Digital Yacht wifi Ais to iphone/ipad

[Theshipscat]

Has anyone fitted one of these? I beleive it sends a signal to i thingy and can be linked to chart plotter.

 

[srp]

Don't know the answer, but this forum will probably tell you:
http://www.macsailing.net/fbb/

 

[Dockhead]

I am all set up for this with everything in place except the Digital Yacht thingy itself. This I refuse to buy in the UK because it costs double the price here than in the US -- although it is made in the UK. This is simply crazy. I am continually amazed how the retail market works in this country. I'll be in the US over the summer and will buy it there for $260 instead of 300 pounds.

 

[Chrissie]

Digital Yacht products in common with other manufacturers marine electronics are sold in this country at between 5% and 10% mark up from the trade price, hardly enough to support most small traders. It is a sad fact that the same products are available cheaper in America, but on ballance the UK is cheaper than other european countries.

It makes me sad when I read comments suggesting the greed of retailers, having spent a couple of years selling these items I know only too well how untrue it is.

 

[Dockhead]

Digital Yacht products in common with other manufacturers marine electronics are sold in this country at between 5% and 10% mark up from the trade price, hardly enough to support most small traders. It is a sad fact that the same products are available cheaper in America, but on ballance the UK is cheaper than other european countries.

It makes me sad when I read comments suggesting the greed of retailers, having spent a couple of years selling these items I know only too well how untrue it is.

I didn't say anything about greed. I am all for private enterprise (I live in a formerly Communist country and know how awful the alternative is!) and I'm happy that everyone should have some profit. Here there is some kind of inefficiency in the chain of distribution which I don't understand.

I asked the manufacturer why the prices were so much higher in the UK for the same UK-made goods sold in the US -- they said that the US sellers don't offer any kind of service, whereas the UK sellers do. But this is nonsense -- the UK online retailer Cactus offers some kind of service, beyond what an excellent online retailer in the US like Defender does? I don't think so. Nonetheless, the price is not 10%, or even 20% higher -- but double, from Cactus.

If there were a smiley which scratches its head -- I would insert one here.

 

[Paul_DY]

Hi Dockhead, just to avoid confusion, our iAIS retails for $494 USD at Defender, which at the current exchange rates is around £299 GBP. Our UK RRP is £349 ex VAT which although higher is not twice the price.

When you add Defender's standard UPS shipping cost to the UK of $100 it makes it less appealing for UK or European customers to buy one from them, but if you are going to be in the US, then you can make a saving and there is absolutely no technical difference in the US or European version of our iAIS.

We do try and avoid price differences on our products in the US versus Europe, but in the case of iAIS all of the high value components that we use in this product are priced in USD and so we could confidently set the US pricing without building in a price "buffer" to allow for exchange rate fluctuations.

Wherever you end up buying our iAIS from, I hope you get a good price and enjoy losing the wires !!

 

[Theshipscat]

The price difference in the states is crazy! Why do we pay over twice as much?

 

[SkyeSailor]

iAIS ... and problems integrating with Raymarine

Beware if you want to integrate iAIS with Raymarine chartplotters using NMEA.

Basically the iAIS retransmits all the NMEA data (as well as AIS data) on its NMEA output which causes the Raymarine chartplotter I have to loop.

The iAIS works fine with my iPad and iPhone (using iNavx) but causes problems with the Raymarine system.

Essentially I can only use the Navigate functions of the Raymarine chartplotter (e.g. goto waypoint) OR receive AIS data from the iAIS ... but not BOTH.

 

[Paul_DY]

Hi SkyeSailor, can you give me some more info on your system i.e. model of Raymarine Plotter, how it is wired to our iAIS ?

The sort of situation you describe should not happen as Raymarine give priority to Seatalk data over external NMEA data, specifically to stop NMEA data loops of the type you describe.

If you let me know your setup, I will try and recreate it or contact Raymarine and see what they say.

 

[maxi77]

The price difference in the states is crazy! Why do we pay over twice as much?

At current exchange rates we do not pay double, and one of the major reasons we do pay more in the UK id down to overheads. Retail property is much more expensive in the UK as is the cost of employing staff. Taxes are higher, the list goes on. Equally consumer protection is less in the US so once again the US supplier needs to put aside far less for warranty.

I used to travel to the US a fair bit and especially when the exchange rate was neared 2 did buy a fair ammount of stuff over there, most UK or Eurpean kit was actually much more expensive over there as it was seen to be premiun and quality compare to US kit

Compared to other place in Europe the UK is cheap, here in Portugal things are a lot more pricey so perhaps you should be less critical of the very competitive UK yachty support industry.

 

[SkyeSailor]

Hi SkyeSailor, can you give me some more info on your system i.e. model of Raymarine Plotter, how it is wired to our iAIS ?

The sort of situation you describe should not happen as Raymarine give priority to Seatalk data over external NMEA data, specifically to stop NMEA data loops of the type you describe.

If you let me know your setup, I will try and recreate it or contact Raymarine and see what they say.

Hello - thanks for the offer of help but it has baffled my Raymarine Dealer.

The dealer has looked at the situation and says it is the Digital Yacht iAIS box causing the problems ('a loop') by retransmitting the NMEA sentences other than AIS.

I have an A Series plotter. A Smartpilot, ST6002, depth/Log, Raystar 125, wireless Smartcontroller which are connected to a Seatalk network. This is input to the A Series display via a SeatalkNG converter. A Steatalk to NMEA converter feeds the iAIS to get it boat data. The iAIS is connected to the NMEA port on the A Series configured at AIS baud rate.

 

[snooks]

I have the iAIS which is AIS and nmea and also the WLN10 which is just the nmea out.

It's easy to wire up (if you can access your NMEA in and out) and does exactly was it says it does. It's best used with iNavX which you need to buy for £25 then buy the Navionics charts with a subscription. And this is what you get with an iPad

 

[SkyeSailor]

Hi Paul - a did you have any luck looking at thisproblem? Currently I can only either navigate (by switching the digital Yacht iAIS box off) or view AIS targets when I am sailing. I has expected to be able to do both!

 

[SkyeSailor]

Hi Paul!

System is Raymarine A70. iAIS is connected via Seatalk to NMEA connection which gets all the NMEA/Seatalk data to the iAIS for transmitting to iPad/iphone. This works fine. It is also connected to the A70 port set to the AIS baud rate (high) to send AIS info to the A70.

Seems like the iAIS is retransmitting all the NMEA messages which is confusing the A70 so navigation (like go to waypoint) does not work. The system works fine if I disable the AIS port into the Raymarine A70 but this defeats the purpose of having iAIS.

Net, I can either navigate or see AIS targets on the Raymarine ... but not both. Can you help please? My dealer believes the prob is caused by iAIS re-transmitting the NMEA messages and causing a loop in the Raymarine system. David

 

[zikzik]

I suspect the price difference reasons stated in this thread are mostly spurious. Any business that stays in business knows its supply chain costs perfectly. These will vary a bit by country of course. The balance of difference is simply down to: 'the correct price of a product is what the market will stand' scenario. So, for these products it looks like we are prepared to pay more than the yanks! When we stop buying them, the price will start to fall until they hit the minimum acceptable margin plus supply chain costs.

 

[SkyeSailor]

Resolution

Seems like the iAIS and Raymarine A70 will not work together. There's no simple solution to overcome this problem according to Digital Yacht.

Moral of the story: check compatibility between iAIS and your chart plotter before installing ....

David

 

[Paul_DY]

Clarification

Hi SkyeSailor,

I am sorry that I did not manage to find an easy solution to your NMEA data loop problem, other than to purchase an Actisense NDC-04 to "break the loop", but this is a strange situation and not something Digital Yacht can fix by themselves.

To clarify for other readers, our iAIS will happily provide AIS data to the Raymarine A70 and also to an iPhone/iPad, but in this particular case, where SkyeSailor wanted to also take instrument data out of the A70 and use the iAIS to retransmit this to his iPad, a data loop occurs.

Often in cases like this there is a way to get the Chart Plotter to give priority to its own data, rather than data it is receiving from an external device. In the case of the A70, this is not possible and so a data loop occurs where the A70 sends out instrument data from the SeaTalk bus, which is received by our iAIS and retransmitted with the AIS data back to the A70 - which appears to upset it.

If the A70 cannot prioritise the data it is receiving from NMEA versus its own SeaTalk data then the only option is to fit an extra device like the Actisense NDC-04 that intelligently filters NMEA data and effectively "breaks" the data loop.

I hope this clarifies the situation that SkyeSailor faced and assures other iAIS users that this is not a generic problem with all chart plotters.

Anyone considering a complex installation like the one SkyeSailor has, is more than welcome to contact me to confirm they will not suffer the same issues.

Best regards
PAUL

 

[hvblerk]

iAIS with C80

Any view on a similar issue with Raymarine C80?

 

[SkyeSailor]

Hi SkyeSailor,

I am sorry that I did not manage to find an easy solution to your NMEA data loop problem, other than to purchase an Actisense NDC-04 to "break the loop", but this is a strange situation and not something Digital Yacht can fix by themselves.

To clarify for other readers, our iAIS will happily provide AIS data to the Raymarine A70 and also to an iPhone/iPad, but in this particular case, where SkyeSailor wanted to also take instrument data out of the A70 and use the iAIS to retransmit this to his iPad, a data loop occurs.

Often in cases like this there is a way to get the Chart Plotter to give priority to its own data, rather than data it is receiving from an external device. In the case of the A70, this is not possible and so a data loop occurs where the A70 sends out instrument data from the SeaTalk bus, which is received by our iAIS and retransmitted with the AIS data back to the A70 - which appears to upset it.

If the A70 cannot prioritise the data it is receiving from NMEA versus its own SeaTalk data then the only option is to fit an extra device like the Actisense NDC-04 that intelligently filters NMEA data and effectively "breaks" the data loop.

I hope this clarifies the situation that SkyeSailor faced and assures other iAIS users that this is not a generic problem with all chart plotters.

Anyone considering a complex installation like the one SkyeSailor has, is more than welcome to contact me to confirm they will not suffer the same issues.

Best regards
PAUL

Hi Paul - if I swap out my old iAIS receiver to your new iAIS transponder will my problem be fixed please?

I'm still having to disable the AIS input to the a70 to navigate and then to enable it to view AIS signals which is very frustrating!

David