Android CE performance issues: Hardware, OS, App or Subscription?

Problems and Support
1

I’ve been a coastal explorer user for over 20 years, purchased the pre-release at the Seattle Boat Show in 2002. However, I just discovered that there is an Android CE version. I downloaded just the base version (no in-App purchases) and it’s SUPER Slow!
I’m trying to determine if the slowness is caused by:

  1. Slow Hardware? I’m using a cheap Zonkos K118 Android Cellular Tablet. 8-Core ARM Cortex-A55 1.6 Ghz 4GB RAM. This hardware runs Navionics well.
  2. OS? My Android Tablet runs Android 11(Not upgradable). Does CE Android have a min Android OS version.
  3. CE Android App? Is the Coastal Explorer Mobile App just not optimized for Android. Does it run better on IOS?
  4. Subscription? Is the CE Android app slow because I didn’t purchase that in-app features that uses downloaded maps.
2

Hello,

  1. Android performance can vary widely between different systems, depending on hardware capabilities, etc.
  2. I’m not sure what the minimum Android version is, but I don’t think you can even download it if you have a version that’s too old.
  3. I’m not aware of any aspects of Android that would make it less performant than iOS devices.
  4. That could be all or part of your performance problems since, without the subscription, you will be streaming charts online. Note that your performance problems could also be something else, so it may be best to use the App on a more powerful Android tablet. We do cache chart tiles temporarily, so it’s shouldn’t be particularly slow once the tiles are in the cache, but you will need an Internet connection to view those charts tiles.

Steven

3

I found out the minimum Android version. It is version 7.

4

I’m testing CE on a Samsung TAB A that runs Aquamap just fine but CE is dog slow.

No way to enter own vessel MMSI to prevent display of own vessel position received via AIS.

Gave up trying to download offline charts for Florida and Georgia coast. It would have taken most of the day.

Updating a 30 NM section of Florida and Georgia coast takes as long as the initial download. Obviously not looking at chart modified times.

Starting CE does not remember that Downloaded Vector Charts was selected. It always starts with Vector Charts.

If you close CE by accident during an offline chart update it does not remember where it was in the update.

I’ll continue to use CE on a laptop at the chart table but not on a tablet in the cockpit.

5

You shouldn’t need to enter your own MMSI. AIS transponders don’t send your own-ship as a VDM sentence; it comes through the VDO sentences, which use for your own vessel. Do you, by chance, have two AIS systems, perhaps a transponder and a receiver?

6

If my Si-Tex transponder is sending own position as a VDM and a VDO then CE desktop and Aquamap on Android figures that out and ignores both messages.

CE on Android displays own position. My assumption was that the VDO message was not ignored and if I could enter an MMSI then CE on Android would maybe not display own vessel position. Just assumptions.

It could be that the Si-Tex is sending and VDO and a VDM but I doubt it. I can investigate that tomorrow from the Si-Tex debug log.

I do have a VHF transceiver with receive only AIS. It does not display own position.

7

Since you have two AIS’, the only way to not display your own-ship is to either disconnect one of them from the computer, or filter out the VDM sentence coming from your VHF radio, which tells us to ignore that specific sentences.

You can filter sentences by clicking “Filter Sentences…” in the port details for whichever port your VHF radio is connected to. Just uncheck the entry for AIVDM.

8

All AIS is on an N2K bus. Filtering from one device at the WIFI router is possible.

The problems with performance, many hours to download charts for offline use, random crashes, and startup failures, are the real show stoppers for me.

CE on the desktop is rock solid though.

9

I’m not sure how we’d improve the chart download performance, since it’s tied to the quantity of data and the Internet speed, but we’ll look for ways to improve the app as we continue to work on it.

10

Not a bandwidth issue. OpenCPN uses ENC charts. I can download the entire 7th CG district charts with OpenCPN in the time it takes CE to download 1/4 of the Florida east coast. OpenCPN source code is on github.

Aquamap is really quick also but they use tiles.

To be fair, CE is not crashing on a new 6GB Lenovo tablet, at least not yet. But There are a few minor nits.

If you let CE go into the background during a download it will not resume the download when brought back to the front. Easy to workaround. Could be an Android 13 issue or a Lenovo issue.

CE charts vessel position from the VDO sentence from my SiTex transponder. CE does not appear to use that in collision detection. That’s a good thing.