Navionics Boating app AIS limited range issue

Thanks Duncan
Can you please tell me which receiver and plotter / app combintion you are using?

My testing has been done in Bournemouth bay - well away from other masts which can certainly interfere. There are currently 2 P&O cruise liners anchored there and one had it AIS on, soI had a static Class A transmitter for testing. As I approached it appeared on my Navionics Boating app at about 3nm and disappeared again as I increased range to over the 3nm. Used a borrowed new Shakespeare antenna.
All very weird.

I'd like to know if anyone ha had success with the combination of the Quark receiver and Navionics Boating app.
Contributor above dje67 is using the same combination with the same problems.
I'm starting to think of software incompatibility between the receiver and the plotting app. Might try the Quark forum.
 
I've used the AIS feature in Navionics and certainly saw targets more than a couple of miles away. I'm using the Digital Yacht Nomad transponder, with a dedicated VHF aerial mounted on the pushpit. So I don't think this is a Navionics issue. The Nomad was listed by Navionics as a compatible wi-fi transponder for their software.
 
bnlakeside said:
Thanks Duncan
Can you please tell me which receiver and plotter / app combintion you are using?.
Click to expand...
I’m using a Matsutec HP33a linked to a Yakker NMEA to wifi bridge. I get the same information displayed on Navionics as I do on the Matsutec screen. Can occasionally take a few minutes before the app starts plotting the AIS targets after turning the iPad on. I bought the Yakker bridge mainly to enable the helm to see AIS targets as my plotter is ancient and doesn‘t have the ability to display AIS.
It sounds to me as if you’re experiencing problems with your AIS and/or wifi bridge.
 
I see from the last 2 responses that Duncan99210 and Crazy Diamond are using AIS receivers other than a Quark A026.
I have yet to find someone successfully using the Quark WiFi receiver with the Navionics Boating app on IOS.
I'm beginning to wonder whether this is indeed a compatibility issue and that I should return the Quark unit and buy something that Navionics say is compatible.
 
bnlakeside said:
I'm beginning to wonder whether this is indeed a compatibility issue and that I should return the Quark unit and buy something that Navionics say is compatible.
Click to expand...
That sounds very unlikely ,navionics would need to decode the message then ignore it if the ais position was more than 1.5Nm away, and how would navionics know anyway? It just sees AIS messages coming in, can it know what sent them?
 
I agree that a software incompatibility that filters out signals by range is fanciful, but I am lost for another explanation.
Tried the setup with 3 different antennae - one tuned by a RF engineer to the centre of the AIS frequency band.
Steady WiFi link to mobile devices.
Clean 12 to 5V power supply (supplied by QUARK).
Tried 3 different IOS devices and one Android. All with same result.
Mystified and frustrated as AIS with a 2nm range is quite useless!
In correspondence, neither Navionics or Quark will state whether the A026 receiver is deemed compatible with Navionics Boating.
 
As a comparison. I'm running a Quark AO26 Wifi, plugged in to a Metz antenna mounted on the pushpit with a Quark 12v/5v power converter.

Phone isa Samsung S7, Tablet is Samsung Tab 3. At present I can see vessels around 6m away but there is a lot of land around me. So usually line of site is 12 miles for the big boys. One thing that does bug me with Navionics is that quite often the vessel name doesn't show. When using Open CPN on a W10 laptop it does, though that has been known to miss ships next door to me which is a pain. I've checked with Quark and still unsure why that happens.

Would post a screen grab for some reason the forum won't allow me to post it.

In the Navionics app, the Quark is set-up as a digital yacht ais. Might be worth trying that or try the vesper one as they are pretty much generic settings.
 
bnlakeside said:
I agree that a software incompatibility that filters out signals by range is fanciful, but I am lost for another explanation.
Tried the setup with 3 different antennae - one tuned by a RF engineer to the centre of the AIS frequency band.
Steady WiFi link to mobile devices.
Clean 12 to 5V power supply (supplied by QUARK).
Tried 3 different IOS devices and one Android. All with same result.
Mystified and frustrated as AIS with a 2nm range is quite useless!
In correspondence, neither Navionics or Quark will state whether the A026 receiver is deemed compatible with Navionics Boating.
Click to expand...
Navionics will only display data presented to it, The quark will be spitting out Ais nmea data, until you can capture the nmea serial data that the quark is producing you are simply clutching at straws. It sounds like the issue is with the reception of Ais data from the quark unit, it's not about incompatibility as the Ais data is standard stuff.
Personally I would ditch the quark unit and try a different one with the rest of your setup.
 
The wifi connection setup I am using is as per the Quark instructions:
Host: 192.168.1.100
Port number 2000
TCP
Is this what you are using?
(The "Name" is anything you want to call it I think.)
northwind said:
Navionics will only display data presented to it, The quark will be spitting out Ais nmea data, until you can capture the nmea serial data that the quark is producing you are simply clutching at straws. It sounds like the issue is with the reception of Ais data from the quark unit, it's not about incompatibility as the Ais data is standard stuff.
Personally I would ditch the quark unit and try a different one with the rest of your setup.
Click to expand...
Tempted but others have had success with identical setup so I’m still searching for something I’ve done wrong.
Can you suggest an alternative receiver?
 
Try running INavX to compare
Just fitted QK A027 powered from SeaTalk. With COMAR splitter on Shakespear Hawk.
not the highest spec set up but good AIS Reception. 10 miles +.
 
Quark A026 works well with a 0.9 meter fiber glass vhf antenna, 10 miles+ in most of cases. I think its good enough for my sailing boat.
 
bnlakeside said:
The wifi connection setup I am using is as per the Quark instructions:
Host: 192.168.1.100
Port number 2000
TCP
Is this what you are using?
(The "Name" is anything you want to call it I think.)

Tempted but others have had success with identical setup so I’m still searching for something I’ve done wrong.
Can you suggest an alternative receiver?
Click to expand...
Navionics is a bit tricky. You probably need to setup your mobile phone with static ip address to get reliable connection. Have you tried OpenCPN ?
 
I don't really have a problem with he stability of the WiFI connection.
Haven't tried OpenCPN as I do not have a laptop (Windows or OSX or any of the others) and there is no IOS version.
Both QUARK and Navionics and someone on this site have informed me that it can and does work on IOS, so I'm going to persist.
Chances are there is a user error somewhere as the software is almost certainly OK - as is my hardware.
 
I have Quark-elec AIS a026i connected to the aerial splitter and the range massive. See below my screenshots. I was in the middle of the river EXE and have an object 18.9Nm away.

I'll try to take photos with the Navionics app this Wednesday. I believe there is no difference. I love Quark-elec products. Very good quality for a reasonable price. This Wednesday I'll be installing Quark-elec QK-A33 Multiplexer. Can't wait.


121364449_809889173158093_8638219408739742231_n.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 121133940_360473128360072_8111452554038244976_n.jpg
    121133940_360473128360072_8111452554038244976_n.jpg
    43.9 KB · Views: 11
This is a screenshot of my Vesper Marine AIS transceiver using OpenCPN as a display,

We're anchored near Corfu town and that cargo ship is berthed in Benghazi, Libya. I reckon 500 miles in old money. :)

AIS%202.jpg


Richard
 
gkaniak said:
I have Quark-elec AIS a026i connected to the aerial splitter and the range massive. See below my screenshots. I was in the middle of the river EXE and have an object 18.9Nm away.

I'll try to take photos with the Navionics app this Wednesday. I believe there is no difference. I love Quark-elec products. Very good quality for a reasonable price. This Wednesday I'll be installing Quark-elec QK-A33 Multiplexer. Can't wait.


View attachment 100457
Click to expand...
 
Hello gkaniak and RichardS

Thanks for these posts. I am still experiencing this problem and cannot work out why. It is making my AIS un-useable, and as I do cross channel sailing, its a problem.
I see that Navionics not lists Quarkelec as a compatible receiver.

I see that one of the screenshots (from gkaniak) was from openCPN on what look like their base map. Is that correct?
I'd like to try to see if I can get AIS targets on openCPN without having to buy one of their (quite expensive) charts.
Also interested to see a screenshot of the Quarkelec unit working with Navionics.
Thanks for the feedback guys.

Barry
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top