Compassman,Dan's: Large Screen Chart plotters

Monday, November 26, 2012

Large Screen Chart plotters

Large screen GPS chartplotters and trackers are great. I think most boaters would love to have one. I can read one without finding my bifocal glasses, they are easy to read, can do a grocery list of things, and they are becoming affordable. Many are multifunctional combos so all the things you need are all on one unit. With size though, the unit may be power hungry.

Like a laptop computer, they can pull a lot of power and can flatten a battery in a few hours. Power consumption for a large chart-plotter can be about 4 amps an hour or more at 12 volts DC. If you are out on the water for 8 to 10 hours, that can be a 50 amp hours pull. With that and add any other electronics load in, you may use more power than your 12 volt system can handle easily.

It is a good idea to figure out how much power all your electronics need before you get out on the water for a long day trip. Not being able to start you motor for lack of power, or not having power for your VHF can be both inconvenient and a safety problem.

For a powerboat underway, this is not a great problem. The batteries are kept charged as the boat moves and when the motor is running. However, for a sailboat under sail, this could become a serious issue.

Solar panels, wind turbines and hydro generators are all an option to keep your batteries charged.

Another option is to use a small standalone plotter that pulls little power most of the time and going it the large screen unit when navigation gets demanding. Back up instruments are always a good idea, and there are now some nice combo instruments that can overlap your instrument set up. A example is like a VHF and GPS combo like the GX 1700W VHF.