iPhone as GPS, unwelcome finding

I’ve switched to using the iPhone in place of my Garmin 76CSx. In general, I’m happy with the switch.



All summer, I’ve been tucking the iPhone inside my PFD, since I worried that if I left the phone on the deck, solar heat buildup would decimate the performance of the LI battery. With cooler temps recently, I’ve had the phone out on the deck.



I use a Greenland paddle, lots of water drips off the paddle, so the deck is usually very wet.



Odd things were happening to the phone, like it would do things on its own. Turns out, the iPhone thinks flying drops of water that land on it are me tapping commands on the phone. The only solution I have for this is tucking the phone back into my PFD. Disappointing.



~~Chip

I drowned mine last month.
Not an iPhone; a prepaid Samsung Android smartphone. Much cheaper to replace.



Lots of water splashing on the deck and apparently I didn’t properly close the Aquapac bag. I water tested the bag afterwards and it was fine. Operator error.



I had planned to carry my cellular iPad Mini on deck but so far haven’t had the courage. Ordered an under deck bag instead and will see how that works out.



Have you tried carrying your phone screen down, flipping it up when you need to check your position? Or what about getting a larger waterproof bag, then inserting foam strips on each side of the phone so that the bag makes no contact with the screen?

I through my new iphone in the washer.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Was only wet for a few moments.



Phone was toast even after careful drying in dessicator devices in my lab.



Make sure you have a very water proof case.

So now you can blame…
…pocket calls on the rain?

Touch screens don’t work well
with wet fingers either. I put my phone, wallet, and electronic key fob in a dry pack around my waist while paddling. None of those need to get wet or be left in the truck as break-in bait. A waist pack will usually stay attached during a capsize rather than becoming flotsam or jetsam. Since I am not going to become lost on the size water I paddle GPS is a non-issue.

smartphone GPS…?
What app do you use for navigation on your cellphone?



Im thinking of just using my note 4 instead of buying a hand held GPS.



are there any apps you can use a GPS with a offline downloaded map? I would prefer not to have to rely on cell towers/data etc (and to save battery)



thanks

google map offline?
Apparently you can download before you go a huge offline section of google maps and use it when you dont have cell data.



does your GPS work on this offline map for your exact location? if so this seems like a good thing to use

Puffy bag
The bag I have is kind of puffy to start with. Because the space between the bag and the phone makes it annoying to “key” the phone, I squeze out excess air to get the face of the bag close to the screen of the phone. If I just seal the bag with the air that normally wants to stay in the bag, that would probably prevent water drops from “keying” the phone. But then, there’s the “annoying” problem.



I don’t want to hear this is yet another case of you can’t have it all.



~~Chip

Using Gaia
I’ve been using Gaia GPS on the iPhone and yes you can download the maps to the phone before you go off-net. It is only a little upsetting if you paddle off the edge of the map you downloaded–kind of like Columbus sailing the ocean blue.



~~Chip

1 Like

?
a Garmin user, using an S5 Galaxy with GooMaps for: Chevron Tonopah NV …iza winner.



The IPhone bests a Garmin ?



360 compass ? project waypoint ? waterproofing?



BLUE CHARTS ? no BC yet correct ? where in the world are you going with an electronic device n no Blue Charts ? with Topo USA off course.



But yawl cannah talk on the garmin …