MAPTATTOO – The E-Ink GPS tablet for small boats

Story

The World’s First E-Ink GPS tablet designed for small boats

We designed MAPTATTOO after having raced to Alaska from Port Townsend, WA on a 20ft row and sail boat. We used Navionics on an iPhone back then and realized the flaws of using a smartphone on a small boat. Hard to read in direct sunlight, poor battery life and difficult to operate in a wet environment.

View charts in direct sunlight, use with wet fingers

Sunlight readability is a major concern when navigating outside. An E-Ink screen allows MAPTATTOO to be perfectly visible in any condition and at any angle.

MAPTATTOO is equipped with a touchscreen but when conditions get really tricky, you can always rely on the keypad.

50-hour battery life

Fast USB-C charging

IP68 Waterproof

Firmware and software upgrades

USA and Canadian Charts

E-Ink Display.

Purpose built Hardware.

We designed MAPTATTOO from the ground-up with one objective in mind: to offer the best experience when navigating on small boats, closer to the elements and with limited power.

It took us 4 years of prototyping, a lot of trial and errors, a few costly mistakes but we are pretty proud of the end-result and are excited for you to experience it on your next adventure.

Technical Specifications

DISPLAY

6” E-Ink Screen
High viewing angle
1024*768 pixel resolution, 212 PPI
16-level of grays
Front light
Optically bonded 1.1mm Gorilla Glass
Anti-reflective coating

SYSTEM

1GHz, Arm® Cortex®-A9 processor
512 MB LPDDR3 RAM
Linux OS
Firmware and Software Upgrades available for customers
32GB NAND Storage (plenty for charts and logs storage)

GPS

72-Channels
GPS/QZSS L1 C/A, GLONASS L10F BeiDou B1I, Galileo E1B/C1 SBAS L1
up to 18Hz
Ceramic GPS/GLONASS/Galileo embedded passive patch antenna
3.23dBi gain

POWER

5000mAh Battery
50-hour battery life (with constant refreshes)
Always-on display
Power-save mode available
USB-C fast charging

CONNECTIVITY

USB-C Connectivity
Connects to Mac OS, Windows and Linux
Upload and Download charts packages, log files, routes and waypoints
Upload and update firmware and software
Settings updated from your computer

FUNCTIONS

Speed over ground
Heading over ground
Distance, bearing to waypoint
Routing Capabilities
Chart plotting
Configurable Pages and Widgets
(soon) many more functions to come, free software updates available

CHARTS

Charts will be available for purchase on our webstore for under $40 per zone
USA Pacific
USA Atlantic
USA Great Lakes
Canada Pacific
Canada Atlantic
Canada Great Lakes
Canada Arctic
(soon) France
(soon) UK & Ireland

WATER RESISTANCE

IP68 (30 minutes, 1.5m/5′)
Sealed USB-C Cable allows to plug and charge in wet environment
Keypad allows access to most functions when touchscreen becomes hard to use when very wet

See the difference

	MAPTATTOO	SMARTPHONE	HANDHELD	CHARTPLOTTER
6″ Screen
High Visibility Numbers
Touch Screen
Works with wet fingers
Visible in direct sunlight
50-hour battery life
Rugged construction
IP68 Waterproof
Portable

What’s in the box?

Timeline

Production Stage

(From left to right, top to bottom) Our enclosure molds. Assembling production units. Partially assembled unit. Our assembly facility at mHub, Chicago.

Our mold manufacturer completed the 4 molds we are using to produce our enclosures. We have since produced 2 small batches for quality control and are now starting mass production of our enclosures.

The E-Paper displays necessary to produce all the units required for this campaign are at our glass manufacturer facility, currently being bonded with our Gorilla Glass panels which have been produced early August.

All the printed circuit boards required to support this campaign have been manufactured. 10 of them have been assembled and fully tested. The remaining ones are being assembled now in our supplier’s facility in Ontario, Canada.

We have sourced all the material and tooling required to support our final assembly, which takes place in our facility, hosted at mHub in Chicago.

Our production in video

What they say

Katy Steward – Salvage Officer and R2AK multi-recidivist	“I’ll be the first in line to buy one when it goes up for sale. I think it is the perfect thing for the work I do – not just for my adventures.”
Francois Frisch – Tester, Trimaran MOD 24 skipper	“I think MAPTATTOO is already an indispensable tool onboard. During a one week raid, we used it every day, and only neeeded to charge it once. It still has 40% battery.”
Vladimir Eremev – Everglades challenge and R2AK participant	“There is a potentially very good product about to be released by fellow R2AK and Watertribe sailors. I really hope it will fulfill the needs of waterproof functional tablet, designed just for the purpose of navigation of a small boat in wet environment. I placed my deposit already.”
Enzo Dougherty – Tester, seventy 48 Participant	“Even when my phone was at full brightness with the glare I couldn’t see anything on the screen effectively rendering it useless, but I could easily see the screen of the Maptattoo”
Dale Simonson – Tester, Artist Designer, Educator and Boat Builder	“I enjoyed the size of the tablet’s screen and the high contrast image. Very legible in bright sun. The nice big numerals showing speed and heading are awesome.”

A question? Need Support?

You can schedule some time to chat with us, ask us any question or give us feed-back.