the tracking data from Navionics to EN to use as part of the log. I keep all my To Do list in Evernote and make notes of what tools and supplies I need on a trip to work on the boat. Before I leave the boat I make a note for my next visit to help remember things I need, measurements, photos to record what I did. I use Evernote on the iPad to organize articles on how to do things. Rope splicing articles and my OutBoard Manual came in real handy on the boat last year. Instead of keeping all these things in binders I just put them on the iPad. I also use the iPad as a Kindle Reader. I get my Good Old Boat, Practical Sailor and Boat US mags in electronic form and send them to the Kindle Reader on the iPad. No more paper copies. Any order confirmations or receipts I receive by e-mail I mail to my Evernote account and organize for boat and not boat receipts. Evernote has a great search feature. Put in a search word and it will search every PDF, Note, Word Doc or practically anything else in EN. Can you tell I like Evernote? Yep I am a big fan. It is free to download and use but the free version keeps your stuff on their server and it downloads when you open the note. For $45 a yr everything downloads to your device so you don't need cellular or wifi to use it. EN will synch with several things like you home computer and phone so they all have your notes on them. So, don't just look at the iPad as a navigation tool, which it does real well, but also as a document organizer so you can get rid of all the paper docs on the boat. Have fun with it. usual disclaimer, not associated with EN, just a happy user.

I use Evernote also a lot, but note it needs an internet connection for the iPad version, just like Dropbox does.

I keep manuals in a pdf reader only for boat stuff on the iPad

Jeff

Brian D · Jan 31, 2014

Don, which iPad version do you have?

Bill1565 · Feb 1, 2014

Brian D said:
Is your iPad a stand alone version or does it have WIFI and/or Cell service. Wondering if it is worth the trouble if the GPS in the unit is not a real GPS but AGPS which needs WIFI or Cell Service to determine its location. I don't think Apple devices have real GPS receivers. I know my Blackberry does. I can turn it on, in a plane, at 30,000 ft, put it near the window and get a fix. My Garmin can do the same thing, but my iPhone 3GS cannot do that. So I do not believe as much as everyone says it does, that Apple devices do not have real GPS receivers.

Real gps is on the cell phone chip. You do not need cell service, but you need cell capability. Alternatively there are several add on GPS units, including blue tooth wireless ones. A year ago when we bought our IPad the price difference for cell phone capable was about $100. The wired dongles were about $95, Bluetooth $125. No brainier to get cell phone capable. He'll of a time getting the sales clerk at best buy to let us go without activating a cell plan.

quadrille38 · Feb 1, 2014

Sailm8 said:
There are 100's of posts and debates on this topic. Use the search function "ipad for navigation".

As suggested here there are dozens of threads with hundreds of posts on this subject already. No need to reinvent this wheel. Here are five threads to get you started. http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=154699 http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=147027 http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=136258 http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=135082 http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=127886

dandrews · Feb 1, 2014

Brian D said:
Don, which iPad version do you have?

Believe it or not, I have an iPad 1. The one with wifi, cell AND gps.

Don

Brian D · Feb 1, 2014

Don, thanks. I will be looking around for a 1st Gen iPad with WiFi.

chuckwayne · Feb 1, 2014

Brian D said:
Don, thanks. I will be looking around for a 1st Gen iPad with WiFi.

Brian, you need the cell phone capable version to get the built in GPS. I have one and it works well for navigation (Navionics app)

quadrille38 · Feb 2, 2014

If you want to use the GPS resident in the iPad you need cellular capable ipad but you do not need a cell plan. Recognize though that the iPad cellular monitors only 3 satellites so the accuracy while good is somewhat less than than a traditional GPS that tracks 12 satellites. I did buy the wifi / cellular capable iPad and run Inavx with the Navionics charts. What I did to improve accuracy and increase flexibility is: - purchased an external GPS antenna from Digital Yachts - purchased an AIS antenna from Digital Yachts - purchased Digital Yachts wireless hot spot device. The AIS and GPS antenna are connected to the wifi sender so that the ipad wirelessly receives the GPS and AIS data and feeds it to the Inavx software. Very accurate and easy to use interface. - at the same time this allows me to pull NMEA data off the feed and run it to my VHF radio so that I'm able to broadcast position data when the emergency broadcast function on the radio is used. - as an added featured I use Weather Trac application that allows you to pull down GRIB files and overlay them on the inavx chart. This shows you wind and weather current and predicted conditions in 2 hour increments layered right on your navigation charts. Makes weather and trip planning a dream since you can see wind directions and speeds over time on your planned route. - very happy with INavx as they routinely and very responsively push out enhancements on their product via the App Store. And if you have any questions they are so responsive and helpful via their on line Q and A feature. I do have a cellular data plan active on my iPad because it allows me to access email (even when sailing work sometimes calls) and the features like weather Trac when I'm in locations where I don't have wifi service. - added to that I can pull NMEA data from my Raymarine Seatalk network to the Digital Yachts sender which then wirelessly broadcasts so that my speed, depth and wind data is displayed in inavx. Acts as a repeater to the main instruments. - receiving AIS A signal allows me to see traffic on my iPad right on the charts. - this year I'm planning to upgrade my Digital Yachts wifi device to one that will not only receive AIS A but also send and receive AIS B so that I can see and be seen by others. In conditions where visibility is reduced I figure being able to see others and to broadcast so others can see me is an added safety feature. - as mentioned in other posts I purchased an iPad holder from Zarcor. Mounts right to the pedestal guard so that display is right at the helm. I have a 12 volt outlet at the pedestal that allows the ipad to be plugged in and run off the house battery for longer voyages. Some downsides that are not insurmountable but that you need to be aware of. - ipad is not waterproof. Not a problem for us because we have Bimini to cover cockpit. It's easily solve though. They sell fancy covers for ipad although you can use a low tech solution. Just get a ziplock bag and put the ipad in it. The touch screen will work right through the bag. - glare can be a problem. Again with out Bimini it isn't a problem. The Zarcor bracket easily tilts so that you can adjust angle too. One kind of funny thing I learned was when I had sunglasses on and the ipad in vertical position the screen went black. When horizontal it was fine. Dawned on me that it was my polarized sunglasses and the polarization built in to the ipad that was causing me to see a black screen.

nolasafari · Feb 2, 2014

I have an iPad air, the standard wireless version no phone support, I use a Dual blue tooth puck.

http://gps.dualav.com/explore-by-product/xgps150a/

I used the Dual with my original first gen. iPad and it worked excellent. Better fix than the cell tower triangulation.

Brian D · Feb 2, 2014

Don, did I read your post wrong or did you edit? LOL I thought I saw WiFi only. Gonna have to rethink my strategy. Don't need another cell tower dependent device. Have too many.

Quad... that is a lot of work, but glad you have the accuracy you need.

Jim... bluetooth... have link, will check.