iPhone that turns into a VHF radio & waterproof? Wow, what will they think of next!

I'm sceptical that they could produce it at a price which makes it worthwhile. You can get perfectly good purpose built marine handheld VHFs at around £100.
 
l'escargot said:
But not ones that also function as a phone and a handheld computer too. As you say though, price will probably be the deciding factor.
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They are going to have to put a lot of the electronics of a marine handheld radio into the case - mobile phones cannot operate on the required frequencies and run at low power in comparison.
 
TonyBuckley said:
Though I can't work out how its meant to function.
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It's essentially a VHF radio in which the LCD display and buttons have been replaced with an electronic control connection to software installed on a mobile phone, so that you control it via the phone's touchscreen.

What possible benefit this brings to anybody over the original LCD display and buttons I cannot fathom.

I doubt it will ever be built.

Pete
 
It must be a virtual VHF, A smart phone has filters for 900Mhz 1800Mhz and above 2Ghz, but not 156Mhz, additionall they are only permitted to transmit up to 2 Watts.
 
tawhiri said:
It must be a virtual VHF, A smart phone has filters for 900Mhz 1800Mhz and above 2Ghz, but not 156Mhz, additionall they are only permitted to transmit up to 2 Watts.
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The idea is that the VHF circuitry lives in the "case". Probably together with a chunky battery. All the phone is providing is a control interface, and since that's likely to be inferior in actual use to dedicated knobs and buttons, the whole thing is a solution looking for a problem.

Pete
 
If... the price is low... and if this statement is true...

"The VHF Casemate is an ideal solution for the growing number of leisure mariners depending on mobile
phones as their primary means of communication on open water."

Then it may fly, but I very much doubt that it will.

The post was from Sept 2013.

Sounds like a dragon den type of thing lol.
 
TonyBuckley said:
Sounds like a dragon den type of thing lol.
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It looks more like a student project. The practicalities of production far outweighed by the exam boards marking criteria. Throw in a bit of disillusionment and you have someone who believes in a product that just is never going to fly.

Lets face it.... the handheld VHF market is a small niche market. Reduce that market to handheld VHF users who have an iPhone and who are prepared to risk having it on deck and who don't already have a handheld VHF. You are left with almost no market at all.

Multiply that by the huge factor that it will be obsolete as soon as you upgrade your phone next year and you have a total no brainer!!!
 
Alpha22 said:
It looks more like a student project. The practicalities of production far outweighed by the exam boards marking criteria. Throw in a bit of disillusionment and you have someone who believes in a product that just is never going to fly.

Lets face it.... the handheld VHF market is a small niche market. Reduce that market to handheld VHF users who have an iPhone and who are prepared to risk having it on deck and who don't already have a handheld VHF. You are left with almost no market at all.

Multiply that by the huge factor that it will be obsolete as soon as you upgrade your phone next year and you have a total no brainer!!!
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In fairness, I don't think the documents specifically mention iPhone - that was the OP. It should not be too difficult to make this work with all the common smartphones, but the fact remains that it is difficult to see the justification when a purpose built handy is as low as £100. They are going to need to include most of the electronics of a VHF handie.
 
maby said:
Possibly - though most mobile phones are not designed to stand up to the environment in a yacht cockpit in open water.
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The Sony Xperia Z series are waterproof Android smartphones with a decent camera too. My guess is that the big hurdle to overcome is the transmit capability to a minimum of 1w. Going to need bigger batteries than any smartphone is that. Everything else is pretty simple to miniaturise onto a chip.
 
TonyBuckley said:
I doubt technically it is feasible in such a small profile case.
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You might be surprised. I have a £50 Midland handheld which is pretty small, and most of the volume it does have is used to hold the 4 AA batteries it runs on. The actual workings are probably no bigger than a standard sized matchbox.

I'm sure it's not as powerful as a big chunky Icom or Standard Horizon, but it is a functional VHF radio and that's all that this "phone case" abortion requires.

Pete
 
Searush said:
My guess is that the big hurdle to overcome is the transmit capability to a minimum of 1w. Going to need bigger batteries than any smartphone is that. Everything else is pretty simple to miniaturise onto a chip.
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Nah - the biggest hurdle is that there's no point to the thing. I think it's technically feasible, it's just not useful.

Pete
 
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