Navionics on Ipad with depth, this is good

simonfraser

simonfraser

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Outboards 4 mobo’s, unless you do a lot of miles
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Interfaced via YakBak, ebay.
Allows nmea via wifi to the Ipad, and yes YakBak connects to your hotspot too.
Took all of 5 mins to set up.

Provided you have more than 1m under your depth sounder it draws an up to date contour taking the tide into account on your navionics chart :)
Can email you a screen shot as photobucket is dead.

I am impressed. The V regulator gives a bit of heat off, this is apparently normal, google agrees.
Have ordered a heat sink for it and a bigger box. Then it won't fit through a letter box any more for posting.
the YakBak is ridiculously small for what it does.
 
Sounds interesting . Could you explain what this about in ordinary words please .
 
Yes, it shows corrected depth when the data is available, you are basically building your own chart.

Just been mailing the maker, the unit only needs 3.3V, so will run cooler when fed with V from a usb charging cable.
You'll have to cut it and check the polarity with a multimeter of course ....
Make sure the ground is common to the power and the unit supplying the NMEA

More info here:

www.yakbitz.com
 
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Hi guys, Steve from YakBitz here. The Navionics Boating app is how I came to make the my range of devices including the YakBak. I am a kayak fisho and mostly fish in fresh water dams where there are no depth contour charts available.

I found the Navionics app could create it's own depth contours in real time and add them to the chart.After going over an area once I could then see where the humps and hollows were and target likely fishing spots. Once I had been over a large enough area I could even see where the original river or creek used to be.

Navionics simply requires depth and position information to be sent by WiFi to the device it's running on, be it an iPad, iPhone, Android phone or Android tablet. It can use the location information from the iPad/Android's internal GPS or from your chartplotter which is preferred for greater accuracy.

Besides having the Navionics app you need is a charplotter or fishfinder that has NMEA 0183 output. With Lowrance you need to buy the optional power cable that has the data wires included. Some manufacturers include the data cable as standard.

To get your chartplotter data into Navionics you simply power up the Yakker and connect the positive NMEA out wire to the Yakker or YakBAK's Rx terminal. The wire from your chartplotter will be labeled NMEA Out+, Data Tx+ or something along those lines.

Once the Yakker is powered up it creates a hotspot to which you connect your iPad/Android. The factory settings of the Yakker/YakBak match the requirements of the Navionics app so you don't need to change any settings. So for the Navionics app it's pretty much plug and play. You can connect up to 4 devices to the Yakker/YakBAK's hotspot and all will receive the data. The Yakker/YakBak can also connect to your hotspot/network and share the data that way with all devices on the network.

The Yakker/YakBak works with any app that accepts data via WiFi. It is widely used with OpenCPN on Windows, Android and iNavx, iSailor on iPad. They support UDP and TCP protocols and the NMEA data speed can be set to 4800, 9600, 19200 or 38400.

The difference between the Yakker and the YakBak is that the YakBak is bi-directional and has an input and output terminal, so your navigation app can send steering instructions back to your autopilot.

For use with the Navionics app you only need the Yakker which is cheaper again than the YakBak which Simon has.

One really cool thing about the Navionics app is that if you activate the 'share my data option' the data you collect is uploaded to their servers, and after analysis it is added to their 'community layer' which is available for download from their site. That means that it can then be seen on chartplotters that can have their charts updated by SD card or direct internet connection.

I hope that clarifies what it's all about. If you have any other questions you can PM me or contact me through my website www.yakbitz.com.

Cheers, Steve.
 
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Thank you. So this is a somewhat hidden function until the data is available ?

As I understand it you charts become more accurate using your own depth readings ? I assume there must be a setting to offset the depth of your transducer.

The sending commands to the autohelm is interesting. Can the navionics app do that ? I have the routing software enabled.
 
yakbitz said:
Hi guys, Steve from YakBitz here. The Navionics Boating app is how I came to make the my range of devices including the YakBak. I am a kayak fisho and mostly fish in fresh water dams where there are no depth contour charts available.

I found the Navionics app could create it's own depth contours in real time and add them to the chart.After going over an area once I could then see where the humps and hollows were and target likely fishing spots. Once I had been over a large enough area I could even see where the original river or creek used to be.

Navionics simply requires depth and position information to be sent by WiFi to the device it's running on, be it an iPad, iPhone, Android phone or Android tablet. It can use the location information from the iPad/Android's internal GPS or from your chartplotter which is preferred for greater accuracy.

Besides having the Navionics app you need is a charplotter or fishfinder that has NMEA 0183 output. With Lowrance you need to buy the optional power cable that has the data wires included. Some manufacturers include the data cable as standard.

To get your chartplotter data into Navionics you simply power up the Yakker and connect the positive NMEA out wire to the Yakker or YakBAK's Rx terminal. The wire from your chartplotter will be labeled NMEA Out+, Data Tx+ or something along those lines.

Once the Yakker is powered up it creates a hotspot to which you connect your iPad/Android. The factory settings of the Yakker/YakBak match the requirements of the Navionics app so you don't need to change any settings. So for the Navionics app it's pretty much plug and play. You can connect up to 4 devices to the Yakker/YakBAK's hotspot and all will receive the data. The Yakker/YakBak can also connect to your hotspot/network and share the data that way with all devices on the network.

The Yakker/YakBak works with any app that accepts data via WiFi. It is widely used with OpenCPN on Windows, Android and iNavx, iSailor on iPad. They support UDP and TCP protocols and the NMEA data speed can be set to 4800, 9600, 19200 or 38400.

The difference between the Yakker and the YakBak is that the YakBak is bi-directional and has an input and output terminal, so your navigation app can send steering instructions back to your autopilot.

For use with the Navionics app you only need the Yakker which is cheaper again than the YakBak which Simon has.

One really cool thing about the Navionics app is that if you activate the 'share my data option' the data you collect is uploaded to their servers, and after analysis it is added to their 'community layer' which is available for download from their site. That means that it can then be seen on chartplotters that can have their charts updated by SD card or direct internet connection.

I hope that clarifies what it's all about. If you have any other questions you can PM me or contact me through my website www.yakbitz.com.

Cheers, Steve.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for this information. I just read the instructions for my Garmin 55dv Combo chart plotter and I think it has NMEA 0183 but am not sure. So for a complete idiot like me can you confirm if the Yakker will work with this Garmin and Navionics on my Android tab

Regards

Dennis
 
Deleted User said:
Me too. I dont have a teenager to hand to translate
Click to expand...

I think it's a thing that plugs into the chart plotter (not sure how) and transmits by wifi to your phone or tablet. I already have this function in my Raymarine e7.

It sound like it can update the electronic chart with depths measured from your plotter - which might prove to be a bit daft as the charts will not then show the low tide depths - unless you go everywhere at low tide - which I tend to avoid , and just maybe others do to. But I guess it might be interesting to see recorded real depths.

I may be wrong.
 
jrudge said:
Thank you. So this is a somewhat hidden function until the data is available ?

As I understand it you charts become more accurate using your own depth readings ? I assume there must be a setting to offset the depth of your transducer.

The sending commands to the autohelm is interesting. Can the navionics app do that ? I have the routing software enabled.
Click to expand...

Pretty much jrudge, I'm surprised they don't make it more widely known. For me it's what makes Navionics my favourite charting app.

It really can make a huge difference to accuracy as most areas are only spot sounded, and not very regularly. Obviously (hopefully?), areas around busy ports and channels are sounded more frequently and accurately.

Unfortunately Navionics does not currently support autohelm control. I love their dock to dock auto-routing feature and you'd think that autohelm control would be a logical extension to that. I am in their beta test group and I have recommended adding it, and I keep hinting... so maybe one day.

Cheers, Steve.
 
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MartynG said:
I think it's a thing that plugs into the chart plotter (not sure how) and transmits by wifi to your phone or tablet. I already have this function in my Raymarine e7.

It sound like it can update the electronic chart with depths measured from your plotter - which might prove to be a bit daft as the charts will not then show the low tide depths - unless you go everywhere at low tide - which I tend to avoid , and just maybe others do to. But I guess it might be interesting to see recorded real depths.

I may be wrong.
Click to expand...

Hi MartnG, the Navionics app has an offset feature so it can take the state of the tide into account. In fact, when it starts up it asks which local tide station you want to 'sync' to, so if there is one nearby you don't need to adjust it manually :)
 
Bigplumbs said:
Many thanks for this information. I just read the instructions for my Garmin 55dv Combo chart plotter and I think it has NMEA 0183 but am not sure. So for a complete idiot like me can you confirm if the Yakker will work with this Garmin and Navionics on my Android tab

Regards

Dennis
Click to expand...

Hi Dennis, I just downloaded the manual for the 55dv and it does indeed have an NMEA 0183 output, so it certainly will work with the Yakker and Navionics on your android tablet :)

If you need any help with connections or set up I can send you a wiring diagram and or screenshots to get you up and running.

Cheers, Steve.
 
jrudge said:
Thank you. So this is a somewhat hidden function until the data is available ?

As I understand it you charts become more accurate using your own depth readings ? I assume there must be a setting to offset the depth of your transducer.

The sending commands to the autohelm is interesting. Can the navionics app do that ? I have the routing software enabled.
Click to expand...

Yes you can off set the transducer within the navionics app on the Ipad.

That's a seperate offset from the depthsounder display of course.
I have my depthsounder off set set to zero on the boat display, no mental gymnastics needed to know i am about to hit the bottom.

But have it offset to transducer depth within the navionics app to record true depth for the chart calibration.
 
@ Steve (Yakbitz)
Hi Steve. Are you using Signal K in your devices or relying on Navionics' built-in ability to understand NMEA0183 sentences?

Great to see another new entrant to the marine electronics market who doesn't think the path to success is paved by excessive pricing.
 
@Moderators - Please don't delete Steve (Yakbitz)'s posts - they could possibly be construed as advertising but this is a really interesting subject and he is just answering questions that others are asking. I find this sort of thing really helpful.
 
TwoHooter said:
@Moderators - Please don't delete Steve (Yakbitz)'s posts - they could possibly be construed as advertising but this is a really interesting subject and he is just answering questions that others are asking. I find this sort of thing really helpful.
Click to expand...

+1
 
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