Anchor Alarm Apps - A comprehensive overview

[MathiasW]

When somebody asks on a forum which anchor alarm is best, the usual answer is Anchor Alarm, or Anchor Alarm!, or Anchor Watch... It is often quite funny, actually. Given that there are many alarms with these names, one is not any wiser afterwards.

So, in an effort to change that, I have done a survey of anchor alarms for iOS and Android and put all this in a long chart where I just list the features. A good number of them I have verified myself, but I am not done yet completely.

I am not giving any advice as to which alarm is the best one, but I give an option on which features I believe to be important.

Here is the link: Anchor Alarm Apps - Which one is best for you? A comprehensive Overview - SAN

Feedback always appreciated.

Cheers, Mathias

 

[dunedin]

Wow. What a lot of work must have gone into that, very comprehensive (including the two I have on my iPad).

One thought - whilst the presentation is very smart and tidy, it is not particularly easy to sift to home in on the best App for your needs. Would an Excel table (or similar) be better, or at least complementary, as then could use filters to narrow down to the products with the features wanted?

 

[Mistroma]

Wow. What a lot of work must have gone into that, very comprehensive (including the two I have on my iPad).

One thought - whilst the presentation is very smart and tidy, it is not particularly easy to sift to home in on the best App for your needs. Would an Excel table (or similar) be better, or at least complementary, as then could use filters to narrow down to the products with the features wanted?

I had exactly the same thought as soon as I looked at it. I couldn't be bothered to trawl through many apps looking for ones with features I found important. I'll have a look at producing a spreadsheet later tonight of tomorrow and include a link to the article and author.

 

[MathiasW]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I can easily add the numbers spreadsheet to my page, but I tried once exporting to Excel and all app icons were lost... If somebody has a trick how to prevent that whilst still maintaining just one master copy - thanks!

 

[Roberto]

Feedback always appreciated.

Without a smartphone, the Anchor watch "YAPP" by resident AngusMcDoon: alarms by gps, depth, heading, wind speed, etc. A few factors that may warn you of changing conditions before significant GPS position discrepancies.

Let alone the old string tied to the skipper toe (or family jewels for the real sailors), or the string to the pan filled with bolts kept on the companionway

 

[MathiasW]

Without a smartphone, the Anchor watch "YAPP" by resident AngusMcDoon: alarms by gps, depth, heading, wind speed, etc. A few factors that may warn you of changing conditions before significant GPS position discrepancies.

Let alone the old string tied to the skipper toe (or family jewels for the real sailors), or the string to the pan filled with bolts kept on the companionway

Thanks. Would you happen to have a link? When I do a plain Google search, I am getting only silly results...

 

[Neeves]

I have not yet looked and will delay looking till later - but to be useful it needs to be updatable (with new apps) and be a Sticky.

The 'question' comes up with frequency (along with other frequent queries, like 'how to replace a exhaust elbow', and, I jest, 'Which anchor?' ) as members don't want to use the search function.

Maybe we could have a Sticky of the most commonly asked questions with links.... don't know......

Jonathan

 

[Roberto]

Thanks. Would you happen to have a link? When I do a plain Google search, I am getting only silly results...

Hello Mathias,
you may PM "AngusMcDoon" directly, I made a search in the forum but could not find the thread, it was a few years ago. I had the website "yappelectronics" among my favourites but it does not exist any more. He made several different electronics projects of all kinds, mainly about pieces of equipment communicating with each other.
regards

(ps thanks for the various "floating chain with buoys" articles you indicated on your article about catenary/snubbers)

 

[Mistroma]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I can easily add the numbers spreadsheet to my page, but I tried once exporting to Excel and all app icons were lost... If somebody has a trick how to prevent that whilst still maintaining just one master copy - thanks!

It was a bit late last night when I spotted your post and then my freezer packed in. I managed to get it working again but will need to have another look at it today.

I got around to looking at Excel this morning and the export lost the icons as you mentioned. It also messed up 2 pages (first and possibly 2nd last. I produced a very rough Excel file but haven't added the second messed up page yet. I'll try to have a look at your PDF later to see if I can get the missing icons.

The XLS file here is still pretty useless because it still has a few messed up parts. It will have other problems due to combination of disparate data within some fields (e.g. Trying to show differences between Android & iOS).

How are you producing the PDF? It should be possible to produce an Excel file as the "searchable" master and print it as a PDF as well in the original layout.

 

[Boathook]

It was a bit late last night when I spotted your post and then my freezer packed in. I managed to get it working again but will need to have another look at it today.

I got around to looking at Excel this morning and the export lost the icons as you mentioned. It also messed up 2 pages (first and possibly 2nd last. I produced a very rough Excel file but haven't added the second messed up page yet. I'll try to have a look at your PDF later to see if I can get the missing icons.

The XLS file here is still pretty useless because it still has a few messed up parts. It will have other problems due to combination of disparate data within some fields (e.g. Trying to show differences between Android & iOS).

How are you producing the PDF? It should be possible to produce an Excel file as the "searchable" master and print it as a PDF as well in the original layout.

As you say a rough draft but much easier to be able to use the excel filters and look at the apps that give you the things you want. So far I haven't downloaded an anchor app but might well once I know what I want from it and this is helping towards that.

 

[Fimacca]

good work, I use anchor pro for free, but will check out the others!
The chartplotters have an anchor alarm but it means all the instruments are on, which drains power when off grid......

 

[MathiasW]

Hello Mathias,
you may PM "AngusMcDoon" directly, I made a search in the forum but could not find the thread, it was a few years ago. I had the website "yappelectronics" among my favourites but it does not exist any more. He made several different electronics projects of all kinds, mainly about pieces of equipment communicating with each other.
regards

(ps thanks for the various "floating chain with buoys" articles you indicated on your article about catenary/snubbers)

Thank you Roberto, I will do that.

As to floating chains, that was quite a revelation to me when I came across that. Initially, I did not think it could possibly work. One never stops learning...

Cheers,

Mathias

 

[MathiasW]

As you say a rough draft but much easier to be able to use the excel filters and look at the apps that give you the things you want. So far I haven't downloaded an anchor app but might well once I know what I want from it and this is helping towards that.

So, at least my master file in *.numbers format for Mac OS is now online.

Cheers, Mathias

 

[Mistroma]

So, at least my master file in *.numbers format for Mac OS is now online.

Cheers, Mathias

Thanks for that, I converted it into an XLSX file with filters here .

Same problem as previous version but should have all the data. I left the German row in at the top, easy enough to hide or remove English or German rows.

Last night's quick bodge worked but back trying to fix my freezer again. Compressor seems fine and just a matter of fixing the thermostat. I might quickly code an Arduino or ESP32 and connect it to a temp. probe. I have a spare STC-1000 somewhere, currently looking for it and a better fix if I can find it.

I'll have another look at the Excel file later and perhaps tidy it up. What format is your source data, that will help to find a way of including your icons.

 

[MathiasW]

Thanks for that, I converted it into an XLSX file with filters here .

Same problem as previous version but should have all the data. I left the German row in at the top, easy enough to hide or remove English or German rows.

Last night's quick bodge worked but back trying to fix my freezer again. Compressor seems fine and just a matter of fixing the thermostat. I might quickly code an Arduino or ESP32 and connect it to a temp. probe. I have a spare STC-1000 somewhere, currently looking for it and a better fix if I can find it.

I'll have another look at the Excel file later and perhaps tidy it up. What format is your source data, that will help to find a way of including your icons.

Thank you! The icons are all jpeg files.

Cheers, Mathias

 

[Roberto]

As to floating chains, that was quite a revelation to me when I came across that. Initially, I did not think it could possibly work. One never stops learning...

I had to try that technique once, I used fenders, it -sort of- worked but it's interesting to read other people thoughts and experiences.
BTW nothing to see with Tuamotus, I had first unknowingly anchored over a rocky underwater trench the Germans had dug in West africa probably more than one century ago to give their ships access to load palm oil
regards r

 

[MathiasW]

I had to try that technique once, I used fenders, it -sort of- worked but it's interesting to read other people thoughts and experiences.
BTW nothing to see with Tuamotus, I had first unknowingly anchored over a rocky underwater trench the Germans had dug in West africa probably more than one century ago to give their ships access to load palm oil
regards r

I have never tried using a floating chain yet, and at first it seemed to me to it could not possibly work. But when looking into it more closely, it started making sense: Normally, the chain with its weight is providing the potential energy storage needed, but when the chain floats with buoys, it is the buoyancy of these buoys that is taking over this role. Just all is reversed. The chain needs to get raised to store more energy, the buoys need to get dragged deeper under water to store more energy. So, it is all kind of flipped from seabed to water level. The only disadvantage of the buoy system is that the anchor stays at the seabed ( ) and so eventually, the chain still needs to get down there.... As a result, the pulling angle at the anchor shaft is negatively affected by this floating-chain approach.

For this to work, though, it is important that the buoys do not get compressed by the water pressure when getting pulled down. This is why fenders are not optimal and hard-shelled buoys are preferred.

You seem to have read my work about it, but for those who haven't and are getting interested in this coral-saving technique: Catenary Anchor Chain Length - Die Kettenkurve - Fun Facts - SAN

Cheers

Mathias

 

[MathiasW]

Thanks for that, I converted it into an XLSX file with filters here .

Same problem as previous version but should have all the data. I left the German row in at the top, easy enough to hide or remove English or German rows.

I'll have another look at the Excel file later and perhaps tidy it up. What format is your source data, that will help to find a way of including your icons.

Thanks for this! I have now uploaded a tiny correction - Sailsafe had a wrong entry for defining the zone with anchor bearing and distance. It can do that as somebody had kindly pointed it out to me.

Cheers

Mathias

 

[dgadee]

I am not giving any advice as to which alarm is the best one, but I give an option on which features I believe to be important.

I agree with your opinions. So which most neatly fits your opinion of what makes a good anchor app? What do you use?

 

[MathiasW]

I agree with your opinions. So which most neatly fits your opinion of what makes a good anchor app? What do you use?

Before I did all this I had used Anchor Alarm (ha!), which is sitting between Navigator and Anchor in my table, with a vertical anchor on a light blue background. Now, after my analysis (and limited tests), Anchor Sentry is starting to grow on me, but the light-blue Anchor Alarm is still a strong contender. That is iOS. I had not used Anchor Alarms on Android before. So, far, what I rather like is the very expensive Anchor Alert there.

Cheers, Mathias