[Guest]

Curious as to what monitors people have on board? Please feel free to reply with details as well as answering the poll.

[Guest]

I'm new to this site. Been using Macs for years. New to using it on the boat though. I can't reply to the poll (I don't know what I did wrong when registering) but I use a laptop G4 15 inch with bluetooth GPS. I'm investigating the use of car monitors from Xenarc to create a cockpit screen. They're not waterproof but where I will be placing the screen (if I do it) it will be in a protected area (and if it gets ruined, at $350 I can get another one although I'm not planning on that to happen.) The brightness of the monitor seems to be there (350-400 cd/m2. I thought I even saw an 8 inch screen at 450 cd/m2).
Good Sailing to everyone. Good luck everyone in my neck of the woods in the Newport to Encinada race. Wish I was going. Ron

[ReeferJon]

I've tried a Lilliput car monitor on my old boat, and it just wasn't bright enough, even when mounted under the companionway hatch.

[CaptainRon]

I've heard that a brightness of less than 400 is not sufficient. The Lilliput monitor 7 inch (at least the one I've seen on the web) is only 350 in brightness. Not enough. I want to fine at least 450 brightness before I buy a little monitor.

[Guest]

As a powerboater I've been lucky, as my wheelhouse is fully enclosed. I've been using a Powerbook G3 Pismo, but did not like having my powerbook out on the dash area, rough water, screen not very viewable. Decided to try this, I bought a docking station for my Pismo off of eBay and then bought a Dell 15" LCD monitor. The Dell came with an external power supply, AC to 12VDC. I just cut off the AC part and connected the remaining cable directly to 12VDC on my boat. Now my Pismo is connected to the docking station in under the dash, which in turn is connected to the LCD on my dash. The LCD is mounted there using a RAM Mount. To control GPSNavX on my LCD I found a dual mode optical mouse with a twist, it has a trackball instead of a wheel. This is in turn mounted between my throttle controls. I start up the Pismo and then put it to sleep, so I can close the lid of the powerbook, and then click the trackball mouse and then everythings comes back to life on my LCD. I'm also using a USGlobalStat BU-353 USB GPS, this system works great and I was very pleasently surprised to find the LCD is readable in indirect sunlight. The hard part was finding an LCD monitor using a AC to 12VDC external power supply, as most LCD's have this set up inside the monitor. They are a round but you need to keep you eyes open at used monitor/computor stores.

Patrick

[ginginsman]

I've been using a 15" LCD below decks on our 40' sloop, and the brightness of 500 makes it visible through the companionway though not really perfect. As I recall, a brightness of 1100+ cd/m-squared is thought to be a minimum for real, out-in-the-open, sunlight-readable screens.

I've been corresponding with these folks, and I think they have probably the best prices around, but it's still pricey:

http://www.flatvision.co.uk/products/solar/index.php

Then are units like these, with built-in trackball and left-right click controls, but the prices are breathtaking!

http://homepage.mac.com/tamacn3/sunlight_special/
http://www.bigbaytech.com/inoutbright.htm

OTH, if you need one when the weather is fog, dark or generally poor, 500 might actually work out in the cockpit. I haven't had time to test that.

[cyberhusky]

I just saw this 8" car TFT monitor with touchscreen function and brightness of 500 cd/m2



http://www.vegashop.net/shop.php?mode=de...r=VE-XVT-8

Though I don't the brand of the monitor as it's available under different names but the TFT panel is made by Panasonic.
According to newsgroup comments it's really clear and very bright, much better then many laptops

I think I wil get this one for my sailing boat.