Steve, Hear, hear! My attitude toward electronics is exactly the same! My wife likes the ipad enough that we bought a refurbished one to keep on board all the time. It's great to have all our music with us too.
Tom _/) > On Feb 19, 2014, at 11:07 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > Message: 8 > Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 10:53:34 -0500 > From: Stevan Plavsa <[email protected]> > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Stus-List Navigation Software > Message-ID: > <caddevn5yqfhlz5aual2k-aomaf1tyfexam4x6wlobb5dpbv...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > The problem with an expensive helm mounted chart plotter is that it'll be > old news in a few years. I'm not keen on spending ~$1500 or more on a chart > plotter that will be "old tech" a few years from now. The iPad does so much > more than navigation and is half the price. Sure, you can't read it easily > in sunlight and it's not waterproof .. I can buy two iPads for the price of > a raymarine plotter though. And I can take the iPad home and do all sorts > of other things with it (primarily reading sailing magazines with Zinio) > but I digress... > > I'de like to have a plotter, or some kind of multi-display unit at the helm > but the prices on them aren't justified in my opinion. I am making the same > thing using OpenCPN, a laptop and likely the Standard Horizon GX2200 for > GPS and AIS info for the laptop. I already have the laptop, OpenCPN is free > (and good!) so I'll only be spending the $350 on the AIS/GPS capable VHF > radio.... vs $1500 for the same functionality at the helm? I can't justify > that. > > If the technology was more modular, ie; the multidisplay had proper buttons > and was really *JUST* a display and interface I'de be more interested. > $1500 is a lot to spend on what is essentially a touch screen monitor .. > except it's not is it? It's a raymarine/garmin/sh whizbang that isn't > upgradable and will essentially suck compared to the new stuff in 5 years. > Oh yeah,and charts are really expensive too. I happily paid $50 for > navionics with charts for all of North America!!! Charts that get updated! > Give me a waterproof, sun viewable iPad type device that uses open > protocols that i can mount at the helm and I'de gladly spend $1500 on it. > All I need is a display and an interface (buttons *and* touch, but don't > take my buttons away). A computer is a computer is a computer.... > > There are nice plotters that I would like to have, it's just a question of > value for the money. My boat bucks are needed elsewhere. > > Steve > Suhana, C&C 32 > Toronto _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com [email protected]
