bizarre digitizer activity in salty air environment

[wa5ngp]

I posted this a while ago and no one else seemed to have the problem so I am asking again.

Whenever I take my betty to gulf coast like on the beach or even just in a town that is on the gulf coast the digitizer starts acting up. Like mysterious lines start being drawn until the unit just locks up. Ultimately I sent it in under RMA and go another one. After returning that one for a bad battery I got another one and it exhibits the same gulf coast flakey behaviour.

I am now convinced that all Bettys to some extent have this problem. I am suspicious of the touch screen display. I have read that some designs operate by detecting resistance changes on a grid maxtrix of the screen. So it stands to reason that in a salty air environment these resistance values will be changing and it could fake out/confuse the digitizer. I wonder if some kind of overlay or cleaning with something special would help. I'd like to have betty in the glove box of my boat for GPS backup if necessary, but no way as it is even if I keep her in a zip lock baggy.

Before you jump on me and say that Betty is not supposed to be water proof let me say in advance that there is no water getting on Betty. Its just the ultra humid atmosphere at the beach that can cause this. I've got a question into Garmin about it right now but I just thought I'd check to see if any new members of the forum may have experienced this.

tks for taking time to read
regards
Don

[mgrattan]

Hello Don,

I actually used my iQue as my only GPS on my 22 foot boat. It worked very well. I had it mounted up in the instrument box so it wouldn't get sprayed.

As to you question, I live in the Floriday Keys, a very salty environment (in more ways than one!). My iQue worked well. I did notice the occasional erratic behavior. Just last night the digitizer was "possessed". I had to do a hard reset and restore form backup. Poop happens.

To me it's just one of the joys of living in this environment.

[wa5ngp]

Keep an eye on it. The last one I had did it so bad that even when I came home to central Texas that it wouldn't work. Usually a hard-reset did it. But the last one just would not recover so fortunately I was still covered under RMA. I took this one to the coast and it started doing it a little bit while out on the boat so I quickly put it into a plastic bag and put it under my center console seat.

Your description sounds the same. Its as if an invisible hand starts writing strokes on the screen.

It is also cummulative. That is over time it got worse.

I was using it as backup to my lowrance combo gps/sonar. I also use Fugawi to make my own maps. It didnt' matter whether I used fugawi or anything else the mysterious inputs just kept happening.

I think I will try again and then clean the screen very well. I am convinced that the digitizer in effect starts shorting out.

Sorry to hear you have the same problem but I suppose misery loves company so maybe we can figure it out together.

We went to the keys a few years ago on a cruise ship stop. Had a great time. Went out with a local guide and got into a tarpon fight.

tks
Don

[mgrattan]

Hello Don,

I think you hit the nail on the head with the screen cleaning idea. I used a dry cloth that we use for our in-car computers. (I work in IT for the local Sheriff's Office. We use Panasonic Toughbooks with touchscreens.) Since, I used the cloth, the iQue has (knock wood) been fine.

I think that your assestment of the salty air "shorting" the digitizer is on the money. I also don't think we realize how much gunk builds up on a touch screen over time. Mix sweat and sea air and you've got a great conductive surface.

I'm jealous about the tarpon. I have yet to hook one on my own. ;-)

[wa5ngp]

I had stopped using it on the boat because I was worried about long term damage. I need to do some reading up on touch screens to see how contaminants can get in there so we could know if cleaning actually works.

However, it seems that you are saying from your experience with other touch screens that this problem can be managed.

BTW, on the Tarpon I wasn't holding the rod but the other person in the boat had it but that created enough excitement for all of us. We can catch them here in Texas too. They were here by the millions in 20-30's but something happened over time and they kinda left. Many think it was due to us creating all these flood control lakes that limit the water that gets to the gulf. Texas has a lot of lakes now, but the truth is we have only 1 natural Lake and all the rest are human engineered creations so that changed things on the gulf.

Happy Holidays
Don