AIS help me decipher the tech and know what to buy? help?

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SailingEd

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Just getting myself into a whole heap of waffle and nonsense when looking at new AIS offerings and connected chart plotters etc so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction, youtube is full of click bait & bs from sponsored content so its not an accurate / true review and im just lost and frustrated with it all.

i have a mixture of devices on the boat, but i miss AIS and it would also be nice to control the plotter at least from a ipad or smartphone, i used to have raymarine on my last boat and was able to mirror the plotter on my ipad, but invariably i stuck to navionics on an ipad as the main source of navigation as its portable, easy to use and has all the other apps on it (wind forcast, tides etc etc), vs all the fixed stuff (not that its my sole navigation equipment calm down, its just convenience)

So firstly i guess -

i have a B&G plotter vulcan 9 and radar, speed / depth / windspeed/ autopilot all linked. is there simply a way of mirroring the B&G on the ipad like raymarine could? that could solve one thing other than the AIS, i've searched the Ios store but nothing is clear.

Secondly

AIS whats the best and most cost effective way of linking this to the system, i think i'd prefer a separate antenna otherwise i'd need a splitter i guess, should i go for a stand alone transceiver, or should i replace the VHF with built in AIS??? (to be clear i want to transmit not just receive)

Thirdly

any votes for things like Orca so you can connect ipads to the backbone effectively and get all your info onto the ipad that way? it looks like subscription fees to access content annually (basic sub for no data and a basic chart then top level monthly fees to actually access AIS data etc), and i havent got time for that nonsense, if im buying a hardware interface im not paying monthly to use it, which it probably why im more swaying towards fixed AIS and keeping navionics and the ipad seperate (yes i know navionics is an annual fee but its the cheaper of the evils currently)

anyway, if anyone could help shine a light through the mud of it all it would be appreciated.
 
I was very much in the same situation as you. On advise I bought an Emtrak B953 AIS (no WiFi or blue tooth). It has a built in VHF splitter. It was a doddle to setup, except for the special iPad cable that needed USBC to Lighting, which I needed to buy separately. In the box came a a cable that non Apple users would find okay. Plug in my VHF cable, plug in my VHF antenna cable, plug into power, use a crossover cable to plug into my Raymarine network. Download App, set up boat in the AIS unit via iPad in my case, after connecting iPad to AIS. Job done, AIS targets showing on my plotter and my position being transmitted to other vessels. I did fit a fuse between the VHF power supply and the AIS unit, as I wired the AIS power into the VHF power.

I understand that Emtrak make the AIS units that others offer, in some cases. Honestly it was a piece of cake. Mine is mounted below, inside my switch panel, behind the VHF and uses its own built in GPS antenna. My decks and hull are between 10 to 25 mm thick and I have never had any reception issues.

My network is Raymarine and plotter is Raymarine Axiom+.
 
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I too use an emtrak, one other issue you need to be aware of is that an AIS class B transceiver must use an in built GPS.

If this is connected to the plotter, you may have 2 GPS sources reporting slightly different locations at close intervals - can lead to random COG and SOG appearing as the boat appears to quickly move between the 2 points. Need to ensure only one is used in the plotter menu.

Oh and it needs to be on the VHF power, so you don't put RF in to an unpowered RF switch. Personally, we have a SO259 barrel taped to the AIS so we can take it out of the VHF circuit in emergency.
 
I have the Emtrak 5w with built-in GPS and splitter self installed in 2022 which works well. Did go wrong once after about 8 months, Emtrak fixed quickly, no further problems. It feeds both a Raymarine Axiom via NMEA2000 and a second independent (backup) Onwa plotter via NMEA0183.

As overall the boat has 4 GPSs (Raymarine external feeding "dials", Axiom integral, Onwa separate external, and rhe Emtrak), if the boat is stationary you can get 0.001/0.003 mile variance in position depending on which screen you believe. That is about a 6-18 ft difference, and some of the GPS receivers are 10 feet apart on the boat. As I've once not known where I was within 50 miles (and would have sold my soul for a position within a mile) I can live with these huge errors, which don't seem to cause any other problems. On each plotter you choose which GPS to believe in the settings.
 
SailingEd said:
So firstly i guess -

i have a B&G plotter vulcan 9 and radar, speed / depth / windspeed/ autopilot all linked. is there simply a way of mirroring the B&G on the ipad like raymarine could? that could solve one thing other than the AIS, i've searched the Ios store but nothing is clear.

Secondly

AIS whats the best and most cost effective way of linking this to the system, i think i'd prefer a separate antenna otherwise i'd need a splitter i guess, should i go for a stand alone transceiver, or should i replace the VHF with built in AIS??? (to be clear i want to transmit not just receive)

Thirdly

any votes for things like Orca so you can connect ipads to the backbone effectively and get all your info onto the ipad that way? it looks like subscription fees to access content annually (basic sub for no data and a basic chart then top level monthly fees to actually access AIS data etc), and i havent got time for that nonsense, if im buying a hardware interface im not paying monthly to use it, which it probably why im more swaying towards fixed AIS and keeping navionics and the ipad seperate (yes i know navionics is an annual fee but its the cheaper of the evils currently)

anyway, if anyone could help shine a light through the mud of it all it would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

firstly
can't help with that

secondly
See my own and others replies. I recommend that you use an integrated AIS with splitter.

thirdly
NMEA (wind speed and direction, water speed, depth) data can be streamed to Navionics on an iPad and displayed on Navionics. I believe that AIS data can also be displayed on Navionics. This can be done through an NMEA wifi gateway connected to your backbone for your tablet wifi to pick up. Paired devices in the Navionics App is where you would select the wifi input from. Disclaimer, I have not done this, so others will have to advise on what type of wifi gateway to use.
 
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I’ve gone for the budget option and bought an ONWA KS-200A+ from AliExpress and fitted a separate VHF antenna. Total cost was approx £275.

I haven’t tested it in anger yet as the boat is out the water but in the carpark it works well with my Garmin EchoMap & Navionics.

I can’t find any option to turn off GPS N2k output but once I set the Garmin from auto to only use the built in GPS it stopped the location jumping around.

Added bonus is that my VHF only has NMEA0183 and the ONWA sends location to it.
 
RunAgroundHard said:
firstly
can't help with that

secondly
See mine and others replies. I recommend that you use an integrated AIS with splitter.

thirdly
NMEA (wind speed and direction, water speed, depth) data can be streamed to Navionics on an iPad and displayed on Navionics. I believe that AIS data can also be displayed on Navionics. This can be done through an NMEA wifi gateway connected to your backbone for your tablet wifi to pick up. Paired devices in the Navionics App is where you would select the wifi input from. Disclaimer, I have not done this, so others will have to advise on what type of wifi gateway to use.
Click to expand...
Don't use a gateway, get the Emtrak B952/B954, which have wifi built in.

Connect wind etc to the AIS and it multiplex's it and sends it out over wifi with AIS and if needed, GPS.

Details of what gets multiplexed here, page 32:

https://em-trak.com/wp-content/uploads/B900-Series-manual_EN.pdf
 
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I’ve had a pretty good experience with a Quark Elec AIS multiplexer and a VHF splitter. Easy enough to set up and works well on the iPad with Navionics
 
SailingEd said:
i have a B&G plotter vulcan 9 and radar, speed / depth / windspeed/ autopilot all linked. is there simply a way of mirroring the B&G on the ipad like raymarine could?
Click to expand...
B&G have two apps for this:
Not sure how well the basic app is supported. There's a well-known big on Android (shows a burry green bar at the side of the screen) that they've failed to fix for years and support told me to try the full Companion app instead of the basic Link.

SailingEd said:
AIS whats the best and most cost effective way of linking this to the system, i think i'd prefer a separate antenna otherwise i'd need a splitter i guess, should i go for a stand alone transceiver, or should i replace the VHF with built in AIS??? (to be clear i want to transmit not just receive)
Click to expand...
Most cost effective is a class B transponder, class B+ is the new state of the art. I bought a B+ myself but I'm dubious that it'll make much difference for most people. I guess it depends where you plan to sail. No idea what the price difference is.

You don't need an AIS with wifi because the Vulcan has that - it'll share NMEA to wifi.
 
I'm tempted by but have not yet bitten the bullet on an Icom IC-MA510TR.

Mainly because it has its own screen, of a usable size (bigger than the built-in VHF ones), and is 110mm high so will fit in the instrument housing pod above the companionway. Receive and Transmit, has own GPS and some basic (SOG, COG, Go To Waypoint etc) navigation functions. It can also output the AIS data via NMEA and USB. The screen means it can function as a complete standalone unit, in the event of network/plotter/MFD problems, and/or if you want to use less power (switch everything else off). I like redundancy.

And it's about £700, similar price to many without a screen.

Anybody have one (or used one)?
 
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