Expedition Navigation Software 
1 of 1- mike@honner.com
- Expert
Offline - Registered: 7/12/2017
- Posts: 20
Looking for MS Surface Recommendations / Experiences
I'm looking to move expedition to a surface tablet from my laptop. My laptop is a relatively new macbook running parallels.
My primary goals are the reduce the amount of equipment I need to bring for each trip, longer battery life, better hardware reliability, compatibility with DC charging, can use a waterproof ruggedized case, swappable sims for cell data in different parts of the world and physical portability.
Also, don't want to RDP into a navigation table based laptop - too complicated and error prone when I'm tired and just need to be on deck and watching the course. Also, need to have it in my bunk so I don't have to get up and into nav to answer questions.
If it can make an espresso ... that would great too.
Any help/comments would be most appreciated ... thanks, Mike
- Blizzard
- Expert
Offline
- Registered: 3/01/2018
- Posts: 39
Re: Looking for MS Surface Recommendations / Experiences
Hey Mike,
I started using a Surface Pro 4 with Expedition about this time last year. The experience has been decent, with pros and cons to be expected. It is in a waterproof case, which means no keyboard attached. I am using a Moxa NPort, with one port for B&G and one for the GPSMAP. This feeds into a wifi router, so the computer can be used anywhere on the boat. I use an Iridium Go for data.
The computer spends most of it's time on a wall-mount, and in my hands on deck when navigating shallow waters, start and finish, etc. The battery life while running Expedition is about two hours at best.
I'll be shopping for a bluetooth keyboard with a track pad. Using Expedition with only a touch-screen is cumbersome. No fault of Nick's - there are just way too many features that would be dumbed down if optimized for touch only.
I'll definitely also be experimenting with Ventus on a cell-phone. The Surface is a bit small for nav-station use, but too big to be functional on deck. If I did it all over again, I would probably use a bigger laptop in the nav, and a smaller tablet on deck.
Hope this helps!