budget chartplotter?

[whgoffrn]

im assuming im not the first to get overwhelmed by how expensive these chartplotters are..... so far ive survived using navionics simply on my cell phone....however its quite difficult to read in sunlight .... I also have a laptop with open cpn and gps for it....while im sure that would be great for when youre sitting stationary planning your route I prefer to have something I can check every few minutes to make sure im not going to run aground..... so far navionics has worked good for me..... I have a tablet but im assuming id still have this same issue with not being able to see it well .... its a shame to have to shell out 1000 dollars simply for a brighter screen when in reality a tablet with gps and navionics works well....... is there anyway to tether an android tablet galaxy tab 3 to a brighter screen? anyone try anything like this?

[kurz]

did you try to put your smartphone with navionics in a small box to shelter from sunlight?
Maybe this would be the "budget way"...

[Cougar]

That's exactly what I do. Well, not with a smartphone (my smartphone is the back-up), but with a Nexus 7 tablet in a waterproof case.

[Curwen]

My hope is to keep my eyes open and pick up a used one after Somebody has a nice Christmas or completes their winter mods.

[whgoffrn]

I'm cheap so I think that's going to be the option I try....I bought a mount for my tablet gonna get a water proof caze or go even more budget and use a gallon ziplock bag and try to make a way to shade it while mounted

[81venture]

I was using a GPSmap 498 I scored from one of my scrapped boats

Sadly, just yesterday I pulled the pedestal cover and fired up everything just checking... GPS no longer powers up

Checked pins etc...and unfortunately the problem with powering on seems to be inside the unit

So I am also shopping for a new one.

If anyone wants this older GPS and feels like cracking it open to see if it can be fixed I'll send it to you for cost of shipping.. I don't have the Transducer (used a seperate fishfinder) but do have the GPS antenna of course

I don't do circuit board level repairs anymore...it may be something simple...but I'm just going to upgrade

[danc1957]

I am interested in taking a shot at fixing it, pm me with the details.
I haven't done component level for a while, I like a good challenge every now & then.