Recent content by requiem

Update: I just got a note that a few days ago Navionics added a night mode to their app. This is a simple three-way auto / day / night switch in the map options, and functions by flipping the colour scheme to a darker palette. The menus adjust based on your phone settings (e.g. day/night...

Same here, it does depend on the app/hardware you use. I think many are less capable and simply turn into "scrolling chart displays"

Not some wizardry, simply sufficient to replace paper. That's the effective distinction between plotters and ECDIS/ECS; your plotter is largely a passive "chart display" if it loses position. ECDIS/ECS allow continued navigation, either via dead reckoning mode (which I reckon is would be...

Heavily utilises, yes. Relies? Technically no. It's certainly built around the idea of having continuous satellite positioning, but remains usable even in the absence of it. If you lose GPS because a wiring connection corroded through, or you're sailing in an area with jamming, or even if...

Depends on the sort of problem. I wish I had captured a screenshot of the one time my app showed an HPE estimate of ~1600 meters. The simplest is to simply check a radar overlay against the chart. If you can't do an overlay you can find something distinctive on radar and plot a radar fix on...

Most likely to be a problem for small craft. Tankers (and really anyone on electronics) should be cross-checking their plotted position by eye or by radar at regular intervals.

The overlay display is the easy part; any modern plotter will do it, as would any halfway-decent nav app, even Navionics. The primary expense would be the receiver itself (and perhaps a wifi module to feed a tablet). I'd suggest considering how long you intend to keep sailing the boat, and...

You could also use Starlink, but if you're spending on that I'd prioritize an actual AIS transponder over it. (And having said that, I'd prioritise radar over AIS: I've recently heard two stories of collisions/near collisions with fishing vessels running dark. That is, no lights and no AIS.)

AIS also has some inherent latency, but Marine Traffic has far greater delay than is strictly necessary. (Likely because it's also incorporating historical data rather than intending to provide a real-time feed). Here's a comparison between MT (background) and a nav app (foreground) consuming a...

That's... odd. Delayed signals are not uncommon, where the position lags the actual, but should still eventually reflect the proper track. I'm guessing an offset could be created by a misconfiguration, e.g. entering the proper vessel dimensions (e.g. 12x4 m), but then fat-fingering the offsets...

No course vectors displayed? Those are the most useful part of AIS!

Reminds me of many long years ago, being a linux user in a Windows world. At some point my time no longer had space to allow for tracking down versioning issues, compiling random libraries from source, and all the related tweaking. Of course, for security-related reasons I had little interest...

A few thoughts... Your nav station shouldn't really be a damp environment; perhaps there's a way to address that! If only at the nav station, consider a laptop (less easily weatherproof, but decent screen size and has a keyboard!) Running the B&G screen mirroring app is nice; but I've preferred...

Take a small bowl, mix some 2 parts cornstarch and 1 part water stirring slowly just until all the starch is wetted (add a little more water if needed) and the mix is extremely thick. Drop a marble from about a few feet above it and watch the result. (I know mud isn't generally a non-Newtonian...

Oh no, this is fun! GPS is merely one method of getting a fix. Radar, visual, and celestial are also options (and the depth sounder may also be of use. If close to shore. As a general principle one should never be reliant on only a single source (which is why I get snobby about popular nav...