iPhone anchor drag alarm

[jono_howlett]

Hi all,

I have just finished an iPhone/Android app and Im looking around for another project. I've settled on an anchor drag alarm as its to do with sailing so should be much more interesting than the last project. ;-)

I have an alarm on my Garmin that works but is lacking in features eg: only a radius setting; why no change of heading warning? Id also like to be able to have more than one warning level for different events. The feature Im most interested in incorporating is warnings/updates via sms and email; this would mean you could leave your boat at anchor and know that if it dragged you would get a message.

So are there any other features you would like to see in such an app? What would make it the "must have" anchor alarm?

Cheers

jono

 

[snooks]

I have an anchor alarm app on my phone (AnchorAlarm)....The problems are that you need the phone to be able to see the satellites, and you also need the phone to be on charge unless you would like to wake up dragging with a flat phone battery.

It's a nice idea, but sadly not practical in my experience

 

[duncan99210]

Too late - there's already app out there to do just what you're proposing on both iPhone and Android.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Hi all,

The feature Im most interested in incorporating is warnings/updates via sms and email; this would mean you could leave your boat at anchor and know that if it dragged you would get a message.

jono

Wouldn't that mean you'd have to have a iPhone on the boat, and another phone on you in the pub?

 

[colingr]

Wouldn't that mean you'd have to have a iPhone on the boat, and another phone on you in the pub?

That's why I didn't do that with Anchor Alarm. It is easy enough to implement but would you want to leave an expensive iphone / android phone lying around on an unattended boat? And yes. you'd need a spare phone to take to the pub.

For what it does, it works quite well I think. It is useful in a small way but cannot really replace an alarm on a decent GPS unit.

If you can plug it in to a 12v supply it would be handy overnight removing the need to run the main GPS. I know sometimes the main unit cannot be heard from ones sleeping quarters. Depends then if you can get a satellite fix below decks.