Do you have boat data available over wifi?

[laika]

Further to recent NMEA-over-wifi threads...do you have boat data (Log/Depth/AIS/GPS etc.) available over wifi for consumption by computers, iThings etc?

 

[maby]

You don't have an option "yes, held together with string and chewing- gum"

 

[laika]

You don't have an option "yes, held together with string and chewing- gum"

That would be option 3. Unless you actively favour string and chewing gum based technology

In fact I fall into exactly that category. Have hacky home-brew solution. Would like something functionally equivalent but without the trailing usb-serial dongles and concern that dropping off a wave will make it all fall apart. Wish I was better at electronics and fabrication....

 

[maby]

That would be option 3. Unless you actively favour string and chewing gum based technology

In fact I fall into exactly that category. Have hacky home-brew solution. Would like something functionally equivalent but without the trailing usb-serial dongles and concern that dropping off a wave will make it all fall apart. Wish I was better at electronics and fabrication....

I guess you are right - now voted as suggested. My current solution is a bodge-up using a Raspberry Pi plus assorted USB bits - it works ok until I fiddle, then I destabilise it and it takes ages to get it going again. The power consumption is too high and I don't leave it running all the time.

 

[GHA]

No wifi data yet but on the cards.

Got a home made fridge thermostat which talks & can be turned up/down over bluetooth - does that count?

 

[prv]

Don't have, don't want

Can't really see any use for, to be honest

Pete

 

[RobbieW]

...Got a home made fridge thermostat which talks & can be turned up/down over bluetooth - does that count?

Let us know when you can ask the fridge to open another cold beer for you

Laika, you pretty much know where I'm at with this - similar to you but by a slightly different route, with more and different bits integrated into the 'solution'

Edit: expanded to better answer the question

Boat data, for me, is simply a sub set of the overall data we use on board. Where I started was with a router that allowed several laptops (or any other wifi enabled device) to share a single internet connection, whether thats wifi extender or dongle based. The way thats done allows a couple of features that suit our lifestyle as liveabords for much of the year in the med (at present). I can run a VPN client on the router that is shared by all and the router will accurately count data so when on a data limited PAYG SIM I know where we are at. I could run a media server off the router if I'd a mind to as well.

Having done that I wondered what else could be done and hit on boat data, so here we are.

 

[dunedin]

Don't have, don't want

Can't really see any use for, to be honest

Pete

Each to their own, but I find this useful for
(A) anchor watch - I can look at the iPad whilst still in the bunk and see on one page the depth, distance & direction to waypoint (where anchored), heading (which way are we lying), and true wind speed & direction
(B) crossing shipping lanes etc - AIS data is better on the iPad than the plotter at the helm

Cost virtually zero as came with Raymarine E series I bought at big discount. Raymarine WiFi is a bit "closed" for geeks - but as near to plug and play simplicity as possible to get (all need to do is set and use a wifi password)

 

[Tranona]

Have voted yes because my new boat will have a Garmin system which I understand you can access it with a tablet, or with more functionality with a iPad. Not sure whether I am happy yet as I only ticked the box on the extras list because you could not specify the autopilot i wanted without having the whole package. Like the idea of having a cheap repeater at the chart table, but time will tell whether it has any real value.

 

[Lucky Duck]

I have had boats with the Raymarine and B&G offerings, its quite useful but having the tablet on and activity using the app soon drains the battery

 

[prv]

Each to their own, but I find this useful for
(A) anchor watch - I can look at the iPad whilst still in the bunk and see on one page the depth, distance & direction to waypoint (where anchored), heading (which way are we lying), and true wind speed & direction

I suppose depth would be useful for this occasionally. Although, if we've anchored somewhere shallow enough that I'm worrying about grounding in the middle of the night, the instrument would probably be turned off anyway to silence the alarm!

I do use Navionics on my phone from time to time, it's specifically boat instrument data I'm bemused by.

crossing shipping lanes etc - AIS data is better on the iPad than the plotter at the helm

Most plotters are **** at AIS . I'm quite happy with my Vesper Watchmate installed in the cockpit.

I guess maybe the reason I don't see a need for wireless transmission of my boat data is that I designed and installed Ariam's instrument setup relatively recently, so I already have what I want where I want it, using waterproof displays and physical wiring, so I don't need to augment it with portable units.

Pete

 

[haydude]

I answered NO and I am not interested to data over WiFi simply because it is overkill and not every existing and old application support it.

You did not ask if we use any other wireless like bluetooth.

I do have NMEA over Bluetooth which is a lot simpler because any and every software application that supports NMEA input on RS422 or Serial will work with an emulated serial port over Bluetooth, whilst instead NMEA over WiFi requires the application to support NMEA over TCP which is more difficult to find, most legacy software do not include a TCP interface for NMEA data.

 

[laika]

it's specifically boat instrument data I'm bemused by.

To be perfectly honest I sort of sympathise despite spending a lot of my time coding this stuff. I'll use a laptop for doing rough planning but "proper" planning is done on a paper chart. I have my data on displays in the cockpit and a tridata repeater at the nav station and that mostly does it for me but...
- lots of people now prefer doing far more with tablets. A tablet at the nav station is cheaper than a plotter, you have a choice of software, and cartography is cheaper
- Nav programs on laptops often offer more functionality than plotters (e.g. weather routing, log generation etc.). Many people like one of those running at the nav station and having data available over wifi is fewer wires to deal with
- You're doing a long passage as skipper. You're lying in your bunk. Someone else is on the helm. Don't you ever want to quickly check the speed and heading on your phone without getting up?
- Remote boat monitoring. There may be times you want to check position and depth from somewhere off the boat

Really the point of the poll is trying to gauge where we're at with this: What percentage of people have it, don't have it etc.

My issue with the Raymarine and Garmin stuff is that it's totally proprietary. Nothing will work with it except their own apps which I'd say is rather limiting. The navico stuff is better but still pretty restrictive in that you can't have ordinary apps (e.g. OpenCPN) pass any info back (e.g. autopilot commands). Navico are pretty **** at answering email to the address they give for developers wanting to use the API for passing data back.

Got a home made fridge thermostat which talks & can be turned up/down over bluetooth - does that count?

I'll take a slightly different angle to RobbieW's suggestion. Dedicated shelf for beer. Monitor the weight. Ordering more via amazon's API when stocks get low. Drones makes sense for delivery to boats.

 

[laika]

You did not ask if we use any other wireless like bluetooth.

That's because I'm specifically interested in NMEA-over-IP. As you say, bluetooth allows you to do not-NMEA-approved-but-still-functional serial stuff without wires but what I'm actually interested in is the take-up in movement to use of Internet Protocol.

 

[prv]

A tablet at the nav station is cheaper than a plotter

Ah, well, I don't believe in plotters at the chart table either - I operate my boat from the cockpit, not the living room

Charts belong at the chart table, because they need to stay dry and you need a flat surface out of the wind to work on them. So you have to accept the need to pop up and down the hatch like a meerkat. But these limitations don't apply to plotters, so they belong on deck where you can stay in touch with the surroundings.

Many people like [a laptop] running at the nav station and having data available over wifi is fewer wires to deal with

I did briefly consider a boat PC at the chart table. Had I decided to have one, though, it would have been based on a 12v industrial unit, concealed in the wiring space, with a separate screen neatly installed. Not a random laptop flying around loose.

You're doing a long passage as skipper. You're lying in your bunk. Someone else is on the helm. Don't you ever want to quickly check the speed and heading on your phone without getting up?

I've done that very thing, from both my bunk and from the heads . But that doesn't require the boat's own sensor data, Navionics on an iPhone is perfectly fine.

Remote boat monitoring. There may be times you want to check position and depth from somewhere off the boat

Yep, but wifi won't cut it for that. I almost said in my first post, that I can see more use for GSM connectivity (for this kind of use) than wifi.

Really the point of the poll is trying to gauge where we're at with this: What percentage of people have it, don't have it etc.

Indeed, and I'm drifting the thread away from that, so I'll shut up now

Pete

 

[laika]

I've done that very thing, from both my bunk and from the heads . But that doesn't require the boat's own sensor data, Navionics on an iPhone is perfectly fine.

Good gawd sir I said *heading* not COG! And log speed not some work-of-the-devil SOG!
And to push the point a little...anyone else suddenly taken to looking at the sea temperature reading for the first time en route to sunnier climes?

Yep, but wifi won't cut it for that. I almost said in my first post, that I can see more use for GSM connectivity (for this kind of use) than wifi.

I was admittedly getting a little ahead of myself and bundling the original point up with other ideas but once you start putting data over IP it doesn't need to stay local to the boat, although how it gets to the Internet (wifi/GSM/carrier pigeon) is obviously another question.

 

[prv]

anyone else suddenly taken to looking at the sea temperature reading for the first time en route to sunnier climes?

I don't think I have ever looked at the temperature readout on a yacht instrument

I have dangled an actual mercury thermometer on a string over the side of a ship, though. I don't know if anybody did anything with the data I took back to the bridge

Pete

 

[laika]

I don't think I have ever looked at the temperature readout on a yacht instrument

Sailing to the caribbean from France in November it suddenly takes on a new importance

 

[Tranona]

Sailing to the caribbean from France in November it suddenly takes on a new importance

I thought butter was the measure of temperature on that passage - digital butter that is, not the old fashioned heavy on saturated fat analogue stuff.

 

[ffiill]

My serial bridge is in a box and if I had looked a little more carefully I could have had one via aliexpress from china for £20 in a screw down box.
My mini wifi router £10 on e bay not forgetting my. rechargable blue tooth gps "