To search the collective mind...

Is anybody out there with personal experience - not hearsay - on gps receivers for tablets on yachts?

I am after an independent gps source, not an agps - which is an assisted gps working on triangulation based on repeaters, or towers - which most tablets have anyway.

Anyone used a GARMIN GLO?

Hi j

I have and do use a bluetooth puck gps receiver like this one
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Globalsat-BT-821C-Bluetooth-GPS-Receiver-4-Laptop-Tablet-SmartPhone-New-BT-368-/330894758403?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item4d0add5203

I purchased my puck over 3 - 4 years ago for under $30 and have had it successfully work with eeepc (ibm) , osx and ios operating systems running navionics and cmap on opencpn as well as simple telem acess

i found them easy to use. Is this the sort of thing you had in mind ?

Failing that i have also interfaced via serial to usb and serial rs232 my garmin gps72 to my eeepc running opencpn etc not exactly a tablet though

IMHO
For lower power usage , ease of use , standalone reliability , navigation and data recording i cannot fault my old garmin gps72 though most people now days want charts displayed on their device therefore compromise's begin.

It seems both these ebay units use similar chipsets MKT ?? maybe they will talk better satellite Chinese
The puck i have has a SIRF chipset and was sold under the CoPilot and Emtac brand and no longer available
my boat is that slow i dont really need extreme telemetry and i have found general gps technology to be very accurate

madmission said..
It seems both these ebay units use similar chipsets MKT ?? maybe they will talk better satellite Chinese
The puck i have has a SIRF chipset and was sold under the CoPilot and Emtac brand and no longer available
my boat is that slow i dont really need extreme telemetry and i have found general gps technology to be very accurate

The Sirf 3 is ok but the sirf 4 will work all the time through steel roofs etc. The sirf 3 is ok most of the time inside a fibreglass hull but sometimes loses contact. Double the price but several times more sensitive.

The puck I linked to is overkill for boat navigation. It's main use is for faster data rate for track times etc, 10 times faster than the normal tablet/phone GPS like LooseChange is referring to. They are perfectly adequate as well it's just the other one is more accurate at race car speeds.

I have no idea what Sirgallivant wants this puck for. If it has to be wifi or cable. The sirf 3 units are fine if the puck can be placed in a good spot in a 'glass hull. {$30] . If its a steel yacht or "glass with stuff blocking the view go sirf 4 [$70]. Or fast data rate for road or track GPS the $100 one.

I have a GARMIN GLO that I used with open cpn and a windows 8 tablet. it works fine with the latest updates from windows. at first it had real issues with the Bluetooth stack. but recently there have been no issues. I have not used it exhaustively on long trips though as my phone with navonics has better maps than open cpn. but for Bluetooth gps the garmin seems to be good.

actually I had an issue updating the firmware of the gps and it is dumb how it takes the slightest knock to turn it on accidently. the firmwqre update is supposed to fix this but like I said I cant get it to update.


its accurate, fast locking, and works inside and outside the cabin. is very accurate. although phones nowadays are very accurate as well. glonass and GPS is the way to go for accurate fast fixes.

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Bad Elf, having just sailed Adelaide to Geraldton, the Bad Elf and IPad were my backup, great product, also with its bluetooth capability any of your bluetooth phones or tablets can utilise its information. Also pretty cheap.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of GPS receivers that are not both fixed in place and wired to the chart plotter (software or otherwise). Using Bluetooth, WiFi or other wireless communications for such a vital function as position updates is just inviting one more thing to fail. In my case I went with a PC-based solution instead of a tablet-based one. Low-cost PCs are not much more expensive and a whole lot more versatile than tablets. Also, going with a PC opens a whole lot of choices in terms of good, but low cost GPS receivers. I went with a GlobalStat MR-350 GPS receiver, which costs all of US$53 on Amazon. I use it with Open CPN on a crappy old laptop and it has been super reliable, accurate and fast.

More info on my setup:
blog.arribasail.com/2013/10/tech-testing-globalsat-mr-350-gps-with-opencpn.html

scruzin said..
Personally, I'm not a big fan of GPS receivers that are not both fixed in place and wired to the chart plotter (software or otherwise). Using Bluetooth, WiFi or other wireless communications for such a vital function as position updates is just inviting one more thing to fail. In my case I went with a PC-based solution instead of a tablet-based one. Low-cost PCs are not much more expensive and a whole lot more versatile than tablets. Also, going with a PC opens a whole lot of choices in terms of good, but low cost GPS receivers. I went with a GlobalStat MR-350 GPS receiver, which costs all of US$53 on Amazon. I use it with Open CPN on a crappy old laptop and it has been super reliable, accurate and fast.

More info on my setup:
blog.arribasail.com/2013/10/tech-testing-globalsat-mr-350-gps-with-opencpn.html

I agree. The fixed unit and a cable GPS puck is the safest way. I use a Sirf 4 puck and its a vast improvement over the Sirf 3 units. I use Seaclear and the Sirf chips always work seamlessly. I have had several. I have used a puck with an MKT chip but it suffered "Jumping mouse" with windows.

Quick check on eBay shows the prices have dropped so now the Sirf 3 units are about $26 and the Sirf 4 units are around $50. Hardly seems worth buying a Sirf 3 one.

www.laptopgpsworld.com/2599-globalsat-bu-353-s4-usb-gps-receiver

Karsten said..

By the way I know there's some VHF radios with GPS, but I've heard opinions that leaving the GPS on is a heavy drain on the VHF battery.

That would be hand held VHF you are talking about, yes??

Karsten said..
Interesting posts in this thread. Thanks for the Sirf3 vs 4 info Ramona.

What I am looking to buy is a puck GPS receiver that has a tiny digital display that shows Long/Lat, so it can display position if my PC is down or not with me. Could easily power it from a small pocket USB power bank. I haven't seen one, but I'm casually looking.

By the way I know there's some VHF radios with GPS, but I've heard opinions that leaving the GPS on is a heavy drain on the VHF battery.

Perhaps you need a data logger.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/G-PORTER-Sport-Tracker-GPS-Data-Logger-Compass-Altimeter-Speedometer-etc-/371223016619?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item566e9db4ab

Even has a sirf 4 chip!

Yeah, l got a few male-female cables at home so that is ok might need one anyway to put the receiver outside.

Thanks for the thoughts!

cisco said..

Karsten said..

By the way I know there's some VHF radios with GPS, but I've heard opinions that leaving the GPS on is a heavy drain on the VHF battery.

That would be hand held VHF you are talking about, yes??

Yes indeed.

If it is not based on WGS84 data which is the paper chart equivalent, one should not navigate on it. Sooner or later one is going to regret it.
I got grave problems with American charts and any others which are not based on either British Admitalty charts or Australian Hydrographic Office charts or data as far as accuracy is concerned.

As far as l know, legally one should NOT navigate on Electronic Charts in Oz. One must use paper charts by law.
I do.

It's not so much the medium (paper vs electronic) that is legislated, it is the status of the data. To rely on a chart in any medium, the source supplying the data must be approved by the regulator.

Most commercial ships routinely use electronic navigation, and have done for years. But they don't download their charts from the Google Play store, like us. They pay serious money for officially issued and approved chart data and daily updates. Probably the same for superyachts and high end cruisers.

The "original" chart data is stored and maintained electronically, and just printed out to paper when required, so the data is not inferior because it is in electronic form.

sirgallivant said..
If it is not based on WGS84 data which is the paper chart equivalent, one should not navigate on it. Sooner or later one is going to regret it.
I got grave problems with American charts and any others which are not based on either British Admitalty charts or Australian Hydrographic Office charts or data as far as accuracy is concerned.

As far as l know, legally one should NOT navigate on Electronic Charts in Oz. One must use paper charts by law.
I do.

Cruise ships no longer use paper charts.

In NSW if your vessel is in charter you are required to carry a paper chart of your area of operation. On my fishing vessel I had it in a frame on a cabin bulkhead. All navigation was Seaclear on a PC with Admiralty charts.

Now on my yacht it's Seaclear on a permanently installed laptop. I do carry photo copies of charts in a folder in the chart table.