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Computer Tips and Tricks
We now have 4 computers, an Android tablet, and a Kindle aboard Soggy Paws. Sherry is continually writing emails or giving personal tutorials to people on computer subjects. We've decided to try to accumulate this info here. As usual, this is a work in progress...
About Our Computers
| Sherry's Computer | Dave's Computer | Movie Computer |
| Navigation Computer | Android Tablet | Kindle |
The Navigation Computer aboard Soggy Paws has historically been the oldest, slowest, least-capable computer on the boat. In the past, as we upgraded our personal computers, we 'trickled down' our computers... and sold off the old 'Navigation Computer' to some cruiser in some remote place who's computer has died, and installed the now-obsolete personal computer as the new Navigation Computer.
However, as things have evolved aboard, the "Navigation Computer" has become the heart of our of our on-board systems.
In early 2023, Sherry decided we'd upgrade the laptop (ASUS) Nav computer to a Mini desktop machine with a 22-inch external monitor. This is still a work in progress. Here are Amazon links to what she has bought.
Computer: Windows 11 Mini PC
Monitor: 22" HDMI (No speakers/mics, or touchscreen though.)
Note that all the other onboard computers are fully configured to 'hot swap' with the Navigation computer. If it should die in mid-passage, we'd just commandeer another computer and hook it up to the hardware. We have a text file on the desktop that has a short list of instructions for what's critical.
The diagram above focuses on the computer connections. Check this page for a diagram of our Electrical System, and this one for the software behind our Electrodacus Battery Monitoring System.
With the Nav computer and the cellular internet connection running all the time, we can check on both the boat's position and electrical status from anywhere.
Sherry's Computer
Our computer evolution: Sherry started out our trip in 2007 with a big beautiful 17" HP laptop. This computer was wonderful and fast and had a big screen, but it was heavy, big, and power-hungry. It also had a super-shiny screen that was awful to use in any kind of natural light.
In 2009 when the Netbooks came out, Sherry relegated her big laptop to 'movie computer' status and bought an Asus Eee 1000HE. It (theoretically) will run straight off 12v, draws (relatively low amps), has a 10" screen, a usable keyboard, 3 USB ports, and (theoretically) runs 9.5 hours on the battery. The screen size is a small-but-usable 1024x600. It cost about $300 new. The primary sacrifice to size is that it has no internal CD/DVD drive. It is also maxed out on computer memory at 2GB. This was her primary computer for about 5 years. We eventually gave it to a teacher on an remote island in Papua New Guinea.
Since then, we have stuck with ASUS as our preferred computer vendor. They have been cost effective, rugged, and well-supported in SE Asia. We upgrade about every 5 years. Sherry's current model looks nearly like a Mac Book Air, but it's Windows 10!
Dave started out with a nice but aging Dell laptop. His computer needs are small (especially with Sherry aboard), and the Dell served his needs. Now he has an ASUS just like Sherry's.
We don't have a TV aboard, so we watch movies, and sometimes TV, on one of our onboard computers.
This is one justification for getting a bigger screen on our Navigation computer. We no longer have a separate "movie computer" but use the Nav computer for movies as well.
We now keep most of our movies as video files on the Movie Computer (and backed up to an external hard drive). We use WinVLC as our primary movie player (much less issues with the variety of format files we try to watch than Windows Media Player). And donation-ware.
Awhile back, we used Magic DVD Ripper to 'rip' our DVD collection and store it on our hard drive as avi files. We now have a 4-Terabyte 'Movie Drive' (plus a backup) that holds all the movies--taking up 1/10th the space and 1/100th the weight as our collection of DVD's in a binder.
My big question when thinking about buying a Kindle was "Kindle or iPad". Someone I asked told me "both". They were right. We first bought the Kindle, and love it. But the (original b/w) Kindle does a poor job of displaying PDF files, which we use a lot on the boat. So we eventually bought a used iPad 1 for our PDF and magazine viewer. This has since been replaced by an Android 10-inch tablet.
Though we do quite often buy books on Amazon.com for the Kindle, we have also acquired in Cruiser-swaps, quite a pile of eBooks. We use Calibre to manage our eBooks. See more here.
We really like our Kindle Paperwhite for daytime reading. NONE of the color readers read well in daylight. It is smaller and lighter than any of the 'tablets' and also has a battery that will last for weeks (vs hours for the color readers).
I have a love-hate relationship with Apple/iPad. I originally bought a used iPad from a family member who was upgrading, but I found Apple's store restrictive, and my iPad 1 was totally obsoleted within 6 months, with no upgrade path from Apple. Many people use iPads for reading, video watching, and navigation. I don't.
My current tablet is an ASUS Zenpad 3S 10" (Unfortunately ASUS discontinued tablets shortly after we bought our Zenpad. Today's recommendation would be a genuine Samsung tablet 8 or 10 inches.)
We have the following apps installed that we use for weather and navigation:
OpenCPN - The navigation app
All in One Offline Maps - GoogleEarthy type
satellite
Plan2Nav - Jeppesen Maps app for navigation (CMAP)
Navionics Asia
& Africa HD
PocketGrib - Grib file requester/viewer
Windy - Weather
viewer
PredictWind - Routing App
AnchorPro - Anchor Watch
GPSTest -
Check accuracy of your internal GPS
SailGrib WR - Routing app
DGS
Tides - Worldwide Tide Program