tom tom

stedj · 17 January 2006, 16:51

can u use a tom tom on your rib

The Garfish · 17 January 2006, 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by stedj

can u use a tom tom on your rib

yus butt a bongoe iz beter.

gArf

roycruse · 17 January 2006, 17:07

Not really - It is designed for road use and has no map detail in the water.

It would still function like a basic gps though so if you had it as a backup just to get a position from it would work.

It will try to snap to the nearest road all the time so everytime you went under a bridge or anything it would asume you were on the road.

stedj · 17 January 2006, 17:41

can u change the info on the card to suit the water

roycruse · 17 January 2006, 17:50

No

here is a website dedicated to various free and otherwise mapping tools for pocket pc. The site is a bit out of date now though.

Not much available for marine use in my opinion.

stedj · 17 January 2006, 20:38

cheers roy chart plotter it is then

mdt · 24 January 2006, 19:37

No real need for a chart plotter…. If you have a PDA you can fire Maptech Marine onto it from your PC and then your PDA shall act as a proper Chart plotter. Granted your screen size is a bit limited, oh and a waterproof PDA case would be very handy.

I have got the Maptech maps on the PC for the East cost of Scotland and it is very good have not got round to sticking it onto a PDA as yet but it is meant for this.

Oh the Maptech software can not run on your PDA if you have got tomtom set up already. So a second cheep PDA would be needed….

Mike B · 24 January 2006, 19:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdt

Oh the Maptech software can not run on your PDA if you have got tomtom set up already. So a second cheep PDA would be needed….

I run TOMTOM Navigator 3 and Memory map on the same PDA - is this one of the many new pit falls with Navigator 5? I upgraded to 5 then realised how poor it was and reverted to 3.

I only use memory map as a back up to the chart plotter on the boat but I use it alot with OS maps for hill walking and have had no problems.

Mike

roycruse · 24 January 2006, 19:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdt

No real need for a chart plotter…. If you have a PDA you can fire Maptech Marine onto it from your PC and then your PDA shall act as a proper Chart plotter. Granted your screen size is a bit limited, oh and a waterproof PDA case would be very handy.

I have got the Maptech maps on the PC for the East cost of Scotland and it is very good have not got round to sticking it onto a PDA as yet but it is meant for this.

Oh the Maptech software can not run on your PDA if you have got tomtom set up already. So a second cheep PDA would be needed….

Or just buy a chart plotter...

Already waterproof, doesn't run out of batteries after a few hours, no messing around with pocket PC operating system that is always crashing and needing a reset.

Seriously there's no way I would trust a windows based product (pocket or otherwise) for my navigation.

IMHO adding a combined chart plotter/sounder to your rib is the best accessory money can buy second only to the radio. It makes things like coastal exploring a real pleasure rather than a constant worry that you are getting a bit close to the rocks - I took my dad (who has owned boats since before i was born and currently ownes 4 or 5 of the things) and a load of friends out in my rib last weekend on a 70 mile coastal trip in Cornwall and my dad kept commenting that he had never been that close to the shore - I could only confidently do this at speed because of simple easy to read depth and chart info mounted right where I can see it on a proper chart plotter.

mdt · 24 January 2006, 20:16

Was not for a second inplying that a chart plotter was not required… just that if stedj was looking for a option of using PDA as a plotter then there was a way.

stedj · 03 February 2006, 22:21

roy what one would u recomend and how much cheers stedj

roycruse · 04 February 2006, 00:40

I have only ever used the Garmin 178 models.

I had the black and white (gray scale) one on my last RIB and thought it was a wonderful unit. So much so I stuck with it but treated my self to the colour version on my new boat.

Its fairly near their entry level stuff but this unit with a blue chart chip in it has got everything you could ever want to know including tide prediction sunrise sunset times as well as having easy to read charts, excellent depth sounder and temperature.

Its also fully configurable - (almost too configurable) -0 in that you can choose exactly how many pieces of data you want on each screen and what data to display. It took me over an hour of playing to finally make up my mind what i wanted where.

heres a picture of the screen i mainly use - all the info you could want plus mini version of chart and depth sounder. At the touch of a single button I can go full screen chart or full screen sounder.

Like most things in life - you get what you pay for - if you want a bigger screen then pay a bit more and you get one but i personally think this unit is perfect for the medium sized RIB I have mine flush mounted in the console and it doesn't take up too much room.

And here's where i had it mounted.

cheapest place to buy Ive always found is JG TECH who have the black and white one for around £350 depending on GPS antenna and transducer choice. They have the colour version for around £550.

Remember though if you are going to flush mount don't get the internal GPS antenna - it sticks out the top and cant be flush mounted - if you are going to mount it on top of the console with the gimbal then i would go for the internal antenna as its one less wire to have to hide. I have had one of each below is a picture of my old black and white one.

stedj · 04 February 2006, 10:02

food 4 thought cheers

stedj · 04 February 2006, 10:37

roy wat is the 45.4 & 0.7 15.2 and on the next pic down does that say deliverance on the floor ive heard stories from ur area

roycruse · 04 February 2006, 10:48

45.4 was trip distance in nautical miles that day.
0.7 was the depth (my boat was on the slipway with the engine being flushed at the time).
15.2 is the battery voltage.

As I said though you can choose in the setup whether to have 0, 1, 2 or 3 lines of info and what data goes in each cell.

The car park picture im sure says "deliveries" - that picture was from the first set of pics I took of my completed boat when I went to collect her at the Ribcraft factory.

stedj · 04 February 2006, 11:17

codprawn · 04 February 2006, 17:14

Like the bow ballast system!!!

Hugh Jardon · 04 February 2006, 18:26

i have the 178c as well and went for the external ariel version, they are 500 for internal ariel and 520 for the external ariel, both with dual frequency transducers, at port solent superstore, you can mail order them for free delivery i believe or just pop in an buy one off the shelf...same price

at the boat show they were around 420

Cookee · 06 February 2006, 10:04

We're Garmin fans as well - although the Navman range are compatible with the Smartcraft instruments, so we might have a change for this year - TBA!