Mobile phones and tiller pilots

[Spyro]

I've often had my suspicions about this but I think I proved it today. When my mobile is next to the tiller pilot it starts wandering all over the place. Motoring along in a flat sea down the east kyle today my track was dead straight. I sat down next to the TP and suddenly it was all over the place. I moved away and it was dead straight again. I left it for 5 mins and moved the phone next to the TP. same again. Anyone else noticed this?

 

[jakeroyd]

Not exactly but my tiller pilot does sometimes suddenly drop into standby.
I have always put this down to overheating. Not from the duty cycle but from the sun , black case etc.

But now you have got me thinking.

 

[Gordonmc]

I am more concerned that you are swanning about in the East Kyle while I am at work.
Have you no shame?
Back to subject... is your phone in a flip cover?
It may be the magnetic tab affecting the tiller-pilot fluxgate compass.
The compass app in my Samsung doesn't work when its in its cover.

 

[prv]

If I wafted my phone around the binnacle compass I'd expect it to swing all over the place, so it doesn't surprise me for a moment that tillerpilot compass does the same.

Pete

 

[Alpha22]

Here's another thing to try.....

Hold a magnet next to your compass and see it it affects that...... I know it did it to mine when I arrived in Bergen, what a surprise it was because I was heading for Calais!!

Anything that is even vaguely metallic, magnetic, electronic or radio transmitty should not be anywhere near a compass. Your mobile phone is ALL of those!!

 

[AngusMcDoon]

When my mobile is next to the tiller pilot it starts wandering all over the place.

Raymarine tiller pilots' susceptibility to GSM signals is well known. How they ever got them through EMC testing I just don't know. Mine goes into standby quite often when a text message arrives or an incoming call is on its way - in fact the first indication that some type of communication is about to happen on the phone is the beep of the tiller pilot going into standby (the network/phone are communicating enthusiastically in the moments before the ringer starts ringing or the new message sound is played).

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Not exactly but my tiller pilot does sometimes suddenly drop into standby.

It's not to do with heat, it's to do with Seatalk being an abysmal network protocol with virtually no error checking in the data packets. It only takes 1 bit to flip (for example from RF interference from a phone) - and you have an error causing a strange effect like a pilot going into standby. I sometimes see maximum boat speed at 655 knots, it changes distance units as and when it feels like it, and getting lighting levels out of sync is another reported 'feature'.

 

[[70521]]

I've often had my suspicions about this but I think I proved it today. When my mobile is next to the tiller pilot it starts wandering all over the place. Motoring along in a flat sea down the east kyle today my track was dead straight. I sat down next to the TP and suddenly it was all over the place. I moved away and it was dead straight again. I left it for 5 mins and moved the phone next to the TP. same again. Anyone else noticed this?

I usually switch the phone off afloat, about the only time I can get away from the thing.

 

[charles_reed]

I've often had my suspicions about this but I think I proved it today. When my mobile is next to the tiller pilot it starts wandering all over the place. Motoring along in a flat sea down the east kyle today my track was dead straight. I sat down next to the TP and suddenly it was all over the place. I moved away and it was dead straight again. I left it for 5 mins and moved the phone next to the TP. same again. Anyone else noticed this?

Not surprising as its got a cocking great magnet in it - is it!!

 

[Spyro]

I am more concerned that you are swanning about in the East Kyle while I am at work.
Have you no shame?
Back to subject... is your phone in a flip cover?
It may be the magnetic tab affecting the tiller-pilot fluxgate compass.
The compass app in my Samsung doesn't work when its in its cover.

No it's just an old nokia, no cover. Yes yesterday was nice today nicer but no wind. The cruise is over though, been out west......it was closed!! The best night I had was in Millport last night.
Back sunnjng myself at Cecchinis in Ardrossan now.

 

[dmayes]

Mob phones

Please remember that the vibrate mode will use a magnet to vibrate the battery and that the speaker itself is quite a powerful magnet. My phone has a leather cover which has a magnet to close it and it is so powerful that it wipes magnetic hotel keys clean if I put them in the same pocket as my phone, would probably do the same to my credit cards.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

My TP30 when berserk last week, when I accidently left my Blackberry phone on in my pocket and I was only a few inches away from the autopilot; it took me a while to realise what the problem was; I thought that my TP actually packed-up.

 

[Stemar]

Last weekend, I noticed that the course held by the tiller pilot varied according to where I was in the cockpit and changed again when I went forward to put the anchor away. Odd, because the mobile wasn't in my pocket.

The only thing I could think of was my pocket knife, which turned out not just to be magnetic, but a magnet strong enough to affect a compass from a metre away. Bugger! It's a Victorinox German army knife that holds an edge I could shave with and I've had it for 20+ years, but it seems it just isn't compatible with the boat.

 

[jimmcgee]

try sitting your phone on your dash panel in the car , dont ask but I had to do it , , the needles on the display start acting all funny and doing there own thing , infact just remembered , it used to do it when I owned the bayliner as well , the rev counter would take on a mind of it own , awaits the carp about bayliners